Pedestrian-friendly public squares grow

RENÉ BRUEMMER

As part of its program to convert city thoroughfares from roads where strangers pass like ships in the night into communal spaces where residents can come together, the city of Montreal announced three new street segments that will be turned into pedestrian-friendly enclaves this year.

They will bring to 12 the number of areas the city has been trying to reclaim from the automobile to give back to pedestrians and cyclists under an initiative started in 2015. By barring traffic from all or parts of the roadway, installing benches, swings, planters and other forms of urban furniture and putting in some greenery, the concept is meant to give residents a place to gather and feel part of their community. The public spaces are generally available during the summer and fall.

“The massive addition of seating space, designer furniture, greener streets as well as cultural and sports activities held by boroughs and community groups are just a few measures that help residents reclaim their streets and get better acquainted,” Mayor Denis Coderre said Tuesday.

The sites to be transformed this year are:

Roy St. in Plateau-Mont-Royal, between Coloniale Ave. and de Bullion St.

Atwater Ave. and St-Ambroise St. near Atwater Market and the Lachine Canal

Wellington St. between Galt St. and De l’Église St. in Verdun

Potential sites are submitted by the boroughs and chosen by a selection committee. The city will contribute up to $700,000 for each site.

Under the terms of the program, the transformation takes place over three years, with the first year used as a testing period to see if it will work in the community, and whether it provides an enhancement, or too much of an impediment to local businesses or traffic. If successful, the stretches of roadway taken over for pedestrian use could be extended.

If the Roy St. experiment works, for example, the city and borough could eventually turn it into a pedestrian thoroughfare stretching from St-Laurent Blvd. to St-Denis St., borough mayor Luc Ferrandez said.

“At first three years struck us as very long — we thought three months would be more realistic,” Ferrandez said. “But it’s a program that allows us to try a different approach in a neighbourhood that is very dense, very busy, that has many traffic challenges, so we appreciate it.”

In some cases, traffic flow means not all of the street can be closed. For the Atwater Blvd. reconfiguration, for instance, the city will close all but one lane of Atwater Ave. and St-Ambroise St. to vehicles in order to create a public square near the market and Lachine Canal, while still allowing vehicles to pass.

The Côte-des-Neiges public square started in 2016 at the corner of Queen Mary and Côte-desNeiges Rds. saw 1,700 pedestrians a day saunter through its green walkways or stop to sit in its Adirondack chairs or café-terrasses, the city notes. Public approval of the new sites has averaged close to 90 per cent.

The city has 45 streets that are either fully or partially pedestrianfriendly for part or all of the year.

To see a list of the pedestrian street projects the city has installed, visit bit.ly/1ATCeVI.