It’s been decades since politicians have promised to upgrade the east end of Notre-Dame Street into something more than a dangerous four-lane arterial. Now, finally, the city and the province appear to have committed to a plan to transform the street into an eight-land “urban boulevard.” What exactly does that mean?
Between the end of the Ville-Marie Expressway in the west and Highway 25 in the east, Notre-Dame will be expanded from four to eight lanes. Two will be reserved for public transit and two for high-occupancy vehicles. The entire length of the street will be accompanied by a bike path. The only distinction between an expressway and urban boulevard seems to be that, in the case of Notre-Dame, some surface streets will connect to it, but traffic lights will stay permanently green during rush hour in order to facilitate the flow of traffic. Buses would enter the road at Assomption, Viau and Pie IX before travelling downtown uninterrupted.
The stated goal of the Notre-Dame redevelopment, which will take six years and $750 million to complete, would be to reduce traffic on east-end residential streets and provide better road access to industries and port facilities in the east end of Montreal. Its permanent bus lanes would also serve as an effective public transport link between the east end and downtown.
There are a number of big problems that come to mind. First of all, widening Notre Dame Street would serve only to increase the number of cars travelling each day into downtown Montreal, which pretty much eliminates any positive environmental impact its bus lanes and bike path would have. Even though it aims to reduce traffic in residential areas, cars will still be able to travel through Hochelaga-Maisonneuve and other areas by way of surface connections to Iberville, Alphonse D. Roy, Davidson and Viau streets. Finally, unlike a true boulevard, which would be integrated into the surrounding urban fabric, the new Notre Dame Street will be sealed off from its surroundings by a noise barrier.
Basically, for all intents and purposes, Montreal has just committed to building a new expressway in the east end. Is this a good thing? Public consultations will be held next month, but only on the design of the intersections with surface roads.
Photo by Martin Tremblay, La Presse