Only a quarter of the stops studied in the Greater Montreal area were walkable, user-friendly and safe, a “worrying” situation, according to the authors of an award-winning study at an international congress on public transport.
When it comes to convincing a driver to leave their car and switch to public transport, one of the predominant criteria – in addition to the price and frequency of trips – is the so-called first and last kilometer. These are routes taken on foot to take the bus or subway and reach the final destination at the end of the journey.
The quality of the experience of these small sections of the journey is crucial for the decision to use public transport (or not), explained Marie-Soleil Cloutier, professor at INRS, road safety, in an interview on the program Tout un matin on ICI Première Experte and Co-author of the study.
To evaluate the quality of this experience, INRS researchers invited 31 participants (elderly, parents with strollers, people with physical limitations) to test 39 400-meter rides in both summer and winter, leading to 16 public transport stops. They were randomly selected in the Greater Montreal area.
While the situation in the central districts is relatively correct, the situation in the outskirts is more worrying, said Ms. Cloutier. Some of the most unusual situations observed include stopping on the road because there is no sidewalk, with a ditch on one side and cars speeding past on the other.
The situation worsens in winter, especially outside central districts, where the space reserved for pedestrians is coveted to temporarily (or not) store snow.
Accumulated snow represents a sometimes insurmountable obstacle for vulnerable pedestrians due to the impossibility of driving on it (mobility aids and strollers) or the physiological limitations of certain pedestrians (balance problems, functional limitations, etc.), says the study entitled ” accessibility to the public”. Transportation for at-risk pedestrians in the Montreal metropolitan area.
Not to mention the risk of ice falls, which are becoming more common with climate change. Over the past week, the number of falls on slippery sidewalks has increased significantly (around 40%), according to emergency statistics cited by Montreal media.
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A woman maneuvers on an empty sidewalk in Montreal, January 10, 2024.
Photo: The Canadian Press / Christine Muschi
This is exactly why I wanted to take part in the study in the winter, to stop myself from going outside. I stop myself from moving precisely because the experience… One day I'm going to fall and one day I'm going to really hurt myself. […] “It's not worth it because if I get hurt, my whole life ends,” said a participant in this research project, which was recognized last week at the Transportation Research Board's annual conference in Washington.
According to Ms. Cloutier, the conclusions of the study, carried out in collaboration with the Trajectoire Québec organization, are all the more worrying because the first victims are already victims of public transport. Taking the needs of these people into account when developing the stop environment is necessary from the perspective of fairness in public transport services.
INRS researchers are not the only ones who have looked at the problems of access to public transport. Recently, the public transport application Transit asked its members to vote on the quality of snow removal (new window) at their bus stop.
One might think that districts in the heart of the city would be more concerned about stops buried under snow than regions on the outskirts, where there is more space for cars, but user reports suggest that this is not the case. is not the case in Montreal. For example, the Ville-Marie district, which includes the city center, ranks last for the young Montreal startup.
According to approximately 6,500 stops evaluated by public transit users, nearly 30% of bus stops in the Montreal region were not cleared of snow as of Dec. 4 after the storm passed, which left about 30 cm of snow. On Tuesday, December 5, the percentage of stops not cleared of snow had fallen to 21%, then to 14% on Wednesday and 10% on Thursday, more than 72 hours after the storm.