Mount Royal project would have displeased Olmsted

Montrealers are in the throes of a hot and sultry summer, from which the weather forecast suggests there is no relief in sight. (Not that we’re complaining.)

But even the most diehard of summer acolytes need a little relief from the pounding heat of the concrete jungle. So to the mountain we go — the closest thing to escaping the city besides actually leaving. The grassy knolls, meandering pathways and shaded woods of Mount Royal are, for some Montrealers, the only vacation they get. And while my colleague Andy Riga has recently revealed some of the mountain’s quieter nooks and crannies — its best-kept secrets, if you will — Beaver Lake remains the destination of choice for residents and visitors alike.

Except getting there this summer is a little more complicated than usual.

A pilot project underway from June to October to block through-traffic for vehicles (except city buses and emergency vehicles) is, according to the watchdog group Les amis de la montagne, creating confusion, limiting access for some visitors and undermining safety.

Packed buses are bypassing waiting passengers, ignorant or determined motorists disregard signs forbidding them from transiting the mountain even in the presence of police, there is not enough enforcement to crack down on scofflaws, cars are stopping or parking where they shouldn’t, parking lots at the western entrance fill up too quickly, bikes are using pedestrian paths, pedestrians are risking life or limb walking on roadways intended for cars, and on and on and on.

Of course, all of this was totally predictable from the moment the half-baked plan to create two cul-de-sacs was announced. Even if the ultimate goal of preventing cars from using Camillien-Houde Way and Remembrance Rd. as an express route across the city is laudable, the method to achieve it was a hastily conceived, backof-the-napkin stopgap measure that is completely unworthy of a park of Mount Royal’s importance, stature and beauty.

What’s more, the resulting reduction in access for some users runs contrary to Frederick Law Olmsted’s vision for Mount Royal. The famed landscape architect who designed Mount Royal intended for a road to reach the summit so the sick, the elderly and families could enjoy the great outdoors, minus the rugged ascent.

A city report on Olmsted published in 2009 contains several pertinent passages that seem all the more relevant today:

“His intent was to meet human needs, and to that end he made his parks accessible to all — not only all social groups, but also all ages and all physical conditions,” reads one excerpt. “On Mount Royal itself, as part of the system of drives and walking paths that he planned, he included a path that went to the top of the mountain and returned by another route that could be used by convalescents in wheelchairs.”

Another states: “At Mount Royal, Olmsted sought to emphasize the mountain aspect of the site, and urged Montrealers to abandon their prior expectations for a park with floral and horticultural displays. He sought to base the experience of the park on its natural setting, while at the same time providing greater variety of landscape experience and vistas than existed by natural growth. He also created a coherent, well-engineered circulation system that facilitated access by carriage, on foot, and even by wheelchair.”

And most notably: “Rows of trees separated the various ways, creating an effect of green and shade. The concept of the parkway, and the term itself, has survived in modern times as a pleasantly landscaped drive for private vehicles that excludes commercial traffic.”

Olmsted was working in the era of horse and buggy, and most certainly would not have approved of drivers zipping over the mountain on their way elsewhere.

But these excerpts nevertheless indicate that he intended the public to be able to drive up and over the mountain when they visited.

This report on his vision and this summer’s debacle should give new impetus to the proposal previously put forth by Les amis de la montagne to create a park road that offers full access to Mount Royal.

I know, I know: the closure of through access is a temporary project that will be re-evaluated and the Office de consultation publique de Montréal has already kicked off a consultation process to sound out citizens on a mountain road for the future.

But during the lazy, hazy days of summer when Mount Royal is busiest and most appreciated, perhaps it’s not too soon to say, “I told you so.”