Themes, tags, keywords and great projects

Bring the cost of a regular monthly pass down to $60, and to $30 for students and the elderly. Maintain these rates for the entire first mandate of a Projet Montréal administration (January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2013).

Follow the lead of Denver, Portland, Calgary, Miami and Detroit and provide free public transit for trips made within the downtown area. This not only helps reduce automobile congestion in the downtown core but is becoming an important criterion in attracting conventions and other international events as well as tourists. It also is a strong incentive in keeping – and attracting – residents to the downtown area.

To increase the number of trips made on foot or bicycle from 350 million to 1 billion each year, dense and multi-functional residential neighbourhoods must be built. The Belgian “Code de la rue”, which gives priority to pedestrians and cyclists, is one tool which can encourage such development.

Housing and urban design policies must allow walking and cycling to once again occupy a central place in city life. In the downtown area, on commercial streets, in residential areas, along metro, train and the future tramway lines, the public space of roads, sidewalks and alleys should be developed with the following objectives:

• Reduce the area accessible by automobile and increase the area exclusively reserved for pedestrians and cyclists;
• Assure the comfort and safety of pedestrians and cyclists, especially children;
• Develop convenient, attractive and safe walking routes leading to metro stations, primary and secondary schools, parks and other places where there are large concentrations of pedestrians, especially children;
• Increase the visibility and legibility of public transit signs in the urban environment;
• Decrease noise pollution;
• Ensure that all sidewalks be accessible at all intersections to people with reduced mobility;
• Give priority to the safety of pedestrians of all ages, including people with reduced mobility. This requires changing the culture that gives automobiles priority and allows pedestrian crossings to be brazenly and routinely ignored by making such crossings more visible and ensuring they be respected by, if necessary, increasing fines;
• Include in all tenders for contract on infrastructure and roadwork the requirement that contractors maintain sidewalks and bike paths affected by their work.

Beyond actively contributing to realizing these goals, the City of Montreal and its boroughs would also support and collaborate with organizations which encourage active transit in the city.

Redevelop commercial streets to make them more pleasant and increase the public space dedicated to pedestrians. Define and put in place a plan of “pedestrianization” – complete or partial, seasonal or year-round – of certain streets and public places in Montreal. This commitment would promote the vitality and conviviality of commercial arteries and increase the safety of pedestrians through a variety of specific measures including: widening sidewalks, making intersections safer, creating space for sidewalk terrasses and for display and poster stands, installing retractable bollards to allow the temporary closing of streets (e.g. on summer weekends or during special events). The top four candidates for pedestrian redevelopment are:

• Ste-Catherine Street between Guy and Papineau;
• McGill College Avenue from Place Ville-Marie to Sherbrooke Street;
• Saint-Paul Street;
• Mont-Royal Avenue, between Parc and Frontenac.

Access for emergency vehicles (fire, police and ambulance), commercial deliveries and private vehicles belonging to residents of these streets would be established in consultation with local residents and businesses.

In order to increase the use of bicycles both as a means of transportation and for pleasure, a Projet Montréal administration would:

• Make existing bike paths safer both for cyclists and for pedestrians crossing them;
• Install, within four years, 50 kilometres of new, dedicated bike paths;
• Increase the number of secure bicycle parking posts without obstructing sidewalks;
• Improve the cleaning and maintenance of the city’s bike paths;
• Maintain bike paths and bike parking year-round.

Create green neighbourhoods free of through traffic and surface parking, connected by green networks, streets (including commercial arteries) reserved for pedestrians, bikes and public transit.

Green neighbourhoods are a simple yet effective way of ridding residential areas of commuter through traffic. The aim is to return the public space to the neighbourhoods’ residents and, by encouraging active transportation (on foot or by bicycle) to give new life to areas otherwise plagued by through traffic. A variety of measures can be used to create a green neighbourhood, including:

• Physical impediments such as speed bumps, chicanes, wider sidewalks and narrower roadways, pedestrian crossings, raised intersections and retractable bollards activated by magnetic cards or transponders;
• Changing the direction of one-way streets, often for only a block or two;
• Road surface, signage, and street equipment (benches, garbage cans etc.) designed to alert automobile drivers to the fact that they are in a “green neighbourhood”;
• More pedestrian areas;
• Increased vegetation (trees and in planters);
• A speed limit of 30 km/h, even 15 km/h in certain areas.

The green network is a collection of streets reserved for pedestrians, cyclists and rollerbladers. These streets cross each borough and allow users to go from one borough to another – and from one end of the city to the other – safely. Within a neighbourhood the green network connect schools, parks and libraries, allowing users, especially children, to discover the treasures of Montreal in all safety.

Raise to 80 million the number of vehicle-kilometres (VK) in 2010 and then increase it by 2% annually: to 81.6 VK in 2011, 83.2 in 2012 and 84.9 in 2013.
During the years 2001-2008 – roughly the two mandates of the Tremblay administration – the annual average was 61.6 VK. The budget of the Societé de transport de Montréal anticipates 77.1 VK for 2009.

Begin as quickly as possible to refurbish the metro’s rolling stock and replace the MR- 63 trains. Also, immediately plan for the reconditioning of the MR-73 trains in order to guarantee the quality of metro service, a preventive measure not applied to the MR-63s due to the procrastination of the provincial government.

Restore the metro’s level of service to what it was in the early 1990s: more frequent trains, shorter waiting times, a minimum of six cars per train, increased staffing, cleaner facilities.

Restore to the metro its allure as a collective asset and public space in order to make Montrealers proud of it once again. To this end:

• Regulate in a more restrictive manner the businesses and other commercial endeavours permitted in recent years;
• Decrease the amount of advertising in the metro towards the levels that existed when it was first opened in 1966;
• Restore the metro stations to their original appeal and architectural quality.

Pursue the program of installing platform-level elevators in order to make the metro more easily accessible to people of reduced mobility, the elderly as well as people with children in strollers.

Study extending the metro. The metro is an extremely effective means of transportation but, at $150 million per kilometre very expensive to build. The extension of the blue line is now considered the highest priority, from Saint-Michel station to Boulevard Pie-lX.

Raise to 80 million the number of vehicle-kilometres (VK) in 2010 and then increase it by 2% annually: to 81.6 VK in 2011, 83.2 in 2012 and 84.9 in 2013. During the years 2001-2008 – roughly the two mandates of the Tremblay administration – the annual average was 70.4 VK. The budget of the Societé de transport de Montréal anticipates 76.5 VK for 2009.

• Improve bus service in neglected high-employment areas such as industrial parks.
• Improve night bus service by increasing frequency on existing routes, better coordinating connections with other buses, and instituting new routes where required.
• Evaluate the possibility of replacing full-sized buses with smaller shuttles or mini-buses in areas or periods of low demand.
• Extend measures which give buses priority – reserved lanes, dedicated traffic lights – on major bus routes.

• Improve the waiting conditions for bus users by installing comfortable and safe shelters throughout Montreal. To encourage tidiness, increase the number of garbage cans around bus shelters.
• In order to increase the number of bus shelters, insist on the construction of an integrated, indoor shelter in any new building of significant size built along a bus route and near an intersection.
• Install in bus shelters as well as metro stations electronic displays to inform users, in real time, of the state of the network and waiting times.

Build and put into service by the fall of 2012 five dedicated bus corridors:

• On Pie-IX Boulevard, from Notre-Dame Street to Henri-Bourassa Boulevard (12
  km);
• On Jean-Talon Street, from Saint-Michel metro station to Boulevard Les Galeries
  d’Anjou (6 km);
• On Henri-Bourassa Boulevard, from the borough of Saint-Laurent to the borough
  of Rivière-des-Prairies (28 km);
• From 32nd Avenue in Lachine to the end of Dollard Avenue in LaSalle (6 km);
• On Newman Boulevard, in LaSalle, to the Angrignon metro station (3 km).

The cost of construction for these 55 kilometres of bus corridor is estimated at $550 million.

Gradually replace the existing fleet of diesel buses by less noisy and less polluting hybrid – or, ideally, electric – vehicles. Evaluate also, in this light, the replacement of buses by trolley buses. Ask that Hydro-Québec install the required electrical infrastructure at its own cost as an indirect contribution from the provincial government to public transit in Montreal.

Install a display system in buses similar to that of MetroMedia. This system, linked to GPS, would indicate the location of the next stop. Equipped with speakers, this system would assist the sight-impaired as well as passengers unfamiliar with an area or otherwise unsure of where the bus might be at a given moment. Such a system would also allow STM managers to know in real time the location of all buses and thereby respond both to increased passenger demand or emergencies.

Install bike racks on buses, especially those that service low-density neighbourhoods (such as industrial parks and certain suburbs). Require that all suburban trains allow passengers to bring their bikes.

Furthermore, integrate existing ferry services into the STM network so that citizens can access them with the CAM card. Also, create a single card which would give access to all public transit options in the Montreal area.

Push the Quebec government to pursue the expansion of the suburban train network and increase the frequency of trains, during the week-end as well as Monday to Friday, thus encouraging residents of suburbs and off-island towns in the metropolitan area to use suburban trains more frequently for travel to Montreal.

Pressure the provincial and federal governments to get on with this much-delayed project and establish, as quickly as possible, a rail shuttle between downtown and the Montréal-Trudeau International Airport. In the meantime, provide an express public bus service to the airport.

Build, over the coming decades, a New Tramway / Tram-Train network capable of transporting 350 million passengers per year. To achieve this capacity, as part of a system comprising the metro and suburban trains and serving the entire island of Montreal, the network would require about 250 kilometres of track, roughly divided as follows:

• downtown: 25 km;
• older neighbourhoods: 125 km;
• eastern and western ends of the island: 100 km.

At $40 million per kilometre, the cost of such a New Tramway / Tram-Train network would total about $10 billion – about the same expenditure required if we were to build the metro today. In the same way that the metro was Montreal’s great achievement in public transit of the last half-century, the New Tramway / Tram-Train would be the great achievement of the next 20 to 30 years.

A Projet Montréal administration would also urge the off-island municipalities of the South Shore, Laval and beyond to continue the New Tramway / Tram-Train network onto their territories with the goal of making it one of the main means of access to Montreal.

In the years 2010-2013 – its first mandate – Projet Montréal would not only plan the entire New Tramway, but it would build at least 10% of it, 30 to 35 kilometres of twin track, at a cost of approximately $1.3 billion. Projet Montréal commits to having the first trams running by the fall of 2012.

The building of each New Tramway line would be part of a large urban planning project to redefine the use and character of the public space, to develop empty or under- developed residential lots, revitalize commercial areas and promote quality design and architecture.

Support vehicle-sharing initiatives, specifically the development of short-term car rental services (such as Communauto).

Support the transformation of the taxi industry by offering financial and regulatory incentives to taxi license owners and operators who opt for the most fuel-efficient and environmentally friendly cars available.

Stop all planned road and highway infrastructure projects aimed at increasing capacity within or leading into Montreal. Invest the money earmarked for such developments in the development of sustainable transit. Two projects demand urgent reevaluation: the plan to transform Notre-Dame East into an urban expressway as well as the reconstruction – with increased capacity – of the Turcot Interchange.

Tear down and eliminate completely the Bonaventure Expressway. University Street would then end at the Peel Basin and vehicles coming from the Champlain Bridge would come into the downtown area via the route initially planned for the Turcot and Ville-Marie East, i.e. Bridge Street and the Wellington Bridge. The $600 million saved would be invested in a light rail link between downtown and the South Shore.

The Bonaventure Expressway is a repellent structure which disfigures the entry into Montreal. The demolition of a first 800 metres, from the Peel Basin to Notre-Dame Street is scheduled for this year at a cost of $90 million. The plan is then to demolish the remaining elevated section and reestablish the highway link with the construction of a tunnel under the Peel Basin, at a cost of $600 million.

The Bonaventure Expressway was not part of the original autoroute plan drawn up in the early 1960s. It was constructed in 1965-66 in time for Expo 67 to make up for delays in the building of Ville-Marie West which wasn’t put into service until 1971. It was originally planned that vehicles coming from the Champlain Bridge and heading downtown would go via the Turcot and then take the Ville-Marie West Expressway. Because of delays in constructing Ville-Marie, an urgent replacement route was needed and so the Bonaventure Expressway was built, on toxic fill along the riverbank.

Bonaventure is relatively lightly used, with a daily traffic flow of 58,000 vehicles compared to 175,000 for the Metropolitan and the Décarie expressways. In fact, Bonaventure doesn’t carry any more traffic than Henri-Bourassa or Pie-lX Boulevard. Furthermore, two-thirds of the people using the Bonaventure corridor at rush hour travel by public transit. The planned light-rail link to the South Shore (or Tram-Train, or Tramway), with a stop for passengers from Nun’s Island, would render the Bonaventure Expressway redundant for public transit.

Take every available and appropriate measure to ensure that the Highway Code is respected to the letter in Montreal: stop signs, speed limits, pedestrian crossings, priority for pedestrians at intersections and on sidewalks (e.g. parking lot entrances), car idling, etc.

Most of Montreal’s major streets have been transformed into highways, even urban expressways, devoted exclusively to the smooth flow of automobiles. This has led to a major decrease in the room devoted to other forms of transportation. It is necessary to reduce the road surface currently devoted to cars on these streets – thereby limiting their speed – and build dedicated bus and tram routes, as well as bike and rollerblade lanes in order to transform them into true urban boulevards.

Reduce the off-highway speed limit to 40 km/h on all streets in Montreal and further reduce it to 30km/h on residential streets, near metro stations, schools, parks and other places frequented by children.

Numerous studies from around the world demonstrate that changing the posted limit has virtually no effect on the speed of vehicles. It is also impossible, of course, to assign a police officer to every street corner. The most effective and sustainable means of slowing vehicle traffic is to physically redevelop streets and intersections.

Clearly it will be impossible to redo all streets and intersections immediately; but traffic calming work can be scheduled to coincide with other basic maintenance, such as resurfacing. Residents and merchants would be consulted during the planning stage to choose the specific measures best suited to their particular streets. Furthermore, at the request of a majority of citizens in residential neighbourhoods, calming measures could go as far as restricting passage of motorized vehicles to residents and their visitors.

Modify the regulations governing street parking to give priority to residents and their visitors. Institute a pilot project of temporary permits for visitors.

Use a variety of methods – regulatory, fee-based and technological – to enforce the principle of user-payer and improve management of existing parking, always with a view to promoting alternative forms of transportation and eliminating unnecessary car traffic.

Through regulation, impose a limit on the number of parking spots permitted for each new construction but no minimum. Negotiate with developers to convince them to reduce the amount of parking available in return for improved service of sites by public and active transit.

In parallel, gradually reduce the total number of parking places available in Montreal. For instance, any new construction of private parking lots would be countered by an equivalent reduction of street parking.

Finally, insist that the government of Quebec reduce the construction of supplementary downtown parking under consideration for major projects: Quartier international, CHUM, Quartier de la santé and UQÀM.

In mixed residential and commercial neighbourhoods, make metered parking free after 6 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays as well as after 1 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays. This would make life easier for residents when stores are closed on weekday evenings. On weekend afternoons, it would also provide spaces for visitors without harming commercial activity.
Furthermore, harmonize the cost and hours of parking meters on arteries (the city’s jurisdiction) and adjacent streets (the jurisdiction of the various boroughs) to reduce confusion.

Determine the cost of residential parking permits according to the size of the vehicles. The logic behind this is that larger cars take up more space and should thus pay more.

Redevelop open, off-street parking lots to create more residential housing, parks and green spaces and other urban installations. Give priority to redeveloping parking lots in the downtown and older areas of the city whose full potential is undermined by this under-used land.

Eliminate illegal parking lots and parking practices as well as parking in places not intended for such use by imposing dissuasive fines. Prohibit parking in parks during major events.

Contribute to the realization of a very high speed train (TGV) service between Quebec City and Chicago (via Trois-Rivières, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Windsor and Detroit) and between Quebec City and Washington (via Trois-Rivières, Montreal, Boston, New York and Philadelphia). To this end, mobilize a coalition of mayors from these cities to plan the corridors as well as the train stations and put pressure on the regional and national governments to get this project underway as quickly as possible.

Within a year, produce a source/destination study on the transport of goods on the island of Montreal. This study would, in particular, examine the needs of industrial manufacturers (just in time) and continental shippers and distributors (the hub concept). On the basis of this study, prepare and put in place a strategy to:

• allow the full development of Montreal as a continental hub in the distribution of goods, promoting air-rail-road intermodality;
• establish, as in Paris, a code of good practices in the transport and delivery of merchandise (schedules, truck types, logistics);
• prohibit heavy truck traffic in residential neighbourhoods;
• encourage the use of lighter, quieter and more fuel-efficient trucks;
• encourage the use of non-truck transportation within the city, such as pipelines for the distribution of fuel, railways and electrified transport to be made possible by the construction of the New Tramway;
• in partnership with the private sector, create distribution centres or “delivery pools” in strategic locations to reduce trips and distances travelled. From these distribution centres, loads would be optimized and deliveries carried out by trucks or other electric vehicles of appropriate size.

Enact a procurement policy that would have the city buy the least noisy, most fuel efficient vehicles available for all its fleets as well as those of its paramunicipal corporations, whether they be regular cars, patrol cars, motorcycles, buses, trucks, garbage trucks, snow removal equipment etc. In contract tenders regarding the acquisition of vehicles, give manufacturers a margin of no more than 25% more than the most inexpensive vehicle of the same class on the market.

Promote the use of public and active transit by elected officials and municipal employees by:

• imposing a monthly fee of twice the cost of a CAM card, that is $120, for any parking spot on city property or on private property leased by the city for use by city employees;
• offer a free monthly CAM card to all elected officials and city employees;
• subscribe to the Allégo ride-sharing program;
• install secure bicycle parking stands, change rooms and showers in municipal buildings to encourage cycling.

In the spirit of the Cadre d'aménagement 2001-2021, concentrate urban development around heavy (metro and commuter trains) and medium-heavy (New Tramway and other) modes of public transit. For example, Projet Montréal is against having a casino or other gaming facility on the site of the current Blue Bonnets raceway. As the site is served by the Namur metro station, it is an ideal site for a new residential neighbourhood and must not be wasted.

Quickly deliver on major projects around sites already served by public transit but which are still languishing at the initial planning stage, such as Griffintown, the postal sorting station, the CN workshops in Pointe-Saint-Charles, the Radio-Canada site, the du Havre sector, Viger station, Porte Sainte-Marie, and the Outremont yards. Prepare for the redevelopment of the Royal Victoria and Hôtel-Dieu hospitals. These projects have the combined capacity to accommodate 50,000 households, or between 100,000 and 125,000 inhabitants.

Those projects for which concrete proposals have already been made should be reviewed in order to reduce the number of parking spaces provided and to reinforce the relationship with active transit and public transit. Technical support and financial incentives will be offered to promoters to accelerate the realization of these projects in this spirit and to ensure that they are financially accessible, notably to families buying property for the first time.

Erase scars on the urban landscape such as raised or inset highways as well as underused paved lots, making economic gains through the process of transforming them. These operations will be doubly beneficial, diminishing harmful effects and creating space for quality urban development. The following projects are top priority:

• Completely cover the open portion of the Ville-Marie Expressway in the downtown core;
• Partially cover the Décarie Expressway along a stretch of about 30 metres on either side of the various streets that cross it, reserving the space thus created for, among other things, terraces and public markets;
• Demolish the Bonaventure Expressway and redevelop University as a grand boulevard, from where the current highway begins to the Lachine canal.
• Once the New Tramway lines of Parc, Saint-Laurent and Beaubien-Van-Horne are in service, demolish the Rosemont-Van Horne overpass;
• Develop the Pôle Maisonneuve, the area to the north of Pie-IX metro station on the grounds of the Olympic stadium, which is currently underused. The goal is to incite visitors who come for the Biodome, Botanical gardens, Insectarium, future Planetarium and Maisonneuve Park to linger in the neighbourhood and dine there as well. The Pôle Maisonneuve project could include sidewalk cafés, a public market or an extension of Maisonneuve Park south of Sherbrooke Street.

Electrifying the transportation of people and goods is the only way to shelter Montreal's population from current and future speculation on the oil market. In the process, our decreased participation in the automotive and petroleum industries will gradually translate into commercial prowess in sustainable urban transportation technologies.

This new focus will give rise to conditions favourable to Montreal's emergence as an North American industrial hub for new urban transportation. The New Tramway / Tram- Train, commuter trains, high-speed trains, and other electric vehicles are all technologies that can be exported.