Closure of Camillien-Houde : no concerns for traffic, according to experts

Photo Agence QMI, PHILIPPE-OLIVIER CONTANT

Sarah Daoust-Braun

Sunday, February 25, 2018 16:37

UPDATE
Sunday, February 25, 2018 16:43

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The closing of the path Camillien-Houde in Montréal to motorists this spring will not result in an increase of traffic congestion in the streets surrounding the mont-Royal, according to several experts consulted by the newspaper 24 Hours.

“It’s like the first week of the month of September. It’s back to school and back from vacation, that is madness on the roads. People tend to adjust “, explains the director-general of the organization Live in the City, Christian Savard, who admits that the first week will be difficult.

The traffic acts like a gas, and illustrates the latter. It is thus in the city, according to the opportunities that it offers. If drivers can no longer pass by the way Camillien-Houde and chemin Remembrance, they will find simply a different route.

The head of the great parks to the executive committee Luc Ferrandez announced in February that the road will be closed in the spring to motorists in the framework of a pilot project, which will soon be presented in detail by the administration of Valérie Plant.

According to professor Martin Trépanier of the research Chair in Mobility of the Polytechnique Montréal, the closure resulted in the departure of an imbalance of the flow of traffic on the streets around the mount Royal. “Motorists will have to adjust, therefore, is to re-examine their route, or reconsider the use of the car, and a balance will form after a few weeks or months,” he says.

A thousand cars during peak hours

About a thousand cars circulating in the rush hours in the morning and end-of-day on Camillien-Houde, according to data from 2016 to the City of Montreal. A new counting will occur soon on the way.

“There is the place, provides the professor in the department of urban studies and tourism, Université du Québec à Montréal, Florence Junca-Adenot. This is not a lot of cars that make the detour through the mountain. The impact that this has on the environment, it may take. “

Motorists who usually use the road could be folded down, for example, on the avenue of the Pines, and the paths of the Côte-Sainte-Catherine and Côte-des-Neiges that encircle the mountain.

“There will be no catastrophic consequences on the surrounding streets. This is what literature, science, and previous experiences indicated to us “, says Christian Savard. He cites the example of the city of Portland which has closed one of its highways in 1974. Subsequently, no impact related to congestion have not been documented in the surrounding streets.

Transit

The buses of the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), school buses, cars, tourist and emergency vehicles are allowed to continue to use the lane Camillien-Houde, inaugurated in 1958.

“The modification of traffic could also have a positive impact on the delivery of our bus service in terms of punctuality,” maintains the spokesperson of the STM Isabelle A. Tremblay.

Launched in mid-February, a petition that opposes this decision has raised so far to more than 23 000 signatures.