Taming the automobile in Montreal’s core
City cordons off 10 downtown blocks in symbolic attempt to combat pollution
ByIngrid Peritz
Tuesday, Sep. 23, 2003
MONTREAL—Montreal loves a street party and finds almost any excuse to hold one. Streets are routinely shut to traffic for jazz concerts and antiwar protests, for Santa Claus parades, Grey Cup parades and parades of glistening Ferraris.
But yesterday, as summer closed with a last gasp of sunshine, the city decided to hold one of its most audacious street parties of the year: a downtown celebration to ban cars.
For more than five hours, horns were quiet and exhaust fumes missing while the heart of Montreal hummed gently with the sounds of bicycles, scooters and the unhurried rhythm of feet.
Ste-Catherine Street, normally a cauldron of edgy motorists and jaywalking shoppers, looked like a European-style pedestrian walkway. Most strikingly, it was quiet.
In a largely symbolic gesture at greening the city, Montreal joined about 1,000 cities from Brussels to Bangkok for Car-Free Day, an international movement to tame the polluting automobile.
The event began in France five years ago and has spread to a half-dozen Canadian cities, including Ottawa and Toronto. But the rest of Canada marked the day over the weekend, leaving Montreal to become the first and only city in the country to tamper with North American car culture on a weekday—and in its central business district, to boot.
The distinction led Mayor Grald Tremblay, standing amid a noon-hour crush of pedestrians ambling down the middle of Ste-Catherine Street, to wax Kennedy-esque in his enthusiasm.
“Some men see things as they are and say why. I dream of things that never were and say why not,” he said in an interview. “You can make all the nice speeches you want about the Kyoto accord and sustainable development. In Montreal, we said: We’re going to change things.”
In its end-of-day tally, the city claimed victory in its experiment. Ridership on Montreal’s Mtro rose by 10 per cent, or 16,000 more riders.
Of course, not everyone was seized with giddy pleasure at the relaxed ambience in the city core. With his Pepsi delivery truck stuck in a laneway jammed with verboten vehicles, Pierre Tourangeau found little to celebrate.
“Do they do stupid things like this in Toronto? You can’t block off downtown Montreal. This isn’t a village; it’s a big city.”
Across the street, a sullen Zengin Yildirim surveyed his half-empty parking lot and shook his head. The attendant next door, George Mikalakis, had his feet up on a chair and was smoking a cigarette. Both men said nearby streets had already been closed this summer during an antiglobalization protest, for the Gay Pride parade, and for the annual Caribbean festival, Carifiesta.
The festival of keeping-out-cars seemed to be their last straw.
“It’s ridiculous. We’re downtown, where most people work,” Mr. Mikalakis said. “If they can’t get there by car, forget it.”
Downtown businesses balked at Montreal’s initiative from the start. Accounting and legal firms sent disapproving letters. Parking-lot owners even threatened legal action. The closing affected 1,000 businesses, from high-rise offices to street-level cafs.
Faced with the protests, Montreal reduced the perimeter of the no-car area to about 10 city blocks and scaled back the hours to exclude rush hour. Businesses were still not overjoyed.
“Holding the downtown hostage to stage activities and generate publicity is good for those who believe in the cause,” said Andr Poulin, executive director of Destination Centre-Ville, which represents 7,500 downtown businesses. “But for those who conduct business downtown, who pay rent, who pay taxes, they’re the ones suffering.”
Car-Free Day unfolded in large and small cities around the world, affecting more than 100 million people in Europe alone. In central Paris, police turned away cars and city hall lent out free bikes.
In Britain, at least 62 cities closed roads to traffic, and car lovers were offered a phrase book on bus etiquette.
In Rome, officials organized information seminars, though cars continued to flow through the congested Italian capital. Eleven cities across Italy, including Padua, Palermo and Siena, elected to reclaim the streets from cars.
Montreal may be an unusual candidate to become the Canadian leader when it comes to taming cars. The city is legendary for drivers’ rule-the-road mentality. Battles play out daily at street corners between motorists and pedestrians—one reason Montreal authorities still refuse to let cars turn right on red lights, though Quebeckers can do so in the rest of the province.
Some said Montreal’s gesture is a sign that the curb-the-car movement has moved from the margins to the mainstream. In 1976, idealists led by legendary activist Bicycle Bob Silverman covered themselves in ketchup and lay down on Ste-Catherine Street for a “die-in” to denounce the “autocracy” that dominated the city.
Yesterday, Mr. Silverman came downtown—standing up—while pedestrians filled the streets nearby to watch a rock band belt out music on the plaza at Place Ville Marie, Montreal’s landmark business address.
“This is historic,” Mr. Silverman said. “It’s a magnificent move. It’s recognition that cities are for people, not for cars.”
At least it was in Montreal yesterday, for 5 hours.
2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved.(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Posted by: Paul on February 27, 2004 at 18:00:05