REM plan for West Island puts Plante on wrong track
Ban on cars from access road would be a real inconvenience
West Islanders are reeling after learning the administration of Mayor Valérie Plante plans to exclude cars from the access road connecting Pierrefonds and Kirkland to the new light rail system (REM).
The decision is entirely out of touch with the reality of living on the West Island, where transit is good but not great and where residents rely heavily on their vehicles.
As someone born and raised in the West Island, I have longed for a quicker way to get downtown. There are some great options if you live in the eastern part of Pierrefonds-Roxboro: hop on the existing RTM train and you’re downtown relatively quickly. For those living further west or in inaccessible nooks and crannies of the West Island, the urban boulevard to the new REM seemed like the perfect solution. But now we’re told that route will be for buses and bikes only.
It’s outrageous to think West Island parents can be expected to drive their kids to school, then go park kilometres away from the REM station and take public transit to get to the train for the commute downtown.
For me, as a mom, all that back and forth would make me seriously reconsider taking public transportation at all, which would defeat the main purpose of building the REM in the first place.
And where does that leave our city’s most vulnerable: those with physical disabilities? We need to make public transit more accessible to seniors, young families and those with limited
Tens of thousands of residents ... will be affected by this ill-advised decision.
mobility, not create additional hindrances.
If this is what Plante has planned for Montrealers, perhaps she needs to spend more time sitting in the traffic nightmare that is Antoine-Faucon St. in Pierrefonds. Tens of thousands of residents in Pierrefonds and beyond will be affected by this ill-advised decision, and many are justifiably outraged.
Local municipal officials have spent months consulting with residents on a proper plan to alleviate road congestion, but now the rug has been pulled from under them. Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis says Plante and her administration did not consult him or borough residents and are instead “imposing (their) will onto people who want the opposite.”
As a Montrealer, it troubles me to learn that borough officials and residents were left in the dark about a decision as significant as this. It seems underhanded and sounds an awful lot like dirty politics. Not surprisingly, many West Islanders have taken to social media to voice their displeasure, disgust and disappointment with Projet Montréal. They feel deceived that the mayor of Montreal could sit in her cosy downtown office — a bike ride away from her home — and make a decision that would affect the day-to-day lives of thousands of residents on the West Island with such little regard for their convenience, needs or desires.
It also sounds an awful lot like the recent decision to ban through traffic on Mount Royal. That decision might make sense to cyclists who live close enough to ride to the mountain (and are strong enough to ride up it). It might make sense to public transit users who are wellserved by schedules that West Islanders can only dream of (as long as they are not encumbered by picnic baskets, strollers, coolers and the like). But it makes no sense for far-flung residents who must rely on their vehicles to get around, preferably without more roadblocks thrown in their way.
The REM was supposed to improve public transit prospects for West Islanders. With this latest decision, the Plante administration is only adding to the frustration with which we’ve had to live for far too long. Plante needs to reverse course and get the plan back on the right track.