Montreal should aim for a car-free downtown
Urban areas offer opportunities for greener lifestyles, Rachel Takasaki says.
Walking through downtown Montreal early on a weekday morning, the first thing I notice is how many people are trying to get somewhere. Pedestrians cover the sidewalks, cars line up bumper to bumper at every intersection, and cyclists fill up the bike lanes. But as you move outward, the inbound traffic is solely made up of cars all moving at a snail’s pace.
Part of all the gridlock may be due to the impressive amount of construction projects, but the root of the problem is the excessive number of commuters driving into the city individually. Not only is this a great source of frustration for everyone involved, but it is also a major reason why cities contribute so much to greenhouse gas emissions.
With a city as highly populated as Montreal, countless environmental issues arise. Urbanization is often characterized as having a significant negative effect on the environment. Greater population density leads to a concentration of demand on natural resources as well as waste output. Urban areas also create heat islands (warming of the local climate) and disrupt local ecosystems through habitat fragmentation, deforestation and desertification.
However, cities are also areas with vast possibility to support sustainable living.
Peter Newman, an environmental scientist at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, argues that the population density of cities can be advantageous in addressing climate-change issues. Urban areas are often the heart of culture and innovation, since there are so many different people interacting and collaborating with each other. If green urbanism, the movement toward zero-waste and zeroemission designs, becomes widespread in the city centre, it is more likely to spread out to the surrounding areas.
Montreal is already a part of the C40 cities, so it is leading climate action along with other major cities around the world. Nevertheless, there is much room for improvement.
Since people live in closer proximity to each other and to businesses in urban areas than in rural ones, there is greater opportunity to reduce emissions from transportation. There are several European cities actively working toward making their city centres car free, such as Madrid, Copenhagen and Oslo. Why can’t Montreal do the same?
If downtown Montreal became free of privately owned vehicles, there would be more room for more buses, taxis, bikes and pedestrians. Furthermore, it would greatly reduce traffic, which is a cause of frustration for so many people. With less street congestion, the bus system could be more reliable, and it would encourage more people to use the public transit system rather than driving in on their own. Parking spaces downtown could be turned into wider bike lanes, so an increasing number of commuters would feel safer biking to work. Finally, more streets downtown could be transformed to be pedestrian-only, which would be safer and promote a more active lifestyle and perhaps become a tourist attraction. Think about, for example, when St-Laurent Blvd. closes down for several blocks during the summer. Shops bring their merchandise outside and more pedestrians are attracted to the area. This kind of atmosphere could promote more business for streetside stores, encourage people to go outside more often and reduce carbon emissions all at once.
Of course, one has to take into account Montreal’s climate. Cycling to work is definitely less safe in the winter months. However, barring cars from downtown would still leave the streets open for faster bus transport.
Urban growth is an unstoppable force, but cities pose as an opportunity for a greener lifestyle. We must address the problems that come with urbanization as well as using the advantages to achieve a sustainable future.
As active citizens of both local and global communities, we must be continually looking toward sustainable development. Where can we improve our individual lifestyles and the urban system we live in to lower our collective ecological footprint? Rachel Takasaki is an undergraduate student at McGill University.