I don't mean to sound like I hate the environment

[wendykh]

or people...

but...

another street in Montreal is going car free.

In addition to this. And don't forget more car hate displayed by this colossal waste*.

And don't forget when they fucked up the absolute best ever piece of car engineering in history to make it more "pedestrian friendly."

I have a really weird idea. It's this idea that we already have places for pedestrians. They're called SIDEWALKS. And I don't know about you, but my parents taught me that my ass belonged on the sidewalk and non-pedestrians belonged in the road.

Seriously, jaywalking is a ticketable offence right? So how am I supposed to teach my kids "oh you can walk here in this street, but not that one."

Roads were ALWAYS for non-pedestrians. That was why they existed. And if pedestrians were in the road, they walked on the SIDE. There was never such a thing as an ENTIRE ROAD for pedestrians ONLY.

Is this new fetish for banning cars from everywhere some sort of natural evolution of Montrealers and their inability to not jaywalk?

I don't actually have a massive car fetish. I actually strongly prefer taking the metro everywhere ever since the city of Montreal decided to confuse itself with an extortion outfit and start charging more than Spitzer's whores for parking. Admittedly, you are not likely to catch me on a bus. Particularly the 80. I've been on Japanese trains at rush hour less crowded than that. Also, buses have a history of not being on time here. However, this rampant car hate in this city needs to slow down. Big time.

And that's my fat assed "ya know, back in MY day..." rant from the couch for today.

*I have nothing against bike paths. Bike paths in regions where they are unusable by bikes for six months or more out of the year should probably have removable barriers so as not to waste literally miles of parking for people who are more auto inclined.

Comments

[kdbuttongirl.livejournal.com]

That bike path scares me.

And I'm a cyclist. Srsly. I'd rather take my chances with the doors of parked cars than attempt to propel myself down that narrow lane with no lateral escape. Where the hell am I supposed to go if I need to avoid something?

Not to mention that I have seen it used numerable times, in perfect biking weather, for a cop car hideout, parking for service trucks and Hydro trucks, you name it. And I wouldn't trust a single Montreal driver to actually check that blind spot when turning left from DeM. No way no how. That's one hell of an annoying bike ride. I'd rather be in the right hand lane, with the traffic.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

Hell, the PEDESTRIANS don't even check the bike lane.

Honestly, I don't really like bike paths anyway. I think they should be in traffic (because they are traffic) as the law allows. A bike LANE for bikes going in ONE direction, as in WITH traffic? Sure. I can deal there. But to me it looks like disaster. That path is super skinny, and I don't think it would take much to have a collision there.

[thepersona.livejournal.com]

Sorry, you're on your own here. Just because the roads were designed for cars (and really, the roads in Old Montreal were designed for horse-drawn carriages, not cars) doesn't mean it has to continue to be that way.

Downtown is becoming less car-friendly because too many people want to park in too few places. The best way to fix that is to ban cars from downtown and give it better public transit and pedestrian access.

[wendykh.livejournal.com]

that is fine I just resent that they should be for PEOPLE.

[dzuunmod.livejournal.com]

If the future looks anything like Sparks Street in Ottawa, we're fucked.

Seriously, even the street's biggest boosters admit its flaws: "During the sunny days of summer, Sparks Street is alive with performers, fruit stands, outdoor restaurants and strolling government employees and tourists. Unfortunately, at other times such as the depth of winter or the evening, the street is dead."

They're far too polite at this site to say it, so I will: In this context, the "sunny days of summer" amount to Ottawa's busker festival (effectively a weekend in August) and Canada Day. On about 360 days a year, Sparks Street is dead, dead, dead.

Montreal's a different place though. Hopefully we don't have any Sparks Streets in our future.

[raccoonbonapart.livejournal.com]

It said in the articles that they're only closing the streets at certain times during the summer.

[raccoonbonapart.livejournal.com]

You're probably not surprised that I disagree with you on this one. Montreal is really NOT a pedestrian friendly city. (The other day I was crossing the street at Cremazie when the "walk" light was on, and this guy almost backed over me and got mad that I was in his way! Um, hello, you're the one who's driving backwards, buddy!) I don't think that closing a couple of streets in the summer time is a big loss to car drivers. There are a lot of other streets for them to drive on and they'd have to be crazy to want to drive on the ones that are being closed anyway. (Seriously, whenever I'm in a car with someone and they turn onto St Catherine, my reaction is, "Dear god, why." It's worse than the Windsor Detroit border crossing.)

Also, they're not closing these streets down just so people have somewhere to walk. It creates a more pleasant atmosphere and it's better for businesses. Old Montreal and the Gay Village are both touristy areas. Think about how nice it is to sit in front of a bar on St-Laurent during the sidewalk sale, surrounded by happy people and without a pack of loud and smelly cars taking up all the space. Or think about the relaxed vibe on Prince Arthur. How is that a bad thing?

re: park ave/mont-royal I used to live on the corner of Prince Arthur and Park, and couldn't walk to the Mont-Royal park even though it was only a few blocks away because it was too dangerous. It makes sense that they would make it more pedestrian friendly as I imagine that a lot of students in the McGill ghetto would like to walk to that park to go to tam tams. Some of them would probably like to do this when they are stoned.

ALSO, what's with cyclists on the sidewalk yelling at me to get out of their way? I saw one almost knock over an old lady with a cane a couple of weeks ago. And what's with people riding bikes in the snow? Do their bikes have snow tires? What's up with that?