Montreal's Problem with Tourist Vision

 I have talked about this regularly in past posts, but I hate when people visit another city, come back to Toronto, and say "oh, Toronto sucks!" I don't disagree that Toronto has many, very serious issues, but takes like this lean into what I like to call 'tourist vision'. You view Toronto negatively because you experience the short falls across the city, especially since you probably have to experience a commute. You view other cities positively because you are only seeing the curated image that the city puts on. If you spend all your time in Le Plateau, of course you will see Montreal only positively. You never have to experience a commute from Pointe-aux-Trembles to West Island, so you don't care to give those negatives space.

The REV along St-Denis.

While Montreal has had a lot of success with their pedestrian- and cyclist-first policies, uneven distribution of safe infrastructures across the city create a gradient of what parts of the city are more important for city image. While there are examples of safe infrastructure across both the city and the region, the vast majority of them are situated within the tourist-y part of the city.

In this short piece, I will identify the Montreal that tourists know, and will outline a couple of examples from outside this area that show the challenges that many residents face.

Where is Montreal's tourist area?

When I was making the map below, it was extremely easy to outline where tourists go. It's basically a huge block, with one extension, and three fingers to key tourist destinations. Initially, I was just going to map the metro, but then I realized that there would be little reason for tourists to take the Orange Line beyond Snowdon, or the Green Line past Viau. 

As can be seen, lots of the city of Montreal is outside of this shaded zone, and that doesn't even include any of the suburban parts of the region.

What's it like outside of the tourist area?

To preface, Montreal as a whole does far better than any other North American city in the context of safe infrastructure. However, there is always room for improvement.  I will provide four examples of where the city falls short.

The above image looks east along St-Antoine, just east of 32e Avenue. Despite being relatively low traffic, this street is quite wide. This encourages speeding, which is particularly an issue here, with a major local mall, a library, and numerous apartment buildings fronting onto the street. Relatively recently, a ten year-old girl was seriously injured here.

If you take the 196 bus route from St-Antoine and 32e to the industrial area to the north, you get to intersections like this. 32e Avenue is three lanes each way, and Jean-Baptiste-Deschamps is two lanes each way (one of which is extremely wide). The intersection is angled, and controlled by only a stop sign. This intersection is inherently dangerous.

I completely get wide roads in industrial areas to account for tractor-trailer traffic, there needs to be some consideration for the people that use these spaces as well.

While I was cycling along Souligny, one of the main bike routes outside of the touristy area, I turned up a random side street, Bilaudeau, to reach Sherbrooke. While nothing seems crazy with the picture of it above, I question why a one-way street has parking on both sides, plus a super wide travel line, while there are numerous driveways along the road. It feels overkill, but the city has not made the effort to reduce the street to a more appropriate size.

The last example is of Hochelaga, near Aird. While there is a median that can act as a pedestrian refuge when crossing, the three lanes each way is inappropriate on a street lined with apartment buildings. It's only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt here... oh wait! Someone was yesterday.

What can we learn?

I think my big takeaway from this piece is that, when we visit other places, we need to be a bit more aware of our role as a tourist or a visitor. I'm not saying that you have to critique infrastructure everywhere you go (as I do), but I think it is important to not elevate places to a god-like status while seeing only a small portion of it. Reject a tourist vision, and have a more holistic perception of a city.