Montreal City Weblog

Kate 11:59 on 2024-06-30 Permalink Reply  

• Chris 17:05 on 2024-06-30 Permalink

  He seems to have over-extrapolated after seeing a few nice sections, but even in the Plateau 90% of the streetscape is a car-dominated hellhole.

• Ian 17:32 on 2024-06-30 Permalink

  A hellhole, eh? Lol.

• Kate 17:50 on 2024-06-30 Permalink

  I’m half tempted to ask Chris what place he feels is not a hellhole, but I’m afraid it would lead to suggestions he should go there.

• DeWolf 18:12 on 2024-06-30 Permalink

  I think Chris has been spending too much time on r/fuckcars. Or maybe just rewatching NotJustBikes’ rather performative video bashing Montreal.

  There’s still a lot of work to be done on the Plateau even with 10+ years of improvements, and yes, the entire borough is still dominated by cars, given that they’re almost everywhere. But “hellhole” is such a ridiculous overstatement. I’m not sure how you can walk around the Plateau, which has so many small delights, and think that it’s a hellhole. Unless you have some incredibly strong ideological blinders on…

• Chris 18:39 on 2024-06-30 Permalink

  Yeah, hellhole is too strong I guess, (boy you guys are literal!), but the author gives the impression that the kinds of things he describes are common and everywhere, while in fact very rare, with the reality being almost every street is dedicated to car movement and parking. Readers from elsewhere will have the wrong impression.

  DeWolf, I don’t read reddit at all, but I did see that NotJustBikes video, and I think he’s rather right, with this article being a good example. Extolling small positive examples while saying little about the majority situation.

  Montreal, Plateau especially, has indeed made some nice progress in recent decades, but it’s far too slow for my liking. At this pace, we’ll all be dead before it really reaches anything great.

  It’s a choice to dedicate all this space to cars. We could choose instead of allows cars on only every other street for example. But we don’t. And never will. People don’t want it. I know my opinion is in the 0.1% range.

• Robert H 05:40 on 2024-07-01 Permalink

  Heavens, Chris, how can you stand it here? And where else in Canada would you go? Where else in North America for that matter?

• Ian 10:06 on 2024-07-01 Permalink

  It’s a choice to live in a place that devotes so much space to cars. That you live in a place that has so many cars and roads and infrastructure is on you. There are many parts of Canada, and even right here in Quebec that have no roads at all. Nobody is stopping youi from living off the grid in a remote area. Quebec even has a long history of communes and experimental rural communities if the social aspect is what’s holding you back, you just need to find a few people as pure of soul as you.

  You can drive as far north in Quebec as km 666 on the Trans-Taiga, a mere 750km north of Radisson (or so) then there are no roads at all. Nobody is keeping you from this car-free paradise. If you really want to be a purist, you could get flown up by bush plane so you wouldn’t have to worry about what to do with your now-useless car.

  You are not only part of the 0.1% range of people who have opinions this strong about car-free living, but the even smaller percentage unwilling to take advantage of the perfect opportunity to make your dreams a reality.

• DeWolf 11:57 on 2024-07-01 Permalink

  That’s awfully disingenuous of you, Ian. We’re talking about cities, not remote off-grid living. It’s not unreasonable to want to live in a city where you don’t need to constantly suffer the noise, pollution and mortal danger of having too many cars in too many places.

  There’s a huge, huge spectrum between the status quo in Montreal and a car-free utopia. Reducing the amount of space cars have in the city doesn’t mean getting rid of them entirely, but it does mean vastly improving the quality of life of the people who live here.

• Ian 12:05 on 2024-07-01 Permalink

  I’m not the one that self-describes as a 0.1% purist, I’m not being disingenuous at all.

  I grew up on a commune without electricity or indoor plumbing, it’s entirely attainable if that’s what you really want and aren’t just posturing.

• DeWolf 12:17 on 2024-07-01 Permalink

  I don’t think Chris (or myself) wants to live in the countryside. You’re missing the point. It’s about cars *in the city* and how to reduce their impact. Clearly I have more tolerance for cars than Chris does, but I think we both agree that city living is safer, more productive and pleasant when the city isn’t crisscrossed by dangerous pseudo-highways.

• Ian 13:09 on 2024-07-01 Permalink

  Well at least you don’t blame it on immigrants …

  I naturally give your takes more credit for nuance than those Chris blurts out.