In the most commercial part of the district there are intersections and stretches of road that are not easy for people who can only rely on their legs.
And yet, with the mall and all the shops and grocery stores lining Boulevard des Forges, there would be enough to make a wonderful neighborhood. To do this, however, we have to talk about mobility.
This is the reflection that district councilor Pascale Albernhe-Lahaie wants to encourage by inviting citizens to explore five kilometers of the district with her on Saturdays and Sundays.
As we saw in the contentious District 40-55 issue, the consultant is not afraid to surround herself with experts to see more clearly in certain situations.
In order to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of her own district in terms of mobility, she invited two resource experts on these two exploratory walks: Amélie-Myriam Plante, an expert in regional planning, and Karine Descôteaux, who is not clairvoyant and is director of the education center and Leisure club for the blind.
Although these two people were particularly well placed to observe the things that should be changed, corrected or modified to make the street more shared, the councilor was also happy to hear from the participating citizens of her district took part in the march because they also know very well what they are talking about.
“My grandmother would have fallen here on a walker. “That is clear,” emphasized one of the participants, pointing to the often deplorable condition of several sidewalks, while a mother was very worried about the busy intersections that her children have to cross to go to school, especially because the exits from Pedestrian crossings lead directly to the cars in retail parking lots.
Karine Descôteaux also scans the sidewalks with her walking stick. Even though the city has created a depression in the concrete to allow entry for wheelchairs, blind people or scooters, it is missing something simple but extremely important: a tactile surface, a simple plate of stamped metal that would tell him where on the Stay on the sidewalk.
“Without this license plate, I turn towards the street.”
— Karine Descôteaux, director of the Educational and Leisure Association of the Blind
In a world where we want to encourage people to use public transport, the city would also benefit from renovating some bus stops in the area. In fact, the consultant notes that some are not at ground level and are not designed to meet the needs of all types of users.
Then, at a busy intersection, one of the new yellow flashing signals is activated, forcing cars to yield to pedestrians and allowing the group to pass. But for some members of the group, the 30-second delay in crossing the wide Boulevard des Forges is not enough. Not everyone has the same speed.
One participant stated that she lived close enough to shops that she could do her shopping by bike. She doesn’t hide the fact that the boulevard scares her a little. There is little space for cyclists and the speed of cars passing by is too high. “You have to keep your arm on your side when you walk on the sidewalk,” adds a participant with a laugh, saying that the passing vehicles are coming too fast and too close to him.
All the traffic also makes a lot of noise, and participants don’t see how the densely commercial area of Les Rivières could become the neighborhood it has the potential to be. We would have to make very big mentality changes.
On Sunday, the city council wants to carry out the exercise again, this time around the topic of “Caring Neighborhoods” with other citizens.
On October 19, from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Ms. Albernhe-Lahaie is also organizing a webinar for mobility experts, where she will host a geographer, an engineer from Polytechnique, as well as a kinesiologist and an anthropologist to discuss their points of view on the question. The event is free.
On October 28th, the consultant invites the population to take part in finding solutions at a work table on the topic of security from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. in the Multi-Plus Loisir Center by prior reservation.