Montreal is closing its famous road over Mount Royal. What does that mean for you?
CBC
Cyclists are rejoicing. Some drivers are enraged. Camillien-Houde Way, the road up Mount Royal, will be barred to most motor vehicles in the coming years.
The plan to redesign the road will see it turned into a shaded pedestrian footpath toward the summit alongside a path for cyclists. At the top of the road, where there's a gap in the trees facing north, the city will build a new summit lookout.
The new bike path will be wide enough to accommodate emergency vehicles in a pinch.
But how will people get there? What does the closure mean for drivers? and what will the new paths look like for pedestrians and cyclists?
We tried to answer some of those questions and others:
How will emergency vehicles safely use the path without putting cyclists and pedestrians in danger?
Montreal's fire chief, Robert Liebman, says the details of how that would work are still being ironed out.
According to the city's plan, the new bike path will only be ready to go in 2028, so there's time yet for emergency responders to figure out how they can share the space with cyclists.
In any case, emergency vehicles would only use the path to respond to emergency calls either on the mountain or as a shortcut to get across the city quickly.
Will there be a new way to get to the cemetery or will everybody, including hearses and funeral processions, be forced to go around?
There's no indication that hearses or funeral processions will be able to use the bike path route. That means Mount Royal Cemetery will only be accessible from Remembrance Road on the west side of the mountain.
Will the bike path be wide enough that high-speed cyclists will be able to safely zoom down the hill without clashing with pedestrians, slower cyclists and other park users?
It will be wide — wide enough to accommodate emergency vehicles, including fire trucks. Pedestrians will be safely separated from the bikes if they use the separate footpath, parallel to the bike path. According to the city's first depictions of the plan, the two paths are divided by a line of trees. It's not clear at this point how two-way cycling traffic will be managed.
Will the path be straight to allow for higher cycling speeds downhill or will it be curved to deter speeding?
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