Active commutes: city could do better
Although Montreal’s commuting numbers – 71% by car, 22% by public transit and 7% by foot or bike – are better than most North American cities, we’re way behind many European towns.
I was amused to notice Tuesday that CBC radio is already warning drivers about this weekend’s Tour de l’Île, advising drivers to check the map so they don’t get trapped. Here’s the web version. TVA is also forearming drivers to brace themselves for the few hours they’re banished from a few streets. CTV even headlines their version of the story Tour de l’Île, Tour la nuit prepare to take over Montreal.
DeWolf 11:00 on 2024-05-29 Permalink
Those are the numbers for Greater Montreal and unsurprisingly, they are essentially the same as other major cities in the country. If you look at the metropolitan area as a whole Montreal is pretty typically Canadian.
But I was interested to see how they broke down in more urban areas. So here they are:
City of Montreal — 56% car, 28% public transit, 11% walking/cycling
Mile End — 31% car, 28% transit, 39% walking/cycling
Little Italy/Petite Patrie — 33% car, 34% transit, 32% walking/cycling
Shaughnessy Village – 27% car, 43% transit, 24% walking/cycling
Ian 12:00 on 2024-05-29 Permalink
Within Montreal I suspect those numbers mostly reflect how easy it is to get around your neighbourhood, how close you are to transit hubs, what parking is like, the average income of the area, how often you need to leave your neighbourhood, and for what. Montreal’s biggest advantage in terms of keeping car numbers down is density and transit – though transit is getting to be an issue.
Europe has a whole pile of other factors. To draw a rough parallel you don’t see that many dogs in Berlin, and it’s not because Germans don’t like dogs.
CE 13:06 on 2024-05-29 Permalink
One thing that cities in dense places like many European or Asian countries have going for them is that if you travel to another city, you can jump on a train or a bus and when you arrive at the other place, you can take transit to get around or, if it’s a small town, it’ll be compact enough that you’ll be able to walk. Here, this works if you’re going from one big city to another but if you want to leave Montreal for say, Sherbrooke, you really need a car to make it work efficiently.
Joey 09:27 on 2024-05-30 Permalink
I once got stuck on the wrong side of a tour la nuit closure… I went to pick up some takeout on the west side of Parc avenue. By the time my food was ready I couldn’t cross back to get home, a mere block away. After about 10 minutes or so there was enough of a gap in the mass of cars for me to sneak across. Timing is everything… Anyway, these events always seem to go off better than expected, but I would hate to have a minor emergency on Friday night or Sunday morning.
Kate 10:57 on 2024-05-30 Permalink
As I once recounted here, I miscalculated on the night of a Tour and found the 55 bus was not going to pass until the next day. What a pain. But it was my fault for not checking the tour route before I went out.