The Spectacular Success of Montreal's Car-Free Streets 

I like China

The people who are against it are very vocal but people who like it don't talk about them very much.

It's really frustrating. And I get no satisfaction from saying "I told you so." That's why these types of projects are so important, because you can point to it and say "See? It was a clear and resounding success!" Show before and after pictures. Show the poll results. Show the statistics that demonstrate an increase in patronage and revenue. The more these kinds of things happen, and the fact that it improves the neighborhood _every single time_ , hopefully the more willing people will be to make these changes, and maybe even start to proactively demand them. Ultimately though, it is a _good_ sign. While making the changes might be frustratingly, painfully difficult, it's clear that, once implemented, they will be extremely robust. All of the hard work is front-loaded. Eliminating car dependency and taking back our cities will not be the struggle it currently is forever. It's a huge boulder at the top of a hill. Getting it moving initially is a lot of strenuous pushing, but at some point, it starts rolling by itself. Once it's at the bottom, it's not going back up.

Honestly you kind of need a politician to make that gamble and execute on the idea. Afterwards, the support as you say will come. The problem is that the timing has to work politically (can't be at the end of a mandate for example) and you must have buy-in from the non-elected stakeholders within a city's government to implement the idea properly. I think the main obstacle remains political participation at the municipal level. Efforts should focus on that. The beauty however of focusing on that area of political activism is that good management at the municipal level will have a positive collateral effect on voters across all levels of politics. As it will make the case on a smaller scale for bigger more systemic changes by providing examples that work.

I will NEVER support this anti-car BS!

I can only speak to the Montreal pedestrian zones, but 1. doesn't work so well with the winter here and 2. would make deliveries much more complicated for the local businesses. For more temperate zones though, absolutely

@@beaulac3215 1 - So you don't go outdoors when it is winter? There are other places on earth which have winters and permanent pedestrian zones. 2 - Designing a street for pedestrian/bicycle traffic does not mean that cars have to be banned completely. It will however limit the car use for essential traffic only, and will also focus on lowering the speed of those essential cars significantly. One feature also commonly found in these areas is limiting delivery traffic to some hours in the morning. The whole idea of the design is to provide meaningfull destinations to people not in cars. To drive out business would be going directly against that idea.

Hello from Montreal, the video shows a small area of Montreal. Most people will take public transport to get to those areas. Montreal has a large underground system for access. You would not drive there if you want visit. This area of the city has created a great network of bike paths and the majority of the people living there live in apartments and multi unit homes that are found above commercial establishments. I don’t think we will ever have pedestrian only streets. A few closed streets in the city does create a nice change and help enjoy the summer. No streets are closed in the winter except in 1998 when it brought down trees and power lines with the biggest ice storm with the loss of power for over a week.

@@beaulac3215 It could absolutely work in the winter here - it would be much safer.

@@davidgill2520 Prince-Arthur is pedestrianized year round and it'll be the first of many.

He obviously cannot give compliments to Montreal since he's from Ontario XD

He does seem to ignore it completely lol

When cars have fucked our cities so bad that the best thing about a city is a street with no cars

Bonjour, yes I agree. I think it’s a special place that can’t be copied elsewhere and I live in NDG. It’s the people

I live there and how do you get there? In car. Plz destroy the city like california did and new york.

Every one of the pedestrian areas people love today had people fighting hard against them when they were introduced.

Consider starting a movement or seeing who else would want to promote the car free areas. Reach out to your city and Express your interest in certain car free streets

Which city?

Believe me , i live close to that city ans it's a nightmare. The roads are not clean. There's a lot of homeless peoples , junkies and it smell like piss. There's bump everywhere and there's also a shit ton of holes. But the city won't do a thing. They prefer to pay 5 Milion to put a big circle in the air , and it's not a joke. You can look it up

@@kimdupont3731 5 millions ? Fake news and ignorance is universal you are the proof . The circule is financed primarily by Ivanhoé Cambridge . Next time educate yourself before writing nonsense. Thanks

Even just the concept of "loitering" is kind of strange when you think about it!

Whenever I go to a small shop I feel bad not buying something to support a small business...I'm poor so I just don't go outside these days. Problem solved.

@@OhTheUrbanity we do need more places where people can “hang out”. But suburbia only prioritizes greeting to and from places with a car and nothing in between.

@@HelloWorld-yq9yy Tbf suburbia does have the mall where you can freely hangout (maybe go to a food court) and walk around, but it often feels way too corporate and stale to enjoy them like pedestrianized streets

@@AssBlasster Yeah, I think you mean by "mall" a forced advertisement ultra-rich trap. No free air, no sun, no wind, no open connections (only a few doors in/out, unlike street intersections), always shops everywhere even in the middle, no art, is there even a tree in there? It's just CONSUME, BUY!

That would be nice I agree, but unfortunately it's not a very practical option in the winter time when people avoid walking outside. Local businesses would only suffer more if they kept the streets car-free during that time, since that along with buses, the metro, and the underground city are the preferred ways to get around the city when it's the negative teens. It would be nice if we could expand it to other seasons though, early fall and late spring are wonderful times as well.

I was in Maastricht a few years ago, and certain parts of the town it seemed like cars were allowed but rare. This seems like the ideal model to me - cars are important and there are legitimate reasons people will need to occassionally drive them through cities, but they shouldn't be the main mode of transpport in cities.

Very interesting about the autoluw streets in your Dutch town! In Montreal, we have 19 borough councils that make these decisions, and only a few of them are progressive enough to allow car-free streets in the summer. Suburban areas are completely car dependent and hostile to pedestrians and cyclists.

@@krisppynugget You know, I wonder what it would take to make a street fully pedestrian year round. Probably some heavier infrastructure but definitely not impossible. True though that starting by stretching the period to late fall and early spring would be nice to start.

@@Damorann You really have to put more residential units into the apartments above the ground-floor shops and restaurants or maybe in taller towers (>5 floors) in very nearby areas. The main idea is that there is probably a certain threshold population density to make successful year-round pedestrian streets or districts. Manhattan may be a great starting point where they could remove cars tomorrow and probably function as normal due to their car trip share and underground metros that bring more outsiders to Manhattan without the destroying car-free district.

Suburbanites who whine that they will only go downtown if they can drive there are generally the type of people who are rarely downtown outside of office hours so they're not much of a loss.

Same thing happened in Santa Barbara too!

@@SneakyPollack is it sticking around forever? I haven’t been to Santa Barbara in a long while unfortunately

Most Californian cities have cool historic Main Streets, but they’re only about three or four blocks big and then it’s back to the dumb roads

@@SaveMoneySavethePlanet I hope so, certainly strong voices in the city advocating for such. Especially from the business community on State Street.

I'm crossing my fingers for the Little Italy part of St-Laurent to become pedestrianized. It feels like such a great candidate! Imagine going to grab a bite in Little Italy before casually walking up the street to go to Jean-Talon market and get fresh produce!

It was such a huge relief when CARderre lost the last mayoral election!

@@cynthiakazmierzski8144 The path to victory wasn't wide enough for him.* *Remember one of his most brilliant idea i.e. the narrow sidewalk at Laurier park to keep parking spots.

@@sylvainmichaud2262 But you can't deny that the current administration isn't so good at planning for the long term. Sometimes it feels like Valérie Plante just wakes up a morning and decides to turn a street into a pedestrian zone without thinking about the impacts. In my neighbourhood (Rivière-Des-Prairies), the administration decided 3 years ago to turn the Boulevard Gouin into a one sided street with a bike path on the other. Even if I'm myself a cyclist, the problem is that my bus' path goes on that street and thus couldn't go on it anymore... After spending millions to build the bike path and after tons of complaints, the city destroyed what it did (thus spending millions again) and allowed vehicles on both sides again so that buses can keep running. The current administration also decided to lower speed limits by 10 to 20 km/h on all streets in Rivière-Des-Prairies. Their excuse? To promote public transportation... What they don't realize is that buses also need to follow that 20 km/h lower speed limit, which ends up encouraging bus users to buy a car in order to go faster. The result is thus not what is expected. We also had a brand new train in the East which (used to) reach the city center. Tons of people used it (including I) and it was very fast to reach the city center. However, the new REM will monopolize the tunnel under the mount Royal and thus the train is now useless and almost empty. My uncle works for one of the engineering firms which work on the REM and he told me that the city could have made a new tunnel for the REM if they wanted... but they didn't. We are far from having long term plans like many cities in Germany and other European countries, where cars are eliminated gradually while thinking about all the impacts and finding solutions to solve all of them. You can't just block a random street and think people will deal with it by themself.

@@PG-3462 The major issue is NIMBYs. (not in my backward) and those who always complain, if you known what I mean.

@@sylvainmichaud2262 This is why long term plans are required. You can't just block random streets, lower speed limits and render a train completely useless and expect people to want more of it in their own backyard. I'm personally all for having a more walkable city, as I think it creates a much better lifestyle and living environment, but the way it's done in Montreal is generally a catastrophy, in the east it's even worse. It feels like everything is rushed, just so that the administration can claim to have banned cars on X number of streets and created Y amount of additional bike path. It's the same with parks. The administration claims to have created new parks in the east. All they have done is to add a name to already green spaces (like right infront of my home 🤦‍♂️)

Yes! And that doesn't even mention the famous "Curb cut effect": pretty much all accomodations for differently abled people end up helping everyone else, too

People that criticize streets or transit for "not being accessible to someone in a wheelchair" always seem to ignore how dodging a car in a wheelchair is hard.

Yup, the criticism is usually that there won't be parking right in front of whatever destination, but how often is there actually available and accessible parking in front of popular destinations now? It also focuses on a particular segment of the disabled population - those with mobility impairments and the financial means to afford a car (and typically have someone to drive them) - and prevents people who live nearby or are reliant on transit to move independently. (And of course the diversity of other disabilities that can prevent someone from being able to drive, or that disabled people frequently have more limited income)

I found it baffling that someone would complain about the safety issues of bicycles hitting pedestrians without even considering that cars are way more dangerous for both cyclists and pedestrians

In those busy areas pocket theft can be an issue to be honest.

Except in the Netherlands. There shops beg to be not left out of the car-free zone.

@@steemlenn8797 nah even here in the netherlands there's still storeowners that complain about not being immediately accessible by car whenever a street is made car free

@@snailymitch I guess it depends on the location and surroundings.

@@paxundpeace9970, depends very much on the country. On a pedestrianised street I imagine it's also less of an issue as you have more space to walk away from others, and far fewer places for a thief to hide or duck around/through traffic.

What's a fire and why does it--what's the word?--BURN!

I hadn't really thought too much about Rundle mall having ever been open to cars, I suspect Pitt st mall in Sydney, garema pl in Canberra etc are the same situation, and nobody thinks twice about the fact you can't drive there. I feel like expanding the concept would meet a whole lot of anger by your average Aussie though sadly, we are in love with cars and can't see that it could be any other way "because we have a low population density" (failing to recognise that population density is extremely different in the city to the outback)

That's the reference!

Glad I’m not the only one who picked up on that

Church Street in Burlington, Vermont is like this too. Even in the harsh Vermont winters, it's still nice to stroll along the street

Yeah that's what's missing. On wellington street they put LEDs on tree and christmas music in the winter. Makes for a nice evening walk and I really wish it would be banned to moto vehicles all year round. When it snows hard you can still walk but you can't drive!

No problem with winter and snow. Actually you can put up Christmas decorations and little fires to keep the place warm.

Hello from Montreal, what you saw in the video is only a small portion of the city. Car access is always maintained on the major streets in that area (the area know as the plateau), located east of the downtown. Also there is an underground (Metro) system that people would normally used to travel. People are quite used to street closures for sporting events. The rest of the island (the city of Montreal is actually on an island) doesn’t close their streets it’s more suburban. Single family homes…also the streets aren’t closed in the winter but the city plows the bike paths. Take care

The streets are for pedestrians only from May to the last day of October, so it's basically during all of spring and fall. In November, it generally rains a lot and people in the city don't go out much and in April there is sometimes still snow on the ground

The argument that we need cars for accessibility honestly irritates me so much, because it completely neglects to acknowledge any of the disabilities that prevent one from being able to drive safely (a car isn't gonna help if you can't see is it) saying cars are necessary for accessibility utterly disregards those with disability that would benifit from not having to ask friends or family or taxis to be chauffeured around in a car to be able to travel anywhere beyond their front door, for whom a well designed transport system and pedestrian friendly infrastructure would be a great benifit to their autonomy I know a lot of peoples understanding of "disability" only goes as deep as "people in a wheelchair" But even for the disabilities where one can still drive a car fine, is it really that much of a stretch to imagine smaller accessibility vehicles that can take advantage of bike infrastructure or coexist with pedestrians, such as the Dutch Canta, or a variation on already existent accessibility scooters So yeah, i second that a video on the accessibility of pedestrian friendly design would be nice, to help dispel the myth that cars are needed for accessibility (i would honestly argue that cars actually are less accessible for most people with disability)

Many grocery stores provide battery powered wheelchair-like devices (but with a basket) at the entrance for disabled people to use while browsing the aisles. Something similar could probably work here too.

Hopefully next year it will be for longer! MuralFest was great.

NIMBYs ruin everything

My small college town does the same things with frequent closures in summer for the weekly market and art festivals, but downtown businesses "showed a perception" that there was not enough parking on main street in a city survey...so they have only expanded it since 2008.

Monkland or Fielding have a lot of potential to open to pedestrians, but I think it may be due to a mix of a lacking will from neighbourhood administration and that besides Monkland the other major commercial streets are stroads so not many businesses would benefit, in Verdun this is a great time for businesses and the neighbourhood administration have been working on it from that angle since it started, so I'm guessing Monkland is the best fit.

I remember in the past that a few blocks of Monkland were closed for at least a couple of weeks, was that just for the festivals? I remember they got cancelled because of some complaints & maybe shady financial dealings in the background.

@@WhiskyCanuck Hi, your right the businesses where supposed donate proceeds to a charity outlined by the city in order to get city help. They kept the money. Anyways ndg needs help. I think maybe widening the sidewalks on Sherbrooke street and making them beautiful to promote walking. Getting rid of any parking is the dirty expression. Take care

@@Hyperventilacion Hi, I think Sherbrooke street needs some help. We should develop wider sidewalks with a protected bike path that slows the cars down. Parking only on one side and the shops should provide bike racks etc. Get the locals out of their cars. Not easy but the city should start by doing it in the summer.

@@davidgill2520 Yep, there's definitely plenty of space for that on Sherbrooke, it would help a lot to have some protected lanes on a perpendicular street to get the people there and connect with Maisonneuve and Sherbrooke, Cavendish and Wesminister or Broadway?

It's funny you should mention accessibility, b/c I took a trip to Montreal a few years back and found it way more accessible as a mobility device user than where I live (Ontario, Canada). I'm sure living there would be a different story, but it was shocking how much easier it was for me to get around.

@@hexkitten7024 then I can't imagine how awful access must be in Ontario! 😨Unlike Québec, though, Ontario has had a universal accessibility statute since 2005. Surely, your province must have made some progress thanks to this legislation? I find that Quebec is lagging behind in so many areas. Patchy access to local shops and (very) partial access to the Montreal subway are two of my biggest pet peeves. The Toronto subway is supposed to be fully accessible by 2025, is it not?

We need to lobby to make this happen

Saint-Denis est une artère importante pour atteindre la rive-sud. En effet, il serait intéressant qu'elle devienne piétonne, mais je crois que si l'administration va trop vite et transforme trop de rues en même temps, elle va perdre l'adhésion de la population et elle risque de perdre les prochaines élections. Tout serait à recommencer. Imaginez un peu si Coderre avait gagné... Une première étape a été franchise sur Saint-Denis avec la piste cyclable qui a prouvé que les Montréalais aiment se déplacer en vélo et profitent des nouvelles infrastructures qui le permettent. Ensuite, des consultations doivent avoir lieu dans la population. Il faut garder un certain équilibre et ne pas causer trop de trafic trop vite. Je crois aussi qu'il faut améliorer l'offre de transport en commun avant de fermer trop d'artères aux automobilistes. Les autobus sont en retard et ne passent pas souvent. Un tramway pourrait être une bonne idée. Le problème, c'est que ça prend plus de 50 ans au Québec pour améliorer le transport en commun, on a qu'à penser au prolongement de la ligne bleue de métro. Bref, on peut "piétonniser" des rues, mais il faut assurer la mobilité dans la ville...

The OCPM (Office de consultation publique de Montréal) is currently doing surveys and questionnaires on the future of the city, and I urge you and everyone on this channel to contribute! Perhaps making a short video showing where to go and how to participate? «Réflexion 2050: Discussion sur le futur de Montréal»

Hello from Montreal, you should visit during the jazz/ comedy festival. More streets are closed….and you don’t need a car. Practice your French….joking

@@davidgill2520 thanks for the heads up, I’ll definitely look into that.

Where in the would is this? I'm not sure people that drunk should actually be driving anyway 😬 Perhaps there should be better transport taken into account or safe spaces for people to sleep it off, like a capsule hotel or something...

so they were drunk driving before??

Apparently downtown Dartmouth is doing a pilot program to pedestrianize Portland Street between Prince and Alderney at the end of July! Agree that more places in the maritimes need this!

Hi from Montreal, the streets aren’t closed in the winter but the city does plow the major bike paths. Some people do bike in the winter I skate…

I worked as a snow remover for one winter. The very cold days of -20 C to -30 C were fine. The days of -5 C to 0 C however, not so great, with freezing rain and slush, I'd often get wet even with water-proof gear and thus my body would lose a lot of heat and I'd get sick. That's the real problem.

There's a community of motorized wheelchair and scooter users in Verdun and they seem to get around much faster and easier when Wellington is closed. Thanks for confirming this!

Yes, the speed of commuting is also something I did not consider! They go quite slowly on the pavement, on the road, they can go way faster!

Ya close up sources and have people just strolling down the double 3 lane blvd going from strip mall to strip mall to support all the local franchises…ur so out of touch with reality it’s mind boggling…i am willing to bet u don’t even own a car. Woke hipsters are ruining the city.

@@jaystay1514 Aren't you all cute and fuzzy.

@@Damorann thank you

Prince Arthur east of St Laurence was the first permanently pedestrianized street in Montreal (starting in the 1980s) -- and it was the experience of it basically turning into a ghost town every winter that led to the summer-only pedestrianization of other streets (the first of those was Ste-Catherine-est through the gay village about ten years ago -- it started as happening part of the summer, then expanded to all summer.)

@@otsoko66 Merci ! I keep forgetting whether it was Rachel or Prince Arthur. !!!

Much appreciated!

Hello from Montreal, what you saw in the video this area of Montreal you don’t need a car. Montreal is a city that has decent transport with the underground. Everything is accessible food, school, work and lots of clubs. People bike, they walk and don’t even have a license.