Two streets closed for park enlargement
Two streets will be closed permanently to traffic so that Lafontaine Park can be enlarged: Émile‑Duployé between Rachel and Sherbrooke, and Calixa‑Lavallée northbound, both of which cut through the park and have been closed experimentally in recent years.
Nicholas 16:32 on 2024-12-11 Permalink
Great news!
FYI, it’s Calixa‑Lavallée north (the part between the bicycle traffic garden and Rachel, rather than the south segment leading up to the elementary school from Sherbrooke), not northbound, as traffic will be closed in all directions in the north part and neither direction in the south part.
dhomas 17:05 on 2024-12-11 Permalink
My first thought was “where will the 45 pass now?”. Then I checked and it seems like they’ve already moved that bus line to pass on de Lorimier instead of de Champlain / Émile-Duployé some time ago (sometime between November 2022 and January 2023, from what I can tell from the Wayback Machine). It was nice to have a bus stop that would leave you right IN the park, but overall I think this is a better use of the space.
Kate 17:15 on 2024-12-11 Permalink
Thank you, Nicholas.
Nicholas 18:39 on 2024-12-11 Permalink
dhomas, that detour for the 45 is rather annoying, as de Lorimier and Rachel are slow and sometimes blocked, necessitating a detour to the west, on Atataken and Parc La Fontaine, which are also slow and sometimes blocked. What would be really nice is a contraflow bus lane on Papineau (and de Champlain, to get around the bridge entrance). But the plan for the park seems to be to keep the asphalt for maintenance vehicles on Émile‑Duployé, and if so they should allow the bus to use it as well.
CE 12:18 on 2024-12-12 Permalink
Until recently I lived on Papineau across from the park. Émile-Duployé was permanently closed to car and bus traffic the day after the last municipal election. The 45 detour was a bit annoying but that bus now has so few departures that it became next to useless. The improvement in the park by taking out a major street was, however, a huge improvement (for people living on that stretch of Papineau and, especially, users of the park).
I think it would work well to have a northbound lane on Papineau reserved just for buses.