New Transportation Paradigm

The Need for a New Transportation Paradigm for the

David Fletcher, West Island Community Member

Objective:

This section provides a quick sketch of the past development trends in the West Island and makes the case that the “baby boom” paradigm of residential development has created a situation which is environmentally untenable. Lacey road networks and low density housing makes environmentally friendly transportation more difficult and has presented recurring threats to community green spaces. If is to meet the outlines for carbon dioxide emissions set out in the Kyoto protocol, some major transportation and paradigm changes are required. Several of these possible strategies are addressed.

With the “Baby Boom” phenomenon of the years following the World War II, the transformation of Montreal Island got under way. After the long restraint of the depression years and then the war years, Canada underwent a extraordinary spurt of economic growth. Population grew as new immigrants arrived and a new generation of young parents took advantage of the bright post-war outlook to raise their families. New houses, new communities were constructed and new paradigms devised to accommodate the expanding numbers.

“Baby-boom” development As development of the West Island accelerated after the opening of did not include the Trans-Canada Highway in the mid-1960s, the rural landscape comprehensive planning for began its transformation into suburban, bedroom communities with future generations accompanying shopping malls, commercial centres and industrial parks. Mature forests, streams and wetlands, interspersed with farmers fields, and replete with all manner of wildlife gave way to the economic and social imperatives to create a built environment. Schools and hospitals, houses and road networks sprouted where once trees and fields had been. And it seems that little thought was given to comprehensive planning for future needs, certainly not across municipal boundaries. The problems besetting the West Island now were clearly not anticipated by those looking to the needs of the “baby boom” generation.

Before the MUC, each In the days before the Montreal Urban Community was created, community pursued its each burgeoning West Island municipality was free to pursue its own planning style own style of urban planning. Within a loose framework of existing country roads, that would be developed into main arteries — roads such as Pittfield, Sources (St, Rémi), St. Jean, St. Charles, Gouin — and a number of new projected arteries such as Pierrefonds Blvd,

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Brunswick and de Salaberry Blvd, a lacey network of roads, largely intended to discourage through traffic, was put in. (In newer communities elsewhere on the Island the same new street layout paradigm was also followed. And the shift from the customary grid, as any glance at a street layout map will bear witness, was swift and abrupt. However, most of this style of planning was concentrated in the hitherto largely undeveloped West Island where it became the norm.) In West Island communities, low density, single family dwellings, set in natural surroundings, were the order of the day. Promotional materials in Dollard des Ormeaux, during the 1960’s, invited prospective home owners to make “Wonderful Wooded Westpark” their community of choice. The model presented was of a family community safe for the raising of children who would have plenty of place to play. The traditional, rigidly applied, rectangular street grid of the older central city, more easily negotiated by traffic, was, particularly in the new western suburbs, consigned to history.

Public transit did not While all this development went on, little was done to think through extend into the West the potential future public transit needs that would emerge in these Island until the 1970’s communities. Indeed until the early 1970’s, when the MUC came into existence, Montreal Transit Commission (MTC) service did not extend into the West Island. The Two Mountains and Rigaud train lines offered a less than comprehensive service, and bus service consisted of an unreliable and incomplete private system operated by the Brisebois Bus Company using school buses. The automobile, by default and by necessity, became the conveyance of choice — a Hobson’s choice, indeed. Poor transit planning and a disjointed, circuitous road system, which is ill adapted to anything but the private passenger vehicle, has left West Island communities a difficult — but not impossible — legacy to work with. Creative solutions to present transit needs, that do not create further problems in the process, are feasible and must be actively and urgently pursued. For a host of reasons, these solutions must not involve further road building. It should be noted that even in 2002, housing development in areas such as western Kirland still places basic amenities at an inconvenient distance to those without access to an automobile.

Brief History of the Green Coalition

The Green Coalition has its roots in efforts, dating from the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, to preserve the last of Montreal’s rapidly dwindling natural green spaces. As citizens across the West Island became increasingly alarmed at the transformation and degradation of the landscape from its predominantly rural and natural character, they formed up into action groups in their municipalities.

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Municipal councils found themselves confronted by such groups throughout the West island. Citizens were to find, however, that the value they placed on a country-like atmosphere and open, natural spaces was not often shared by their elected councils. The imperatives driving decision-making at city hall were narrowly fiscal, with the focus being almost exclusively on increasing the tax base through development in order to keep property tax rates down. Quality of life was equated with the creation of an artificial, sanitized, built environment and keeping as much money as possible in residents pockets. Most mayors and councilors treated natural spaces as unworthy of preservation and suitable only to be transected by roads and exploited through development.

In 1987 Saraguay citizens In Saraguay, a district in the extreme northwestern corner of started working to save Montreal, Sylvia Oljemark and her mother, Mary Jackson, were Bois Franc among the first to take up the fight against the ravaging of the remaining natural spaces. The efforts of the Saraguay Citizens Group were instrumental in preserving the Bois-de-Saraguay, getting action on the cleanup of the Bertrand Creek and bringing about the first phase in the creation of the Nature Park network between 1979 and 1982. The initial acquisitions included the creation of the Bois-de-Liesse Nature Park through which the Bertrand flowed. In 1987, the Saraguay Citizens group made its first efforts to have the southern half of the Bois Franc forest, ranked third in ecological value within the Montreal Urban Community (MUC), included in the Bois-de-Liesse Park.

Efforts to save greenspace Elsewhere, other vocal and determined initiatives to control were spread throughout unbridled development followed. An epic list would be required to Montreal enumerate all those groups and individuals who contributed to the campaign, and only some of the key groups amd players will be listed here. Among them, “Préservation Environnement Pierrefonds” was formed under the leadership of Diane Fauteux, “Interaction Pointe-Claire” was led by Diane Noël and “Comité Environnement Ile Bizard,” was led by Nicole David-Strauss. In Senneville, the “Environmental Committee Senneville Citizens Association” was led by Michael Van der Linden and Liz Morgan. In Ste.-Anne-de-Bellevue the cause was taken up by the “Citizens to Save Ste Anne’s Forests” led by Gabriella Rheinhold, Peter Ilott, Richard Robert, and, in Kirkland, by Linda Trickey. Among the leaders of “Greenspace Beaconsfield” fighting for the Angell Woods were Cheryl Yank, Doug Smith and Anne-Marie Parent. In 1988, the “Citizens for the Bois Franc” was formed in Dollard des Ormeaux to spearhead the battle at city hall to preserve the Bois Franc forest, which was located in that municipality. Among its initial organizers was Vi Trivett, David Fletcher, Helena Fletcher, David Jordan and Daniel Stein. Virtually every community had an active core of campaigners battling for the protection of their

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cherished natural spaces.

It was in 1988, under the inspiration and instigation of Sylvia Oljemark that all these groups began to pull together to make common cause under the banner of the “Green Environment West Island.” In the following year, this umbrella had evolved into the Green Coalition, which assumed a broader mandate than West Island green space preservation and reached out to environmental groups throughout the province. In March, 1990, the Green Coalition became a federally chartered organization devoted to all manner of environmental issues.

Despite efforts from Still, the Green Coalition’s most pressing issue remained environmentalists, the new preservation of Montreal’s rapidly dwindling green spaces. These city of Montreal inherited remain, today, in 2002, as key objectives to be resolved with a greenspace deficit Montreal City hall and its constituent boroughs. In January, 2002, the newly merged city inherited a serious deficit in quality, natural green space from the MUC. Through a full decade, starting in June 1992, the MUC maintained a freeze on half of a $200 million spending commitment undertaken on December 20, 1989. The reason cited by MUC Chaiman,Vera Danyluk, at the time, for the moratorium on green space spending was the economic downturn of the early 90’s.

The moratorium Even with the resurgence of the economy through the intervening preventing greenspace period, no additional green spaces were purchased. Twice, in 1996 acquisition was extended and in 1999, the spending moratorium was renewed under the twice by the Bourque persuasion of Pierre Bourque’s Montreal city administration. The administration acquisitions of land needed to bring Montreal’s Nature park network up to a respectable international standard are still unrealized. The needs identified a decade ago remain as even more urgent needs today, given the pace of development of potential, candidate sites and the unwillingness to make the necessary budgetary allocations. The Tremblay administration announced in June that the moratorium that was due to expire on the 7th of that month would not be renewed. A reasonable assumption would have been that, now, the MUC’s commitment on green space spending would be honoured —$100 million in 1992 dollars, $200 million in updated 2002 dollars. However, the city budget unveiled on November 28 by Frank Zampino, Executive Committee member responsible for finance, earmarked a mere $1.5 million over three years for spending on green space — the equivalent of less than 1% of what the MUC decided would be needed ten years ago.

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The Road Network Expansion Threat

Road development has Over all these grassroots efforts to acquire and preserve natural been a constant threat to spaces, there loomed the ever present threat of major road greenspace preservation development. As soon as it was opened, the Trans Canada began to fill with traffic; with the pace of development and the lack of efficient alternatives for commuters, the highway became increasingly congested especially during the rush hour. By the 1980’s, municipal politicians were calling for the opening of new arteries to alleviate traffic density during the morning and afternoon commute. The opening of Autoroute 13 in the mid 1970’s brought traffic south from Laval and communities further north funneling a further burden onto the Trans Canada Highway and Route 20.

It is clear that at the time of the construction of Route 13 the passage of de Salaberry Boulevard through Ville-Saint-Laurent and into the West Island was already projected. Just south of Gouin Boulevard and the Two Mountains train line, where the highway descends to ground level after crossing from Laval, an underpass was created to accommodate the eventual de Salaberry extension. Although there is, at present, no road-bed in place either east or west of Rte. 13, road signs at the underpass identify it as de Salaberry Boulevard. It remains there, an ever present reminder of the threat to the Bois Franc forest in the Bois-de-Liesse Park.

By the late 1980’s, the city In the late 1980’s, at a time when the MUC was working towards council of Dollar-des- finalizing its urban development plan (Schéma d’aménagement), the Ormeaux was determined city council of Dollard-des-Ormeaux was insisting on developing to develop the southern half the 40 hectare, southern half of the Bois Franc in high density of Bois Franc residential housing. The only concession it was willing to entertain, at first, was a land swap with the northern sector where the projected development would alternatively take place. Mayor Janiszewski, at the time, promoted the construction of de Salaberry Blvd to serve the transportation needs of the new residents. At the same time, Dollard-des-Ormeaux’s council argued that increasing demands on Dollard’s road network, with growing residential development in Île-Bizard, Pierrefonds and Kirkland, would be alleviated. The Mayor and planners at the time cited, particularly, the need to convey the workforce from the bedroom communities west of the park to the Saint-Laurent industrial park to its east.

The question of impact on the Bois-de-Liesse Park did not arise for Dollard council simply because if one or the other of the north or south sectors of the Bois-Franc were to be developed the road would skirt the park and not go through it. Council’s contention at

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the time was that the damage to the park would be minimal if anything. Questions as to the ecological integrity of the whole park were only poorly appreciated, if at all, and were not factored into the planning scenario. As far as Dollard des Ormeaux was concerned what they would call for in the Schéma d’aménagement for the area in question was high density residential development and a road — de Salaberry Boulevard. According to council the revenues derived from this development were too important to the city to be let go for green space; regrettable as it might seem taxes had to be kept down and expanding the tax base through construction of housing was the only way to do it. And development in other municipalities, in newly opened areas further west and north, would generate more congestion on the road system; from council’s viewpoint, it was in Dollard’s interest to alleviate this added traffic pressure with the new road. It was a simple, it might be said simplistic, approach and council was unwilling to entertain any other solutions being proposed.

The Citizens for the Bois Franc, one of the more vocal and militant member groups of the Green Coalition, spearheaded the efforts within Dollard des Ormeaux to change council’s mind. It was not lost on the activists involved that Dollard was rapidly approaching the development saturation point anyway and that once all the land potentially developable was gone this tax relief argument would disappear. There would be no long term solution to keeping ratepayers happy via this stratagem, but there would be long term loss of natural space along with long term loss of quality of life. Looked at through the prism of sustainable development, the city of Dollard’s approach, not unlike that of any other typical municipality, was clearly short-sighted and clearly not sustainable. This argument is, in 2002, every bit as relevant on the scale of the new merged city. You eventually reach a point where everything has been sold away and the public at large has nothing to show for it but unending urban sprawl and an aching nostalgia for what might have been.

It was not lost on environmentalists at the time that the taxes levied would largely go to pay for services for the new properties and to service any debts incurred for putting in the necessary infrastructures. Obviously, if the development were not to occur there would be no tax revenues needed for that purpose. Some portion of the new taxes would, of course, go towards the general fund, paying for such things as city administration, the library, public security, sporting and recreational facilities etc. However, it was not clear that there would be a substantial reduction of individual tax bills given the relatively small population that would be added to the tax roll on this small corner of the town. The loss of irreplaceable green space, in an unquestionably highly affluent community, to achieve a trifle in tax savings, would have been

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unacceptable and inexcusable. With hindsight, twelve years later, no one, certainly not West Island citizens, would argue that council’s position was tenable given what was gained by adding the land in question to the park.

Municipalities throughout the MUC faced a deadline of December 31, 1989, for the submission of their urban plans for incorporation in the MUC’s central Schéma d’amenagement. On this same date, the temporary protection afforded green spaces under the Interim Control Bylaw, which froze development on them while they were considered for inclusion in the nature park network, was to expire. In late 1989, due to the intense pressure it faced from the green space lobby, Dollard des Ormeaux still had not declared itself on the vocation of the southern Bois-Franc. Council waffled, at some times publicly expressing support for the preservation of the forest, at others, leaning towards its own preferred development option. It seemed apparent that there was some division in council and that certain councillors were in support of the citizen’s lobby. Throughout, the mayor insisted that the extension of de Salaberry was an integral element in the development scheme.

Supporters of the Citizens for the Bois Franc and the Green Coalition found themselves in a desperate eleventh hour situation as time remaining began to run out. Submitting to intense pressure, on October 10, 1989, Dollard held a public consultation, where the citizenry could come to air their views on the urban plan. The Chronicle reported at the time that “More than 200 angry citizens turned up at a fiery Oct. 10 urban consultation meeting in Dollard and lashed out at Dollard Mayor Ed Janiszewski and his council, saying the town was not doing enough to protect the Bois Franc forest.” The environmentalists criticized Mr. Janiszewski for claiming that council supported the Citizens for the Bois Franc’s efforts while continuing to include the extension of de Salaberry in its urban plan. At the meeting the most recent version of the urban plan also showed the entire forested area in question zoned for high density residential and highrise development. According to the Chronicle article “After nearly four hours of discussion, a resolution was passed calling on council to do what it could to save the forest.” This was merely a repeat of a similar promise made the previous April and did not convince the activists. A November 7 meeting held to pass the urban plan without change was a convincing demontration that the Green Coalition should not be put off guard. The meeting was interrupted by a crowd of over 100 people who demanded that Mr. Janiszewski reconsider the adoption. According to Chronicle reporter Frederic Serre, “After 30 minutes of citizens’ questions, Janiszewski stunned the audience when he announced that the town would hold off its meeting until the next month. The announcement brought cheers and clapping from the crowd and the

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other members of council.”

However, the environmentalists battle was far from won. Hindsight proved this deferral of a decision to be a statagem designed to buy council some time and to put the lobby off guard. It was certainly no retreat from a hardline development stance being advanced behind closed doors. In virtually every community in the West Island, citizens and sometimes their councilors were embroiled in battles over road development that would have negative quality of life impacts. And it was not only valuable wooded space that was perceived as at risk. People that had come to the suburbs to escape the urban din now faced the prospect of major roads cutting through their quiet pastoral neighbourhoods. Those new paradigm, post-war, urban planning chickens were now coming home to roost! In Kirkland, Beaconsfield, Pierrefond and Ile Bizard community groups were fighting to prevent major roadways from being built in their backyards and in their remaining green spaces. Even now, in 2002, with money not available for green space preservation according to City Hall, both city and province are able to plan for new roads in the West Island, all of which will impact on those very parks held so valuable.

Green Coalition members In the spring of 2002, Green Coalition members discovered that, discovered a renewed threat according to a map accompanying a June 2001 planning document due to road expansion in produced for the Ministère des Transports, major extension of five May, 2002 existing roadways in the West Island was being proposed. The new road network depicted in the map would cut destructively through existing Nature Parks and tracts being proposed for inclusion in them. Coalition environmentalists quickly dubbed the offensive road plan the "Spaghetti Network".

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Figure 12. 1: The "Spaghetti Map" shows the planned extension of several major roads in the West Island, in addition to the construction of the 440 autoroute

The plan had de Salaberry Boulevard cutting through the middle of the Bois-Franc sector of Parc-Nature de Bois-de-Liesse , and beyond , to the east, skirting the southern boundary of the park to join Thimens Blvd at Route 13. An extension of Autoroute 440 would stretch north from Route 20, cut through the northwestern corner of the unprotected but ecologically important Angell Woods, further north, cut across Pointe Theoret, a portion of the Parc- nature du Cap-St-Jacques on Ile Bizard and then swing eastward to transect the Parc-Nature du Bois-de-l’Ile-Bizard before crossing to join the existing Autoroute 440 in Laval. The western extensions of Pierrefonds Blvd and Antoine Faucon Street would cut across the Parc-Nature du l¹Anse-a-l¹Orme, possibly through its pristine Sainte-Anne forest sector, before joining together to head south to Rte 20 At Morgan Blvd. Only the extension of Jacques-Bizard Blvd would not touch a natural space of interest to the Nature Parks network. This expanding road network will draw more traffic onto

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the already overburdened TransCanada Highway and represents the destruction of considerable amounts of the remaining natural space on the West Island.

The Geography

Montreal’s geography A brief examination of the map of Montreal and its surroundings presents many special brings a number of salient observations into focus. First, and ramifications for public obviously, that Montreal, being an island presents fewer and more transit and greenspace difficult options for transit to the surrounding region than if it were not. Second, the western end of the island is considerably narrower than the eastern (by approximately 35% on average). Third, two major expressways traverse the length of the West Island, where only one runs the length of the east of the island. Fourth, two of the three bridges serving the West Island extend to communities off the west end of the island, where there is great potential for further suburban development. This area must be seen as the logical future extension of the West Island from a development standpoint; among its communities were those recorded with, by far, the greatest growth rate in the Montreal metropolitan census region according to the latest census figures released in March 2002. Fifth, the east end of Montreal is more intensively developed than the west. Sixth, that the island as a whole has a paucity of undeveloped green space. Seventh, that the opportunity to acquire and protect natural parkland rests largely, though by no means exclusively, in the west of the city. All of these conditions have profound impacts on how roads both develop and operate.

In order to achieve the If the City of Montreal plans to honour its stated intention to benchmark greenspace level conserve natural lands on island it will have largely to do so in the of 8’%, Montreal will West Island. It will have to acquire and protect 4.7% of its territory, have to protect land in the in addition to the 3.3% it already possesses, to meet the benchmark West Island 8% minimum set forth by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). This standard of 8% is recognized at Montreal City Hall and is the standard to which Montreal will be held by the provincial government. If Montreal acquires and includes in its Nature park network all of the 1600 hectares of ecologically valuable land identified within its territory - land now privately owned - it will reach only 6.5%, a shortfall of 1.5%. Immediate acquisition of all this available natural space is essential; if left unacquired, within this decade, its total destruction at current rates of ‘development’ is a certainty.

Also, given the political pressures to push roads through existing as well as projected nature parks to relieve the traffic pressure on the road network during rush hour, and given the devastating impact

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this will have on ecological integrity of these parklands, there is a critical need to find benign alternative, transit options.

The Public Transit Issue and Kyoto

Improved public transit is Public mass transit must be prioritized, and developed to the point essential for sustainable where there is at least sufficient traffic congestion relief to preclude development in the West further large road construction through valuable public, natural Island spaces. Public subsidization of a horrendously wasteful practice, the use of single passenger vehicles during the most congested parts of the day to deliver commuters to and from their workplaces, must be seen as anathema. The development paradigm in the West Island over the last 40 - 50 years, the increasing demands for a more sane, quality of life friendly scheme for future development, the imperatives now in place following ratification of the Kyoto Protocols and the avowed intent of the new city to adhere to the principles of sustainable development, require that any public subsidies go into rational mass transit schemes. This even in the face of some of the countervailing arguments with respect to the incompatibilities between low density residential communities and high volume public transit. Perhaps in the short-middle term some services must be treated as similar to “loss-leaders” that attract a ridership into new commuter traffic efficiencies. Certainly it is clear that we already entertain considerable losses with the road models already in place and the development models being contemplated for the future. It is obvious to anyone looking dispassionately at the issue that at some near future time the new roads being contemplated will rapidly fill up returning us to the same traffic dilemmas we face now. This is a well known urban development conundrum oft expressed by experts in this field.

Maybe we need to be encouraging commuters to live closer to their workplaces. Perhaps rehabilitation of neighbourhoods closer to the city core needs undertaking to draw people back to the city from the core. An attractive community close to an urban workplace and an efficient public transit system could be turned into a great incentive to get people off the road. Those commuters stuck in traffic are only generating the sort of conditions in their neighbourhoods that they were seeking to escape by moving out into the sprawl anyway. Why not live in those conditions close to the work place? Such are the paradoxes and dilemmas faced in the current model

Kyoto conscious measures to reduce rush hour traffic snarls are proposed, such as car-pooling, dedicated lanes for filled vehicles and for express-bus convoys on Trans-Canada. Local shuttle services to and from collector hubs to access the express-buses are needed. In

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addition, the early completion of off-island beltways is urged to eliminate through trucking. The proposed 440 is not a genuine beltway, but would cleave bucolic Ile Bizard in two, promote urban sprawl and pull Laval traffic on-island to exacerbate West Island’s Trans-Canada Highway traffic woes.

There are a variety of There are a variety of feasible options for increasing public transit in possible strategies for the West Island. The Green Coalition’s recommendations for increasing integrated public integrated public transit include both incentive and disincentive transit in the West Island options.

Incentive options Incentive Options:

· Carpooling - The corporate sector should be involved to devise and operate an effective system, that would include incentives for carpooling. A centralized, electronic data base, focusing on the postal codes of potential users and their workplace destinations, would be the basis of a system to put filled vehicles in designated lanes and to take employees door to door.

· Shuttle Bus Service - Door to door corporate shuttle service, similar to the school bus model, could deliver large numbers of people on time during the rush hour.

· Point A to Point B Express Bus Convoys - These convoys to deliver commuters, during rush hour, to a point within easy walking distance of their workplace or to provide easy links into the public network. Convoys linking easily reached public locations in West Island boroughs to the Namur or Côte Vertu Metro stations are possible options.

· Designated Lanes for Buses and Filled Vehicles - In the West Island, these lanes would be particularly effective on the Trans Canada Highway, Sources Boulevard and other major arteries during rush hours. Vehicles authorized to use these lanes would include cars used in carpooling, shuttle buses and express bus convoys.

· Public Transit Grid System - A grid system for STM buses, operating on a simplified back and forth, north-south, east- west basis with easy links or transfers, would reduce the aggravation of frequent diversions and loops that take the riders out of their way and complicate linkages. This would make the bus service more cost- and time-effective. It would attract more riders than the present system.

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· Park and Ride Facilities – Parking infrastructure for the commuter train lines operated by the Agence métropolitain de transport should be increased and should be extended to serve other modes of public transit as well as carpooling. This would ease congestion and bottlenecking on main arteries. Parking facilities should also include secure spaces for bicycles.

· Off-island Beltways - The early completion off-island beltways is urged to eliminate through trucking. The construction of Highway 30 will divert east-west through traffic past Montreal and is long overdue. Construction of Rte 440, by contrast, will not divert traffic around Montreal Island, but will promote urban sprawl. It will bring more traffic, mostly trucks, into the West Island, and into the overburdened Trans Canada corridor before turning north to Laval. En route, it would impact Cap-Saint-Jacques Nature-Park at Pointe Théorêt and cut Île -Bizard and its nature-park in two. At its projected south western end it would divide the Angell Woods now being considered for inclusion in the Nature Park Network. Any northern beltway should be kept completely off island.

· The Doney Spur Light Rail Line - This is the keystone piece of the Green Coalition’s integrated mass transit strategies (first proposed by the Coalition in 1989). The old Spur has the potential to become a new Surface Metro for central West Island. Operating on a schedule comparable to existing Metro lines, the Doney Spur service can be linked at Bois-Franc Station to the entire Metro system, once the planned extension of the Orange Line from Côte Vertu to Bois-Franc is complete.

The Doney Spur Light Rail Line can be an important axis for public transit, offering an attractive alternative to daily commuters, alleviating traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway corridor and precluding road network building in the same region. The Doney Spur service can have a dramatic effect on the future development of a West Island ‘downtown’, its commercial core, centred on St Jean Blvd and the Trans- Canada Highway. Serving the growing West Island suburbs, stations along the Spur can provide access to Lakeshore General Hospital, the Fairview Hub, Saint-Laurent¹s Techno and Industrial Parks, Bois-de-Liesse Nature-Park, etc.

The Doney Spur is a virtually disused freight rail line that

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starts at Stillview Avenue in Pointe-Claire and goes east along the southern side of Trans-Canada Highway. The spur then curves north past the Bois-de-Liesse Nature-Park to join the Two Mountains line at Highway 13. The Doney Spur right-of-way must be preserved intact for public transit use if not in the short term, then certainly for such use in the future.

Disincentive options to Disincentive Options: increase public transit use · Remove Downtown Parking - Removal of outside, ground level parking lots could discourage vehicle use within the city core. An efficient public transit system already operates downtown, and there is an extensive underground pedestrian network where walking is often a possible and time-efficient alternative. Removing downtown parking would diminish traffic from outlying residential communities and suburbs. [These sites would be better used for residential and green space development and made attractive for people to live close to where they work.]

· Increase Downtown Parking Fees (surtax) – Parking fees could be increased in those zones that are major target destinations for commuters. The costs of private vehicle use should be raised high enough to tip the balance decidedly in favour of using public transit during peak periods. Proceeds from a surtax could go towards financing park and ride facilities in outlying communities.

· Leave Road Network As It Is - Finally, the most effective disincentive to increasing private passenger vehicle use is to leave the road network as it is. New roads built to alleviate traffic congestion exacerbate the problem they were intended to resolve. New roads temporarily loosen congestion and create the perception of more fluid conditions. In turn, more traffic is generated. In short order the system reaches the same equilibrium state of traffic fluidity/congestion that existed before the new roads were built.

The Doney Spur Proposal The keystone piece of the mass transit strategies is the Green could be an alternative to Coalition’s Doney Spur Proposal (first proposed by the Coalition in daily commuters 1989). A new central West Island /Downtown light rail system using the Doney Spur can offer a vital alternative to daily commuters. Wide enough to double-track, the old spur runs west to east through the heart of West Island’s rapidly growing suburbs. As can be seen in map 12.1, the spur then curves north past the Bois-

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de-Liesse Nature-Park to join the Two Mountains line at Highway 13. Once the Metro is extended from Côte Vertu and linked to the Two Mountains line at Bois-Franc Station, Doney Spur commuters could access the entire Metro System or continue on to Central Station, leaving their cars at home. The Agence métropolitaine de transport is conducting a feasibility study of the Doney Spur’s potential to become an important new axis for integrated mass transit.

The Deux-Montagnes line According to one recent study, the Deux Montagnes line, to which is currently running at full the Doney Spur is connected, currently runs at full capacity and is capacity unable to accommodate the full demand of that route. Indeed, as this writer can personally attest, by the time the Montreal-bound morning trains arrive at the Roxboro-Pierrefonds station from Two Mountains seating capacity has already been filled. At the peak of the morning commute, on-island passengers face a standing room only situation. Parking facilities are likewise overloaded and train users from Two Mountains to Sunnybrook must face the uncertainty of being able to find a properly designated space for their vehicles. One frustrated rail commuter, in a letter to the Gazette, confessed to being ready to abandon the line because of these negative factors. At present there is no reserve capacity on the Two Mountains line, hence no potential for reducing the inefficiencies of private vehicle traffic on an already overstrained road network by providing commuters an alternative. The present situation acts as a powerful disincentive to do what is otherwise the right thing - use public transit.

Leaving the public transit The fluidity/congestion equilibrium arguments, as presented above, network as it is leads to applies with equal validity to public transit development as it does to greater road network new road building. If we look at the flip side of those arguments, congestion leaving the public transit network as it is also leads to greater road network congestion. While new roads exacerbate the traffic congestion problem, new public transit development will alleviate crowding in trains and buses, create the perception of more attractive and efficient conditions and generate greater public transit ridership. Again, an equilibrium situation will evolve between passenger fluidity and crowding, but this time new development of public, mass transit must be seen as positive and welcome. New trains are an invitation to commuters that, given a congested road network, will prove irresistible. Given all the options, passengers will choose the one that is least stressful. This is borne out wherever new trains are put in place. Indeed, the Two Mountains line filled up more rapidly than had been originally anticipated by its planners and is now in need of relief, however, not through the resort to private vehicles.

In spite of some potential overlap, it cannot be said that the Doney

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Spur and the Two Mountains lines would be competing substantially for ridership as has been suggested in some quarters. The Two Mountains line veers off island towards Isle-Bigras and Lake of Two mountains before making any significant penetration of the West Island. On this line, only Roxboro-Pierrefonds and Sunnybrook stations serve riders in the area north of the Trans Canada Highway, Rte 40, and both are marginally located near the Riviere-des-Prairies at the northeastern extremity of residential development. Only a relatively small part of the on-island target ridership has ready access to this line except by car or bus and only a tiny part is within practical walking distance. The areas in western Dollard-des-Ormeaux, western Pierrefonds and Kirkland, the later two undergoing extensive housing development at this time, and out of practical reach of Roxboro-Pierrefonds station, contribute large volumes of traffic to the 40 during peak commuter hours. These commuters reside in closer proximity to, and would best be served by, the Doney Spur.

The Doney Spur Line1

Any ridership the Doney Spur line would attract from the Two Mountains or Rigaud lines would rapidly be replaced in a context where road enhancement was denied and the equilibrium dynamics outlined above were allowed to kick in. But the Doney Spur proposal should not be seen as creating competition with other rail services for ridership. We should reflect rather on the strange irony that an unused and valuable transit asset runs in close and parallel proximity to the nightmarish congestion on the Trans Canada Highway. Here on Rte 40, and not on the other train lines, are the ready riders who will flock to the new service.

The fact that the Doney Spur was originally developed to serve as a freight line serving an industrial corridor should not be seen as an impediment to developing its new vocation. Residential communities that would be served by the Spur are nowhere at a greater distance from a point of access than many other

1 Photo Credit: , Martin Chamberland, September 4, 2002, The West Island Suburban

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communities in Montreal that use the Metro system. The fact that it lies close to workplaces in the corridor should be seen as a plus. Businesses in the corridor are destinations for a workforce originating not only in the West Island but in communities to the east, a point that has also been forcefully, and publicly, raised by the Centre local de développement de l’ouest de l’ile (CLD West Island). The Doney Spur has the potential not only to serve West Island transportation needs but to spur new kinds of development and redevelopment in the sector it reaches out to. The Green Coalition believes the Doney Spur, developed as a light rail public transit axis with easy linkages provided from other forms of transit, would be a very attractive and welcome alternative for suburban travelers weary of traffic gridlock.

Conclusion Car drivers will not make the effort to alleviate the burden on the road network solely on their own initiative. While most acknowledge the problem of the use of single passenger private vehicles and recognize that carpooling could be one of the solutions, they see no guarantee that any individual sacrifice they make will contribute in any significant way to an improved situation. There must be a clear perception that they are acting in concert with other commuters and in support of authorities working to reduce traffic congestion and to provide efficient transit options. While commuters will not be inclined to act responsibly prior to a program being in place it is a safe assumption that they will respond supportively once a program is in place. What they will respond to is leadership and a coherent integrated program for mass transit. Again, road building for cars runs counter to this dynamic and sends the completely wrong message.

Building roads rewards inefficiencies of dependence on the internal combustion engine and the private passenger vehicle. It neither alleviates the burden of traffic congestion nor lessens the load of GHG¹s and toxic gaseous emissions being sent into the atmosphere.

In planning workable transit strategies, serious, concerted effort must be made to get people out of their cars during the daily commute. According to the Green Coalition¹s own Transit Survey, 87% of vehicles traveling the main bed of Route 40, the Trans Canada Highway, between 7 and 8 am carry only a single passenger, the driver. Collective and public transit use must be seen as a major component in moving the City of Montreal towards the kind of future sustainable practice its elected representatives have unanimously and formally endorsed in council.

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The Green Coalition appeals to our decision-makers to bring on creative public transit measures, to mitigate the impacts that derive from vehicle emissions on global warming and on air quality, to improve our quality of life and to protect our established Nature- Parks from new road building. A city that has committed itself to uphold the principles of sustainable development, and has endorsed the objectives set out in the Kyoto Protocols, before its electorate and before the world at large, can do no less.

The Doney Spur proposal There are however, some serious considerations to be made about must be part of a larger this proposal. For instance, it cannot be denied that the Doney effort to improve public Spur line is situated through and industrial corridor, thus greatly transit limiting accessibility to the route. The only junction that is located within easy walking distance to any residential area would be the Fairmount terminus. All other commuters would have to transfer from other forms of pubic transit, or drive to the station. This could greatly reduce total ridership. Overall, it must be stressed that while essential, the Doney Spur proposal needs to be implemented in conjunction with larger changes in public transportation and housing development planning.

Conclusions Today we are faced with a situation in which our options are being limited by old paradigms. Plans that made sense in the early years after World War II do not fit with our new reality. The need for action on the Kyoto Protocol and the desperate need to preserve greenspace on the West demands that new alternatives be explored. Opening up the Doney Spur line, along with changes in other public transit facilities and greater encouragement of other “green” transportation options, provides a possible strategy for meeting these new aspects of our reality.

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