Montreal City Weblog

Kate 20:45 on 2020-07-24 Permalink Reply  

• david232 12:05 on 2020-07-25 Permalink

  Awesome! Hopefully this lasts after everything is back to normal.

• Kate 14:06 on 2020-07-25 Permalink

  Even if there is a “back to normal” you will notice that the car-free situation described here is only till the end of September.

  For every temporary change city hall makes to try to give this city a bit of summer glow, there’s a lot of blow-back, and the media are very diligent about reporting on every negative response to the temporary changes. CBC is on Facebook today fishing for negative comments on making one single block of Crescent Street car-free, and respondents are reliably catastrophizing. The temporary bike lane along Terrebonne is the end of the world, to read some comments.

• Kevin 11:00 on 2020-07-26 Permalink

  The temp bike lane on Terrebonne is annoying because residents weren’t notified, the signs were changed without the standard “we’ve changed the rules” sign being posted on the street, and now that the parked cars are gone drivers have been given the psychological cues to do 70 in a residential zone.

• EmilyG 11:11 on 2020-07-26 Permalink

  In a West Island Facebook group, a lot of members were getting angry over the pedestrianization of Crescent Street. Oh no, they can’t park there!
  Crescent Street isn’t even in the West Island.

• Tim S. 12:00 on 2020-07-26 Permalink

  Yeah, I’m optimistic about the Terrebonne bike path in the long run but last week I watched them literally paint the lines around parked cars that hadn’t gotten the notice in time to move. Also, the plan for the schools seems to be to just have no bike path on those blocks, so rush hour cyclists will all of a sudden find the path disappears and is replaced by dozens of parents in various vehicles dropping their kids off. Keep in mind that the schools are explicitly asking parents to drive their kids to school in the fall to create more space on the buses. I expect to witness a few angry confrontations come September.

• Ian 15:47 on 2020-07-26 Permalink

  F.A.C.E. school stopped having buses a few years back in a round of Ministry cutbacks and I assure you that stretch of University has been utter chaos every school morning since. Now multiply that across every school in the city. Should be fun. I’m glad we left F.A.C.E. and opted for walking distance schools but not everyone is in the same boat as me and I don’t envy them … strangely I haven’t seen a big influx of new members in the homeschooling groups I’m in but we’ll see how people feel by September.

  @EmilyG I hear you but let’s be honest, Crescent Street is probably catering to West Islanders more than you think especially now that there have been COVID cases at Annie’s and McKibbin’s… but the irony of bar patrons complaining about parking isn’t lost on me… just one more reason some decent public transit to the West Island is sorely needed.

• EmilyG 18:20 on 2020-07-26 Permalink

  @Ian Yes, I remember I used to live in the West Island. And when I lived there, I was, uh, quite fond of visiting Crescent Street… usually by public transit, sometimes on foot from McGill.

• Ian 21:27 on 2020-07-26 Permalink

  The bar traffic from universities are quite another matter… I am sure the bars will be feeling the pinch come September for sure.