Plan to pedestrianize the Vieux meets resistance
A plan to pedestrianize Old Montreal, starting with the streets around Notre‑Dame, is meeting resistance from about half the individuals surveyed, who live, work or do business in the area. Of course Ensemble doesn’t like how Projet is going about it, although they offer no better notion than waiting a year.
DeWolf 11:13 on 2024-04-26 Permalink
Honestly the plan is far less ambitious than I expected. A big chunk of those streets are already pedestrianized from April to November: St-Paul, St-Vincent, Place Jacques-Cartier. The big deal here is that St-Laurent and one block of de la Commune are included, which I think is fantastic because it will make for some really nice, spacious places to walk. Otherwise, it’s a bunch of tiny streets the size of alleyways that should already have become car-free years ago.
DeWolf 11:16 on 2024-04-26 Permalink
Also, lol at Ensemble’s position. Some hand-wavy statement about citizens needing to be consulted and then a demand to postpone the project.
We can see what kind of administration Ensemble would be: a do-nothing government that kicks the ball down the road at every opportunity.
DeWolf 11:47 on 2024-04-26 Permalink
There are more specific details here:
https://forum.agoramtl.com/t/espaces-pietonniers/3136/644?u=kilgoretrout
It’s even more modest than I realized. St-Laurent and de la Commune wouldn’t be pedestrianized, they would simply have expanded space for pedestrians. Several streets with hotel access would have traffic calming measures implemented. Basically, the only sections that would be fully pedestrianized, and which aren’t already, are the little sidestreets around St-Paul East and the streets directly around Place d’Armes and the basilica.
This is the bare minimum of what should be done in the area. And yet it’s facing opposition because apparently tourists from Ontario absolutely *need* to drive straight up to the doorstep of the Notre-Dame Basilica, otherwise they’ll stay home and we’ll lose all their business.
Joey 12:57 on 2024-04-26 Permalink
This is a classic PM move – the actual policy as announced is, as DeWolf points out, very modest. So modest that, to most Montrealers, it may not even be noticeable. And not bold enough to actually reduce Old Montreal gridlock. But still modesty is required to get reactionary merchants on board. Of course, the merchants association inevfitably abandons ship and whines to the press. PM winds up looking like inconsiderate zealots, even though they took a moderate approach. If you’re gonna get all the flack, go big! Turn half the streets in Old Mtl into pedestrian-only! Restrict vehicle access to residents, delivery vehicles, and commercial vehicles (the latter two could be expected to demonstrate a waybill work order justifying their presence in Old Montreal on any given day)! Charge $10/hour for parking meters! Make transit free to and from downtown! Anyone who’s spent any time in Old Montreal the last few summers will rejoice at how it won’t be awful anymore to maneuver through endless traffic jams. And drivers will be as pissed off as if they had to sit in traffic.
There are rare occasions where PM digs in its heels and does what it actually wants, but that’s usually when the ‘opposition’ is effectively powerless groups of citizens (e.g., JMP softball field) and/or when individual PM officials have a direct interest in the outcome (not implying corruption, more like preferences for ‘pet projects’ that aren’t necessarily disclosed).