Finding parking in Montreal: ‘It’s not our responsibility’

During the question period for Montreal’s Villeray-Saint-Michel-Parc-Extension council, the town’s mayor, Lawrence Lavigne-Lalonde, declared that “the city is not responsible for finding a parking space for every car in the area.

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A resident took to the microphone on September 5 to express her disappointment at the lack of parking in the area, to which the mayor replied, “It’s not our responsibility.”

She also noted that it is “difficult to conduct dialogues” with citizens who deplore the problematic situation.

The complainant, who has lived on 15th Avenue for the past 15 years, claimed that “the bicycle paths took over more than 80 parking spaces”.

She added: “I counted them, and their number was more than 80.”

As winter approaches, the situation frightens the resident, who declares that “even now it is hell.”

According to her opinion, the problem will be due to the increase in population density in the region.

“The fact that the city granted the right to build eight-unit buildings on the 15th is just that,” she begins.

The angry citizen asks, “Eight houses, eight renters, and maybe eight cars, what do we do?”

According to her, this problem may be exacerbated during the winter season with the closure of the sides of the street to remove snow. “Where will we put the cars?”

For her part, the mayor emphasized that “the growth of the vehicle fleet is growing much faster than the growth of the population.”

“There are people who have two, three, four or five cars, but still 60% of people in our region travel by means other than a car,” explains Ms. Lavigne.

Its goal is to make communal space profitable to offer alternatives to people who don’t have a car.

“Currently, 2% of public space is safely designated for bike paths,” she explains.

“It’s not safe for us to ride a bicycle with a family on a two-way street,” Ms. Lavigne points out.

According to the mayor, 20% of the land available to the city public is allocated to pedestrians, 3% to public transportation and “everything else is reserved for cars”.

there The City of Montreal plans to invest $30 million At the end of 2023 to develop new safe cycling paths.

***Watch an excerpt from the question period in the video above***