Did Montreal Make a Mistake? 

Pedestrian, cyclist and car owner here and I'm all for pedestrian streets like Avenue Mont-Royal. I have a car but I despise car culture. Streets like these make the city feel more alive. It should be pedestrian between St-Laurent and Papineau. They could make a beautiful Xmas themed street, or market in the winter.

Hey Dan. Maybe some streets in Montreal are car friendly and some other areas are bike/walking friendly. Cars make noise and cause pollution. Check out traffic in downtown Toronto. It's a lot worse than Montreal. Anyway, the city of Montreal might be trying to go slow to give drivers time to adjust. The solution is allowing vehicles until 10 AM daily. The other solution is what they do in Rotterdam. Taxis and business vehicles only.

They took off water park and, swimming and a lot of outside activities it so lame

I agree or make it like plaza st-hubert, one way street with a few 15min parking that way people who have furniture will be able to park since 15min max on the street or 2h on the nearby streets. so huge sidewalk and very narrow street with temporary parking, but if you want to stay need to go to the car park elsewhere.

Mostly every time the road are blockeds for no reason and it’s annoying but Montréal is really beautiful .

Mont-Royal, outside of the pedestrian period, is horrible. It could work 12 months a year. Just need to do it the proper way.

Adjustments definitely can be made. For many years, the streets were closed from a Thursday to Sunday, once at the beginning & again late summer, much like what still occurs on St. Laurent. Other neighborhoods did the same. So the change from two 3-day weekends to all summer has been great. It did start out much more pedestrian oriented, & cyclists were discouraged from cutting through, which led to begrudging tolerance to what we have now. The swerved lines in the middle of the street do provide some visual/ mental preparation for sharing the space, though at times it can feel a bit precarious navigating, from both groups peroective, I'm sure. Didn't realize the street closure to traffic was still ongoing west of St. Denis, until I was heading for the mountain yesterday. It definitely had a calming effect. Not sure about an all year pedestrian/cyclist way, but who knows? If people in the neighborhood are asking for it, it could be tested.

I totally agree with you Dan. I come to Montreal as much as possiblw and what draws me there are streets just like this. I was there last month in fact for a few days just to wander those open streets, eat and shop. I come less often when they're closed and full of cars. Last year I was there watching when they closed the street for the year and removed all the furniture. It felt like a sad day

Dan please do yourself a huge favour. Please by yourself a helmet….. especially when one is biking in Montreal..!👍

Store owners that rely selling for people with cars will always oppose to street closing for pedestrians , that was from the beginning of street closing from years ago until they couldn't get what they want since people just love the vibe of summer street therefore the City keep closing some streets in MTL for almost three months every summer ,a few years back , Mont royal street used to be closed twice for the weekend only .

Could not come soon enough. Imagine how impractical the closed street is to people that live on it, to the store owners or to anyone with accessibility concerns.

There is a pretty good examples, when pedestrian streets are also available to the certain cars, who need access to the businesses on this street. Why not to do like this? Absolutely agree, that Mont Royal should be pedestrian whole year.

I love your content so much bro keep going, also please make a video about the highest building that is open to public so people can take photos from it like Place Ville Marie weach had the 46'th flood open to public but i heard it not anymore

Cities are for the convenience of pedestrians. The cars own the suburbs and everything else. Give those of us who use our legs for transportation something we can call our own. Some cities have moved towards being more pedestrian-friendly. Downtown Guadalajara, Mexico now has a large area that is pedestrian only. And the cars? Let them live with it.

Hi just let you know the pedestrian street of Mount Royal in between Saint Denis and Saint Laurent will be till 15 October.

Hi! I work at the Épicerie Valmont (grocery store that you often pass in front of on Mont-Royal Est/Fabre)! We actually have much more customers when the street is open to cars since a huge amount of people actually uses the autobus to come here. (97 Mont-Royal) And, of course, people doing bigger grocery the fact that they can circulate more freely it's easier for them to come and also to park their cars. And that, it's not without saying the distributors, garbage company, etc. actually charge more money when the street is closed since they must pay their truckers more as they are forced to do overtime since the back alleys it's the free for all. So they are arriving insanely late causing a huge amount of problem as much financially than praticality. Despite, I also as a customer prefer the street for pedestrians, the only store that benefit from that are restaurants and crêmeries. Well, anywhere you consummate on the place aka not packing things.

The city would like to have it for longer but it's the business associations that have to be convinced.

I was there this afternoon showing the district to my American brother in law and I was so disappointed they removed the pedestrian streets. Really killed the vibes idk why they do this and so early. Le plateau really needs to ban cars

they should make the street pedestrian from early may until late october

Jusqu'à mi octobre svp

I too would very much like everything to be exactly as I want it. But if they decide to close the avenue all year round, they must at least make an exception for public buses.

Hey Dan--Big fan of your work and frequent Montreal whenever I get the chance. I live South of the Border and not very far from Burlington, Vermont. They have closed the main shopping street (Church Street) for well over 30 years (in all seasons) and it works out just fine. Yes, there is less pedestrian traffic in the coldest months, but you can still see folks milling around and taking advantage of the restaurants and coffee shops along the way. As you said, cars are "king" everywhere else, why not have a human scale place for people to live a slower pace of life. Hopefully the powers that be in your great city can take note!

I 100% think the street should be pedestrianized all year round. It works well on St Catherine in Downtown. I understand the challenges on colder months tho.

I will miss the atmosphere with having the pedestrian only street. Perhaps could bring it back for the warmer month (if not permanently)?

I love walking streets however you have to realize that 10 years ago, on September 13th 2014, it was exactly 13 degrees in Montreal. When it's back to school and the temperatures begin to drop, there is a serious reduction in overall foot traffic. (Yes, we might have to adjust with climate change as we are experiencing warmer weather for longer periods of time now.) I understand the city's decision to alternate between the two and I believe it just makes the summer months even more special. Montreal winters have the potential to be brutal and when you're delivering things to local stores in the cold / snow, you definitely want to have a vehicle to assist you. I believe that in the winter, there's more than enough room on the sidewalks for everyone to co-exist. I agree cyclist get the short end of the bargain however biking in the winter is considerably reduced when compared to the summer. As someone that bikes almost daily and loves walking streets, I feel it's being done properly. One of the cool things about Montrealers is that we party in the summer and when September comes, it's back to work/school. That's when we go into our ultra productive mode!

The city is respecting there contract and dates instead of taking decisions according to the current state of weather … it rly embarrassing

It now costs 3.75$ to get on a bus… That’s NOT GOOD!

According to you Montreal is completely French and full of nothing but bike paths

...👍🌟👍💖👍🌟👍....

LET'S MAKE MONT ROYAL AVENUE INTO A PEDESTRIAN ALL YEARS LONG 👍

Complains about cars on streets -> rides bike up on sidewalk

It is all about cost, having the street pedestrian during winter, means higher cost to remove slow. Also cars need more space during winter. There is 2 streets with bike lanes close by. I am all for more pedestrian street and more bike lanes, but there is also need to have fluid street for traffic, which is lacking in the Mont Royal area. I'm sure this was all taken into consideration.

do you live in the same place as i do? how do you get anywhere? ever heard of winter?