City’s Turcot brief emphasizes public transit

This is the only English section in a 21-page French-language document presented to Quebec’s Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE) at Tuesday’s hearing in St. Henri. It places Westmount squarely on the same side as environmental activists who oppose the Turcot project for much the same reason. “Essentially, what we’re saying is that they have to be more focused on public transit,” said Mayor Karin Marks, who attended the meeting with City Councillor Cynthia Lulham, Communications Director Brigitte Stock and Urban Planning Director Joanne Poirier. “For instance, if you look at the areas around New York and many of the big cities that have really effective public transit, a huge percentage of the people take that public transit because it’s easy, it’s effective. “When the STM put in more service, they had an increase in use. So if you give people an offer of a good way to do it other than their car, I believe that many people are ready to do that. But if you start by saying let’s increase the amount of road space, of course people are going to take their cars.”

Marks was asked if Transport Quebec is making a mistake by wanting to rebuild the inner-city highway, even if it’s on a lesser scale than before. “No,” she responded, “not by rebuilding it, but by rebuilding it to accommodate the same number or more cars, instead of rebuilding it in a way that says we are focused on public transit. “There will always be people who will have to take their cars. But if you focus it on public transit, then you say, ‘What’s the most efficient and best way to move a lot of people from where they are to downtown via public transit?’ Secondly, we look at how we move goods, because there has to be a way to do that. And thirdly, how do we make provision for cars? It’s been done in the reverse.”

Photo: Martin C. Barry