Mount Royal restrictions set to start June 1
Five-month pilot project will block cars from using mountain as a through route
Drivers should enjoy the view while they can because for five months starting June 1, they will not be allowed to use Mount Royal as a bypass between Côte-des-Neiges and Plateau-Mont-Royal.
On Wednesday, Mayor Valérie Plante announced a few details of a pilot project that has divided Montrealers since it was announced in February.
Proponents say it will make the mountain safer for pedestrians and cyclists and more pleasant for all users. Critics say it will reduce access to a key city green space and make it harder for drivers to get around.
Between June 1 and Oct. 31, cars will be allowed to access Mount Royal from Remembrance Rd. to the west or Camillien-Houde Way to the east — but not to drive from one side to the other.
Further details about how the pilot project will work will be announced in about a month, Plante said.
That’s when Montrealers will learn how traffic will be blocked and what “mitigation measures” will be put in place, Plante said.
She said the city is also working on plans to “allow cyclists, pedestrians, in-line skaters, skateboarders and children on scooters to fully enjoy Camillien-Houde Way in a festive, family-friendly and safe atmosphere.”
Plante said she hopes Montrealers give it a chance.
“We must take care of this heritage site, improve accessibility and user-friendliness and promote safer cohabitation” between users arriving via different modes of transportation, she said.
“We need to minimize the impact of through traffic on the mountain. Let’s open up the mountain to all users and for this period of five months, we’ll be able to gather information, comments, suggestions, ideas and also to dream and to think and come up with a vision for the mountain.”
On May 1, the Office de consultation publique de Montréal will begin consultations on the
We must take care of this heritage site, improve accessibility and userfriendliness and promote safer cohabitation.
project, Plante said. Details were not announced, but a report on the consultations is to come out 90 days after the end of the pilot project.
Plante said the city will listen to any concerns expressed by the public.
Will the city make any changes to its plan based on what it hears in the weeks before the project starts?
“If there are minor modifications we can do, yes, but the pilot project will go ahead,” with consultations continuing throughout the traffic experiment, she said.
City hall opposition leader Lionel Perez, who had called on Plante to ask the OCPM to consult Montrealers, said the city isn’t allowing enough time to gauge public opinion before the temporary traffic changes are put in place.
“It’s a mock public consultation. They don’t really want to have a real public consultation,” he said.
“It’s absolutely impossible to be able to have a public consultation May 1 knowing that the pilot project will start June 1.”
That does not provide time for the public to give their input and for the OCPM to prepare a report, Perez said, adding Plante should delay the start of the pilot project, perhaps to next year.