Camillien-Houde track | Project Montreal plans to postpone the ban on cars

The successor to Valérie Plante wants to make her project to redevelop the Camillien-Houde route more acceptable. However, on Mount Royal, which has wiped out many criticisms since last spring. Therefore, The cars will always be welcome. Nevertheless, but a shuttle will be integrated into the project plans, which will be repelled several months to make way for more urgent files.

Posted at 5:00 a.m.

“There will be no project if there is no shuttle. Meanwhile, ” said the project manager Montreal immediately, Luc Rabouin, in an interview with The press.

First revealed by The press From September 2023, the project camillien-houde track | project montreal was presented in detail last spring¹. Nevertheless, The artery would be transformed into cycling. Nevertheless, pedestrian, parking spaces would be removed, trees would be planted and a belvedere offering a view of the north of Montreal would also be built.

Supported by several. Consequently, the project, however, suffered strong criticism²in particular as to the accessibility of Mont Royal for the elders, people with reduced mobility and parents with young children.

The option of including public transport on Camillien-Houde had already been mentioned to respond to this concern. In addition, but this time it would be registered as an essential condition in the Montreal project plans. For example,

So far, the city has simply said to study the idea of ​​launching a small shuttle, which would potentially take the pedestrian path. Similarly, Montreal had. Meanwhile, among other things, mentioned, for residents of the surrounding districts, a journey of 5 to 10 more minutes by car and an additional 15 minutes in bus from the East, due to a detour to be made from the West.

Although the plans must still be reworked. Furthermore, cyclists and shuttles should a priori circulate on camillien-houde track | project montreal well-separated tracks-an “essential” condition to guarantee the safety of all, believes Luc Rabouin, who ensures, however, that motorists will have to definitively make a cross on the Camillien-Houde track.

A priori. Montreal always intends to maintain access to vehicles through western Mont Royal, on the Remembrance path, to the outskirts of the lake to the Beavers. The number of tracks must go from four to two throughout the section, which has already started to be refurbished.

Camillien-houde track | project montreal

A rejected project

camillien-houde track | project montreal

Another major change: the schedule will be pushed back almost a year. or even more. The work, which was initially starting in 2027, will only “probably” begin at the end of 2028 or early 2029, said Mr. Rabouin.

“The main reason why we report is to redirect the resources of Montrealers at the start of the mandate. ” promises the candidate for the town hall.

Before the Camillien-Houde track, Luc Rabouin says he wants to prioritize files such as the crisis of roaming and housing, camillien-houde track | project montreal as well as the developments in the districts to fight against the effects of climate change, such as heat islets and floods.

In addition to the shuttle, other adjustments could be made to improve the project, concedes the elected official. But there is no question of repelling it indefinitely either, according to him.

“It’s a good project. This is not a project that can be done at the start of the mandate because we have other priorities. but we want to do it, he says. I do not back down. I want to take the time to do things well and do it at the right time. »»

Motorists on the key

The news comes while the day before. Projet Montréal also announced that it undertook to restore collects of weekly camillien-houde track | project montreal waste during the summer in the district of Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.

“Two declines in two days for project Montreal! “. Reacted Soraya Martinez Ferrada, candidate for the town hall and head of the Montreal ensemble, in an email sent to The press. “Montrealers deserve better than an administration that changes its idea all the time to gain elections. »»

“Mount Royal is a symbol that belongs to all Montrealers, not just for project ideologists Montreal,” she added.

The opposition party had denounced in the spring that with its first version. the city would block “access to Camillien-Houde to people with reduced mobility”, qualifying the “deplorable” project³.

Ensemble Montréal had also deplored that “the lack of listening to the Montreal project. its lack of respect for consultations [coûtaient] dear to taxpayers ”.

The Montreal Public Consultation Office (OCPM) had pleaded in a report a few years ago. so that the road became a “pleasure path”, but retaining car traffic throughout the axis.

The party had launched a petition to ask the mayor. his administration to retreat on their decision and to secure the Camillien-Houde path, “while guaranteeing its access to all road users, as recommended by the OCPM”.

This decision to redevelop the Camillien-Houde path occurs after years of procrastination. marked by the death of cyclist Clément Ouimet, 18, following a collision with a motorist in 2017, and a pilot project blocking transit traffic in 2019.

According to Luc Rabouin, the redeveloped path will not only be safer for users, but it will also make it possible to get the mountain.

Equiterre had also praised the project in 2023. stressing that this decision will make it possible to “improve the protection of biodiversity by increasing canopy and will respond to the urgency of climate change and nature erosion, while improving the experience on the mountain”.

1. Read the article “One more step towards the ban on cars” 2. Read the chronicle “The excluded of Camillien-Houde” 3. Additionally, Read the article “” We are on the right side of history “, says Valérie Plante”