I Visited the Best* City in North America
Vložit
- čas přidán 4. 05. 2024
- Get Nebula for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes
Want more Montréal cycling? Check out my Nebula Plus video:
nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes...
Or you can watch this video ad-free and sponsor-free on Nebula:
nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes...
-
I’ve been making videos for over four years, and there’s one very consistent message I’ve received over and over: that I need to visit Montréal, because it is the best* city in North America.
So I did. I visited and I spent a week there, travelling all over the city by walking, cycling, and public transit. Oh, and a lot of taxis.
* according to literally hundreds of people who have contacted me about this over the years
Patreon: / notjustbikes
NJB Live (my live-streaming channel): @njblive
---
References and Further Reading
Montréal Metro Map
By STM/Calvin411 - www.stm.info/sites/all/modules..., CC BY-SA 4.0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Montréal Transit Playlist - RM Transit
• Montreal Transit
Calgary +15 Skywalk Network Walk l A Walk Thru Plus 15 Downtown Calgary Skywalk | Travel Calgary
A Dawn (CZcams, CC BY, Creative Commons Attribution licence (reuse allowed))
• Calgary +15 Skywalk Ne...
Montréal’s car-free streets return
www.mtl.org/en/experience/ste...
Montreal's summer pedestrian streets are a hit. So why don't we keep them going?
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...
'We are not welcome': wheelchair users demand space on Montreal's pedestrian streets
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...
Drivers say parking in Montreal is difficult. Experts say it should be
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...
Le REV : un réseau express vélo
montreal.ca/articles/le-rev-u...
montreal.ca/en/articles/ebn-m...
Amsterdam Bike Tour by Urban Planner Meredith Glaser
Propel (CZcams)
• Amsterdam Bike Tour by...
Streetcars in Montréal
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streetc...
Amsterdam witfiets bikeshare photos:
web.archive.org/web/200204091...
quip.deds.nl/deel/witfiets.html
quip.deds.nl/?page_id=798
nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittefi...
Door Onderwijsgek - Eigen werk, CC BY-SA 2.5 nl, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Door Rrustema - taken with iPhone in the Staalstraat in Amsterdam, Publiek domein, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
By Joost Evers / Anefo - proxy.handle.net/10648/aabb295..., CC0, commons.wikimedia.org/w/index...
Borough councillors vote to remove Terrebonne bike path in NDG
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...
Hotly contested bike path in Montreal's west end will be revived with an all-new look
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montre...
VIA Rail schedule, Montréal to Toronto
www.viarail.ca/en/plan/train-...
Orange Julep photo:
www.bubblemania.fr/en/hermas-g...
Man in a Trenchcoat from The Eric Andre Show (s02e03)
The video contains footage licensed from Getty Images
-
Chapters
0:00 The Introduction
0:41 The Context
1:24 The Metro
2:18 The REM
4:35 The Missing Middle
5:31 The Cycling
7:37 The REV
8:30 The Jean Talon Market
8:57 The Politics of Bike Lanes
11:33 The Political Structure
13:04 The Pedestrian Experience
14:00 The Green Alleys & Parks
14:47 The Pedestrianized Streets
16:28 The Ending?
17:11 Getting Réal
17:16 Highways
18:25 Missing Streetcars
19:24 Terrible Streets
20:49 No Walking Accelerators
22:17 Issues with Bike Share
23:25 Metro Stroads
25:31 Fractured Bike Network
26:26 Small Street Cycling (only)
28:25 Bidirectional Bike Paths
29:57 Poor Regional Transit
31:23 Fuck Namur Station (seriously)
32:50 Goldilocks Boroughs
34:46 Montréal Suburbs Suck
36:13 No Autoluw Neighbourhoods
36:41 Walkable Islands
38:33 Drastic Changes Block-to-Block
40:02 Downtown is Shit
41:54 Privatized Underground City
43:11 Terrible Train Station
44:59 Braindead Metro Ticketing
45:52 Temporary Pedestrianization
47:27 Is Montréal a Great City?
49:34 Cycling Bonus Video on Nebula
Get Nebula for 40% off an annual subscription: go.nebula.tv/notjustbikes
Want more Montréal cycling? Check out my Nebula Plus video:
nebula.tv/videos/notjustbikes-what-its-really-like-to-cycle-in-montral
I find it so funny how many people think I don't know how to fix a flat tire. I never said I didn't! 😂
Edit: I am enjoying the people angry about the comment on Montréal pronunciation, while completely missing the fact that I AM THE IGNORANT ANGLOPHONE I'M TALKING ABOUT. Did you not hear how I pronounced Montreal for the rest of the video? 🤣
Edit2: I edited out the intro. I can't handle any more of these people who are incapable of differentiating between obvious humour and insults. I hate the Internet so much sometimes. 🤦♂️
perhaps I should look into nebula for all I know it might be a great service but it's just the way I hear it promoted was never very enticing.. I'd just watched the main content free on YT and if I'd like to see the "DVD extras"+some content I've never heard of I can pay to see them on another platform? nah thx. they have my sympathy though, gaining a foothold as a streaming media platform these days is probably harder challenge than fixing a car centric city, they pretty much need an exclusive on the level of Breaking Bad for proper growth.
You are clearly cherry picking your views.
There will be a really decent looking traffic infrastructure not built with a car centric mentality at all anywhere in Montreal if you just point the camera towards the final trip upwards for winged pedestrians and bicycle riders.
Metallica is great, you take that back. :P
It's just easier, and faster, to pay someone else to replace it for you instead.😆 @@NotJustBikes
As an urban planner thank you so much for explicitly mentioning that we're (mostly) not the reason that bike or public transport infrastrucure in a city is sub par. Often were the ones fighting behind the scenes, trying to get the politicians to fund and greenlight these projects. And those of us lucky enough find a position that allows us to speak more freely without fears of antagonizing the boss/client (aka the city government) are often quite vocal.
That's a great perspective to learn about. Being able to speak truthfully about such matters should be the norm everywhere, but sadly in reality many people can't afford to because they might lose their jobs.
Thank you for the hard work you are doing.
PS: an easy way to give support to everyone on the inside fighting for better cities is to explicitly write when you like a project. Too often people only write about the negative. If a project is moving in the right direction, please mention that and let the relavent institutions know. By all means also give some constructive criticism if you think it can be better, but please also write what you like. Explicitly giving your support to such projects gives more power to all those on the inside (city governments have their official policiy lines but they're are definitely not monoliths) as well as to all the activists actively engaging in city politics. It's even more important to leave a comment if its an official city run workshop / survey. And if you have the time and energy to do so, find an activist group. If you don't have time to help with organizing and campaigning, see if you can be there when they hold events, where it's really just about showing a physical strength in numbers. I can't speak for every city, but in my city we have had our victories and we are seeing the fruits of or labor starting to pay off, even if there still is a ways to go before we're the next Amsterdam or Utrecht.
I'm a municipal development (economic, social, cultural, etc.) consellor and the urban planners I work with are all for change! Like us... you need to slowly but surely convince local politicians that plan a new road like we did 70 years ago is plain stupid. Thing is, politicians have huge egos... yet often have next to no knowledge or skills truly needed for good decisions making and this make our job so depressing 😂
I'll make sure to keep this in mind @@Kirschesaftmann
Believe it or not, the mayor responsible for all these amazing changes is often under criticism because some dimwits thinks she destroys the city because all projects aren't car centric. Though, as soon as you leave the island, things fall apart and it's really frustrating for those living elsewhere.
Too many 20th century NIMBYs, holding back necessary human oriented progress.
To add a glass-half-full perspective, our mayor did manage to get re-elected, so she clearly has a lot of support despite the criticism (there will always be criticism). And in Longueuil, where I live, our new mayor is also making progress; I've seen quite a few improvements to our cycling infrastructure, for example. Even at the federal level, there have been improvements. It wasn't so long ago that the bike path on the J-C bridge was closed in winter. Now it's open year-round. It's not perfect, but I prefer to take an optimistic view. :)
I love taking a week and visit Mtl. I stay at my brother's place and I really like those public transit and bike lanes during my trips. And I'm saying this as someone who never lived in a metro area.
@@petergarner that’s a fair comment, despite suburbanites complaining. People living in the city seem to appreciate the changes she is bringing. It’s definitely an uphill battle, but progress is being made.
There is hope for the South Shore. Brossard and Longueuil are both putting forward projects to to create neighborhoods that are mixed used and transit oriented with integrated pedestrian areas. Brossard is hoping to modernise the Taschereau/HWY10 area into this kind of neighborhood, and Longueuil is looking for solutions to reconfigure it's insane downtown highway network and create an actually accessible downtown around the terminal and university
For North Americans, Montreal is an european city, for Europeans, it is another North American city. I've moved from France to Montreal 8 years ago and my first impression was that the public transportation is terrible here, then I went to other North American cities and realized Montreal wasn't that bad but very far from Europeans or Asian cities standards.
As someone who goes to Montreal frequently (and has eaten at Orange Julep dozens of times), the moment you said "I took the metro to Namur station," I immediately braced myself for your reaction to the Decarie - and you did not disappoint. I couldn't help but laugh.
As a European living in Canada (Toronto), I was very curious to visit Montreal, which is described by everyone as a "European-looking city in Canada", because of the language, the old Montreal historic buildings and the cobblestone streets. When I visited, I was very disappointed. The heart of the city is infested with cars night and day! That did not look like Europe at all! But then I walked through the beautiful pedestrianized streets and I was indeed impressed, and I realized, "THIS is what makes Montreal look like a European city - pedestrian areas! Not the language, not the beautiful buildings and the cobblestone - car free streets". I am jealous now, and I wish Toronto was more like Montreal.
Yep, I absolutely agree. I had heard the same things and had the same experience as you. The pedestrianization is the one thing that absolutely every city (anywhere in the world) should be emulating as quickly as possible. I just wish at least a few of them could be permanent pedestrian areas with trams!
I'm sorry to hear that you're living in Toronto
You gotta go to the old part of Montreal, near the docks. Otherwise the downtown isnt too different than ottawa
Québec is the european looking city
I'm from The Netherlands and moved to Montreal when I was thirty. I had heard the same, and was disappointed as well. For me part of it had to do with car infrastructure. Not only the number of cars everywhere, but also the asphalt and concrete everywhere (streets, sidewalks). I missed the Dutch city I was from (Groningen) a lot in my first years in Montreal.
I've lived in Montreal for over 35 years and I'm an avid cyclist, so I just wanted to say thanks for making such a balanced video. I think we Montrealers are justifiably proud of the progress the city has made, especially in the last 10 years or so, but as someone who has cycled toured quite a bit in Europe, I am all too aware of how very far we still have to go to. That said, for the moment, there seems to be a pretty strong wave of political will at the municipal level, in both Montreal proper and many of the suburbs (Longueuil, for example), along with significant public support for making our infrastructure less car-centric. I am hopeful that this will result in some fairly rapid improvement. Thank you for this great video, and hats off! It was so interesting seeing my city through an outsider's eyes.
I lived in Montreal for 15 years before moving away, and I lived on the Plateau the whole time. So many of the streets in the first half of the video were of neighbourhoods that I spent a lot of my time in. It's a bit of an oasis for cycling and parks, but the moment you get in your car and drive anywhere, you know you're still in North America. I ended up selling my car because I hated driving there so much.
I also wouldn't praise the restricted right turn so much. In my experience, it just deferred the danger until the light turned green. Knowing that the time to turn would be limited, cars would barge in and rush pedestrians stepping into the street. I can't count the number of hoods I've banged on. (Though, fun fact, the only people in Montreal that wait for the light to change are tourists, so...)
I hear you. I live in Surrey BC. We've got nothing to brag about, but we are making a push. Hopefully it'll be actually enjoyable.
I'm already 50, and don't want to wait much more.
Congratulations on your success, Montreal!
Heyy but at least BC is a beautiful province!!
It’s a lot of effort and expense for a travel method that’s no good for 6 months of the year. I’ve ridden in light snow but the idea of commuting at -40 is ridiculous. Montreal is COLD! Street cars and underground tunnels seem obvious.
@@f.kieranfinney457 Montreal literally NEVER saw a -40 temperature, lowest was -38 on some day 70 years ago or so. Our coldest month is January with -14 daily minimum. Today is December 24th and it's +2 outside, all the streets are dry and clean. I guess those 6 months of dreaded weather didn't start yet? And whey they do start, according to you they will last until what, July? Oh come on..
Cycling in snow sucks, but good news: Montreal only receives about 15 days of >=5cm snowfall per year. And when it snows heavily, it sucks for everyone, not just cyclists. Luckily we have 350 days per year when it doesn't snow, and we could use some cycling infra during those 350 days - don't you think?
edit: source is Canadian Climate Normals 1981-2010 Station Data for MONTREAL/PIERRE ELLIOTT TRUDEAU INTL A
City planners don’t need to watch your videos. Politicians do.
Thanks for mentioning that city planners and engineers do have an understanding of more desired Dutch style design. People will speak angrily to us at public meetings without understanding the context of our work within the legal and political system we work within. There is only so much funding allocated to pedestrian or bike friendly design in North America currently, and we are generally limited by the law to only make specific changes without massive public approval. And even on the physical side, raising bike lanes is loved but often requires fairly large scale construction to change drainage and various other underground utilities, which could mean a literal decade of planning and construction, frustratingly due to bureaucracy. Our fractured systems that overlap and segregate jurisdiction also cause terrible predicaments. Combine that with a general hatred of taxes and distrust in the government (pehaps for previously bad or punitive choices) and you end up with the more chaotic and sparse style of street design and an association of bike lanes with gentrification. It would be interesting to hear the systems histories of some Dutch cities and North American cities and even other continents for project implementation or overall city planning. Places like Singapore are planned so top down, it's almost like a video game, and some states in America have made speed cameras illegal, so there's a wide range what a government if capable of doing. It may speak to a topic a little different than your channel usually goes, but the law and sometimes just the culture around a government’s infringement on an individual's life choices can vary so widely from place to place and transportation and street design can highlight that. And on other sides of the dice, a culture’s tolerance for efficiency and chaos/freedom can vary greatly too, like Singapore vs Ho Chi Minh City.
Thanks so much for the SuperThanks! 👍
Yeah, I've spoken with a lot of urban planners, and many of them have expressed frustration at their inability to do the right thing within the system. It doesn't help that some of the traffic engineers (not all, but a lot more than the planners) are still laser-focused on car-centric designs with cycling as a checklist feature at best.
You might enjoy this video by Build the Lanes that goes into more detail than I do about Dutch street design. He is an American traffic engineer who moved to the Netherlands and now works as a transportation engineer: czcams.com/video/b4ya3V-s4I0/video.html
@@NotJustBikes Great recommendation. That was the sort of regulatory history and cultural background I was looking for. Interesting where things overlap and don't overlap with the US way of doing things.
Lifelong Montréalais here, thank you for your video! Yes, our city has gotten much better in the last decade, but there is _so_ much more work left!
Thanks! I was really trying to give a fair assessment of the city here. It has improved _so_ much since the last time I was there, but the reality is, it takes a long time to repair a city that was bulldozed. I think Montréal will get there eventually, but it's going to take a continued push in the right direction!
As someone who has lived in Montreal his entire life, this video was very cathartic, but depressing. The average person I speak to thinks the city is wasting money on cycling paths, and now the STM is in danger of financial cuts limiting hours. While the city is getting better in the long run, in the short term it feels like what little we have is tenuous. Theres so much work to do but I don't really see the political will to make those changes. Maybe this fantastic video can help with that in some way.
every time I hear about the average person talking about how an extra lane would solve all traffic problems I think democracy was a mistake.
@@sadmanh0 agreed, but to be more precise (and fair): democracy *without good education system*
(note: this is despite I have good opinion of Québec's education system compared with other countries)
@@SupGaillac An education system can't substitute for public will. It is truly an individual responsibility to care about these things, not something the state needs to handhold you in. Obviously better education is a flat improvement regardless and probably the most practical thing we can do, but do note anyone can already learn about all of this as is. There is no will.
@@SupGaillac I think it's less democracy and education, since education is good in major cities, but culture. Europe was lucky to inherit old towns and not to be too overwhelmed by car mania. Changing a culture is hard work but let's see if there will be any major shifts toward better city planning in the next few decades
I think, au contraire, that there is lots of political will on the City's part. But like anywhere, they have to keep the majority's support, and the majority is always slow to accepting change. The city has to go for the low hanging fruit first, prove effectiveness, then go the next step. It's the only way, otherwise the majority will reject them and they'll be replaced by an opposition apathetic to this cause. Velo Québec recently studied the success of the REV and one of those successes was shopowner associations positive opinion on St-Denis. These same shop owners aggressively rejected the bike lane project at first. People are coming round. But it can't be done everywhere and all at once. As Chuck Mahone says, "incremental development".
I'm German and I live in a nice, walkable city where all my needs are within a 10 minute bike ride, but the number one thing I notice whenever I watch your videos is how much I miss Tokyo. It's my absolute favorite city in the world and I miss its public transport system soooo much. 😢
Have you been to Seoul?
@@visitken Both Tokyo and Seoul are amazing advanced world-class cities but the transit network in Seoul pales in comparison to Tokyo. Seoul still has only the subway (which also means lack of rapid trains that skip stations) with limited above-ground rail and the network is just not built out like Tokyo.
I'm from Manhattan, which I adore, but fell in love with Tokyo's transit systems when I was on tour there with the Metropolitan Opera. The food is also great. Bikes are ridden on the mostly narrow sidewalks, but the cyclists are very polite and careful.
Only the metros and trains are top tier in Japan. The buses are tiny and they constantly get stuck in traffic, might as well walk. Walking is well accommodated obviously, besides not having smart traffic lights. Cycling is just awful, at least in Tokyo. There are empty painted bicycle gutters and ebikes wizzing around you on the side walks.
@@MeatNinja I mean yeah, fair. But I've honestly never felt the need to cycle anywhere while in Tokyo, the city feels so small to me because there are train stations everywhere and I never had to check the timetables because the next train always came in under 5 minutes. I could always get everywhere just with trains and walking. Also, as a sidenote: Here in Germany I bike everywhere and I don't like riding on the street because the cars go 50km/h. But in Japan in general it's normal that there aren't even sidewalks on most streets and drivers are slow, even on country roads. I walked dozens of kilometers through the country side, always on the side of a road, and I never felt unsafe.
Edit: oh but there was one city in Japan that had just the most horrible car traffic and pedestrian infrastructure, and that was Kyoto. It's a huge shame because there are so many beautiful temples and areas there, but they are connected by truly hideous streets.
as a Montrealer and urban planner, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for providing a fair, transparent, grounded and honest review of my beloved city 💖 its extremely refreshing to watch something that gets real about both the positive and the negative - and most importantly - doesn't erase all the negative aspects of living here, especially considering that the rest of the province is widely different urbanistically wise, thus creating a strong desire and hike of the rent prices, services, etc. Thank you for the thorough research and content you provide in each video 🌎 edit : I want to add that the lack of affordable housing in other major Canadian cities for the younger generations attracts alot of 17-35 year olds in search of a vibrant culture and activities or looking to study in affordable and internationally known universities, creating alot of competition.
While I was genuinely excited to watch this video, I was equally dreading it. Sometimes, it can be difficult to see your city being criticized. However, I think your analysis was 100% fair and that you provided a well needed view on Montréal, with the good and the bad. You made me proud as much as you made me think and reflect. For the record, you also made me laugh/panic the moment you mentionned the Hauptbahnhof Test. There was no way in this universe that our poor Gare centrale was going to receive your praise, but it really doesn't deserve much anyway.
Perhaps some people will think that you have too much of european standards but hey, we do need high standards in order to go somewhere meaningful when it comes to our living spaces. Montréal is indeed a north american city for what it's worth. I'm sorry that your expectations have been so hyped up, but I'm glad that you liked what you liked in this beautiful and still improving city.
When I visited Montreal, it seemed like 1 or 2 bus lines (22 Sherbrooke, maybe something going up Guy) had high frequency, and everything else was 30 minutes. Accurate?
@@mindstalk I think there's like 31 bus lines that are very frequent, with headways of 10 minutes or less.
In the land of the blind (NA) , One-Eye (Montreal) is king.
i visited montreal from toronto this summer and overall loved it. There was even a very kind bus driver, of a blue bus who took me to st catherine street for free, recognizing that I was a tourist.
Both our cities need to be improved but I feel montreal is further along than we are in toronto. As for street cars, I think it could be useful for some more than others. Bikes are often faster than street cars, but street cars can move far more people.
As a Montrealer living and working in some of those "5 good neighborhoods in a trench coat", I truly have a fantastic quality of life, living car free and easily accessing everything I need on a day to day basis. I'm surrounded by amazing restaurants, cafes, parks and venues, and live just a few blocks away from numerous pedestrian streets, metro stations and protected bike lanes. All of that while paying fairly low rent for a decently sized apartment with a backyard.
That said, it does feel like living on an island with no bridges or boats. Leaving the city, or even accessing certain neighborhoods, is prohibitively difficult. I rarely take the highways as I don't have a car, but any time I need to navigate an interchange, it feel like I'm entering hell on Earth. And yes, fuck Namur Station.
Those walks to the platforms look like they take 10 minutes. Is it more like 5 minutes?
@@eugenetswongIf you're talking about Namur métro station, it takes about 3-4 mins from street level to descend through 2 flights of escalators, and then the shorter stairs from the payment gates' mezzanin to the boarding platforms level.
That station's platforms are located about 24 m underground, making it the 7th deepest of the 68-strong network.
8:20 An important side note for non-Dutch viewers regarding Dutch bicycle shops: Dutch citizens, as a sort of citizenship test, must be able to fix a flat tire themselves. I know this because I've never fixed a flat myself and have often received an eye roll when mentioning it to a fellow Dutch person. So, you only visit a bicycle shop if you have an unfixable blowout, and commonly, you still just buy a new inner or outer tyre to take home. That's why there is a natural waiting list for such simple repair jobs. Of course, for most Dutch people, this isn't a problem because they have a spare bicycle for such situations. Moreover, the better bicycle shops outside the big cities will have a loaner bicycle available.
I grew up in the suburbs of Montreal, and have been lived in different corners of the city my entire adult life. I also worked as a bicycle messenger in the late 1990s, when bike paths were few and far between.
While there has been a vast improvement, there is indeed a lot more to do.
I wanted to address the streets that are pedestrianized for the summer. As a local, who doesn't own a car, and is a big believer of public transit, I can assure you that the temporary shutdown of streets is a fucking nightmare because of how poorly it is handled.The streets are shut down at the expense of some essential bus routes. What makes this worse is that the detours they arrange during this period will change, sometimes week to week. You can get on the same bus from one day to the next only to discover that the it's going a completely different route from the day before.
A couple of these buses are also commonly used by tourists, who only discover (IF they can find the temporary stop) that the bus they were going to use to go up the mountain is either re-routed to a different block, a different subway stop, or cancelled for the weekend (or day).
We also have bus stops cancelled for the benefit of those temporary, outdoor sidewalk cafes. You'll have bus routes that suddenly aren't wheelchair accessible because of cancelled/relocated bus stops.
Some other tidbits:
We lost our streetcars in the late 1950s. Our shitty mayor at the time did this as a quid pro quo for a GM factory built north of the city.
More and more bus stops are being relocated to the opposite side of the street, after the lights to avoid them getting stuck/slowed down.
Public transit in the downtown core is great, as long as you are trying to go east-west (and vice-versa). North-South public transport in the downtown core is nonexistent.
Namur Metro: there's an urban legend that the art in the station is a cocaine molecule. It isn't, but some schmucks still believe it. There's also an AMAZING Indian restaurant a block away from the station - Pushap. Well worth checking out.
I am convinced that the public transit systems of the suburbs surrounding Montreal are deliberately designed to encourage you to buy a car. Growing up, my neighbourhood had buses every 2 hours on Sundays. During the week, it was hourly, except for morning and afternoons.
Another issue with the underground city is that parts of it close at different times. You can walk down a corridor only to discover a connecting section is closed, forcing you to double-back all the way.
Current biggest pet peeve with the STM (transit system) : Buses are exact change only. Metro stations do NOT accept cash, and it's payment via cards only. Incredibly confusing for tourists.
The STM is run by a group of imbeciles that have never ridden on a bus or metro their entire fucking lives.
As for the notion that cars do not stop for bicycles: I would say this is 100% true in certain neighbourhoods. Others areas are very accepting and accommodating. Just north of downtown, there are neighbourhoods that are VERY vocal about their hatred of bike paths, cyclists, and even bike stands.
Bonus: The GM factory then closed and was demolished in the early 2000s after the discontinuation of its main product: the Chevy Camaro... only for the Camaro to get revived a few years later and get produced in another GM factory in Oshawa, Ontario, much to the ire of the Quebec ex-workers.
The site of the defunct factory is now occupied by a mega-mall and its associated biblical-sized parking lot right next to an interchange between two highways - in absolute typical American car-centric suburbia fashion.
@@CallMeShuri The Camaro wasn't produced in Oshawa until around 2016.
They were built in Australia prior to that, as they were just Holdens.
I live in southeastern Europe where good walkable infrastructure is non-existant outside of the caputal. And even there, it's mostly an entusiastic atempt of a young mayor who has good intentions but ends up making a 100 meter long street "walkable" by puting two tree pots on both sides. Nothing much but a good change
@@Dexter037S4not true, from wiki: "The Oshawa Car Assembly plant in the city of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, began producing the new Camaro[21] which went on sale in spring of 2009 as a 2010 model year vehicle.[22][23] Following the development of the Zeta architecture and because of its position as the GM global center of RWD development, GM Holden in Australia led the final design, engineering, and development of the Camaro."
Thank you for the trivia. It's fascinating.
"Pushap" sounds like a great name. I'm convinced that he deliberately chose that for a play on words.
I like your attitude about the bad handling of the pedestrian streets. I really despise them, because they almost always interfere with transit. I'm a firm believer that the city should be built around freight rail first, then passenger rail, then a healthy industrial area, then buses, and then dense housing and commercial. I didn't mention cars and bikes, because I think that they can be more flexible. I include pedestrian friendly areas in the housing and commercial areas.
Thanks for pointing out that transit should take people between walkable areas, not to and from stroads or other frightening-for-walking car corridors. I see urbanists, transit and urban cycling channels promoting the opposite. The first provides a pleasant inviting experience from origin to destination, the latter an awful experience that people will avoid if at all possible, counting the days until they can afford a (second, or third, perhaps) car to avoid the hell. I think that pathway systems can sometimes provide the backbones of those walkable areas, to make walking even more pleasant and protected and rapid for much of the way, but simply a quiet neighborhood is fine too, or pedestrianized street, or office park. This is so opposite to the reigning transportation paradigm, but not dying is a major factor that people take into consideration. And pleasantness is not far behind utility as a factor people weigh.
I'm not sure where I heard the term "walking accelerator" (I didn't come up with it; maybe it was Strong Towns?) but it perfectly sums up the role of surface transit. There is value in connecting walkable areas, especially in US and Canadian cities where walkable islands are the norm. That means _not_ dumping people out at a highway on-ramp or a parking lot!
@@NotJustBikes I think Reece calls them that too!
@NotJustBikes If only Eindhoven took transportation serious, they had the bones well laid out. Instead of demolishing the bones they they started building the 'rondweg', the most terrible piece of infrastructure available at that time. And to complete that mistake they built 4 lanes right to the city center, complete with parking within 50 meters. And now Instead of building a tramway they have a bus lane to the city and to Nuenen, where Philips used to have the headquarters. It is a mess.
I've been thinking of relocating to Alberta to escape the skyrocketing cost of living in Ontario, and looking at the local LRT stations of Calgary and Edmonton was equal parts hilarious and depressing. They are in the middle of nowhere, between lanes and lanes of high speed traffic! I kept asking, WHO IS THIS FOR? The same is true in so many North American cities.
I live in Singapore, and while the MRT gets a lot of praise, I personally feel that it has a LONG way to go before it can be truly great. And a lot of it isn't the fault of the MRT itself.
While some of the stations are designed pretty well, far too many MRT stations force you to walk along or across massive stroads to get to them, and then dump you next to a massive stroad at your destination. Maybe you'll have to cross that stroad to get to your destination, on some pedestrian overhead bridge where you have to waste time and energy climbing up and down because you can't disturb traffic below. Or it'll drop you off at a bus station, where you can catch a slow, crowded bus that may or may not get stuck in traffic to complete your journey.
Is there any wonder that we are still struggling to improve MRT ridership? That public transport is still regarded as the travel option for people that can't afford to drive? That despite exorbitant car prices, car ownership is still treated as a rite of passage/milestone/status symbol?
As a Dutchman living in a suburb of Montreal, you went through the same process I did, but much faster. Some parts of Montreal are great, but as a whole, the city cannot hold a candle to most European greats. Islands of good urbanism are fun to inspire and become a little more hopeful, but the fact remains they are but blips in an ocean of asphalt, concrete and nimbyism. It is getting better here, and I am in probably one of the best suburbs with fair enough trains to downtown and cycling infrastructure being planned, but if it weren’t for my Canadian partner and in-laws, I would have run home screaming years ago. I still might, if my patience runs dry one of these days. It’s hard not to yell at politicians daily for their lack of vision.
Funny how you mention this, I'm also a Dutchman living in a suburb (Pointe-Claire) and it feels similar to what you describe. Cycling is relatively pleasant South of Autoroute 40, but the 40 itself, and the areas bordering it, are such a barrier that barely anyone dares to cross it. Compare that to the Groningen suburb of Beijum, for which you also need to cross a highway (the ring road) but there are not just one but 3 protected bike overpasses, and that was in the 90s.
There is political will at the municipal and federal levels to improve things these days, but highways involve the province, and the province doesn't care much, until the viaduct over the 40 is in such dire risk of falling down that it needs replacing.
Another suburban thing here is how some distances are artificially long for cyclists and pedestrians, just because there are no shortcuts, especially between different suburbs. Two houses' backyards could border each other but it could be >2kms to get from one to the other legally.
I've been living here for most of the last 58 years and your brutally honest assessment feels spot on. Montreal HAS made tangible and rapid progress in urban planning, but it's still too patchy and lacking overall cohesion. And because urban development during the 1950s to 1990s was so abysmally bad, we have a LONG way to go.
By the way, you reminded me why I've never been to Orange Julep before: it's sits near the intersection of two of the most ridiculously designed highways in Canada.
It's insane to see as soon as a city diverges its design from the traditional "North American" way, things improve immediately. That just says how bad things really are in US and Canada.
As a Montrealer born and raised, you really hit the spot with this one.
I also feel compelled to mention that all the problems you highlight are compounded by the North American socioeconomic context. For instance, because most of society is still centered towards the individual, it is quite hard to have a family in the city and get by without a car, as transit with children is long and sometimes nearly impossible. This is compounded by the fact that most people work long hours and canno't afford the time to bring their kids to daycare by transit.
I used to only move by public transit before having children, but because of the lack of daycare infrastructure, the only one we found is in downtown, while I work in a different neighborhood. This means it would take me two to three hours everyday to bring my daughter to daycare and then go to work and vice versa even though public transit access is very good for all three destinations. If I had a walkable daycare center with room near our place, it would take me less time to take the metro than the car. This is a shame because it means that even well intentionned and willing individuals cannot "afford" the time to not have a car even when living in central, walkaable neighborhood.
Likewise, I am one of the suckers that drive to the public market because I can only go on the weekends because of the stupid hours I work and the riduculous time it takes to take my daughter to daycare. I must thus shop for the whole week, which is too much food to bring back home by walking.
And on top of that, because my partner works irregular shifts at the hospital, we had to buy a second car so that I could bring my daughter to daycare. Nonsense! Both of us have public-serving jobs and would both readily take a pay cut to work less and have the time to actually have the choice to "do the right" thing. But because we live in a society that prioritizes money over quality of life, we would have to change careers entirely which is plain dumb.
I can't stress enough how frustrating it is to be forced to unwillingly contribute to our city's problems because of the lacklustre society in which we live. It is laughable that anyone would think Montreal is anywhere near European cities, both in terms of infrastructure, but also general societal priorities.
My husband works at a Montreal hospital with ONE bus stop, and most shifts start before the Metro even runs. Both of us work within a 10 minute drive of our apartment, but we have 2 cars because there is no direct bus to either of our jobs and after 10 hours on my feet I'm not walking another hour in either 30 degrees or 30 cm of snow.
Montreal is no different to any city/town in the UK. Sheffield, in Yorkshire has the added problem that it is very hilly/steep, so cycling is almost impossible for most people. You have to be fit even with an electrically assisted bike like I have.
@@IslaSprollie That's not true at all. While I myself would love to get out of the UK and live somewhere in Europe with significantly better infrastructure, Sheffield and Montreal are not even close to comparable. Sheffield has some great public transport, you literally have multiple tram lines, that's not that common even for major cities in the UK.
@@IslaSprollie Ebikes have higher power limits in Canada so hills are less demanding (mine is 750W)
not knowing what you do for a living but most people DO NOT work meaningfully LONGER hours then Europeans BUT due to car centric designs and the race for "cheap" properties making jobs NOT localized and as you say childcare being far away along with jobs being far away there is a LOT of -non work time locked up every day moving around that is being "charged" to work
a "15 minute" city bubble would make any north American feel like they are gaining HOURS a day back in there lives
"Death Star Trench" car sewer -- an apt description. :D It's been decades since I was last in Montreal and I've been watching with interest as it begins to repair the damage from car infestation. And while it's unfortunate to see and realize that it still has a long way to go, I do appreciate the completeness of the video. I cross my fingers that the healing will not only continue but accelerate. Thank you for this episode!
Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. It will be interesting to see how quickly Montréal can repair the damage done in the 50s and 60s. It's the story of almost everywhere in the US and Canada, sadly.
@@NotJustBikes Definitively sadly. I grew up in the GTA and live in the SF Bay Area now and the scars in both places are both highly visible and hard to redress (though it predates me living there, it took a literal earthquake to fix one in SF :P). From a quick streetview it seems that parts of Rue St Catherene in Montreal are being converted to a more mixed mode type street, and if that's the case I think that's a positive sign that progress is possible in the city. :)
As a fellow Montréal resident and an urbanist, this is the most comprehensive video on the reality of the Montreal urban fabric. I live 20 minutes walk from old Montreal and let me tell you that my neighborhood has only two streets with a dedicated bike lane, oh and some sidewalks are sooooo narrow that you can't always walk side by side. But guess what, we have lots of street parking on every single street and speed limits of 40km/h which no driver respects, and my neighborhood is one of the newer residential neighborhoods 😅.
With "Urbanist" you mean you are an Urban Planner for the municipality? If so, what's causing the situation you described?
I've been living in Montreal for the past 13 years, and while I'm definitely able to have a happy existence as a non-car owner this video did a really good job putting into words frustrations I've had for a while. I think for anyone considering living here the one thing I'd want to stress that wasn't mentioned in the video, and the main reason I haven't moved elsewhere, is that cost of living is *significantly* lower here than almost any other english-speaking city in the world of comparable size or bigger, even in the nice parts of the city. Monthly rents in the plateau and center of the city range from e.g. 700 CAD for the absolute cheapest studios to 2200 CAD for nicer 1-bedrooms. I personally live about a 20 minute walk from the exact centre of downtown, (2 blocks from a grocer and 15 minutes to the nearest metro station) and pay about 1500 CAD for a very nice newly built one-bedroom. In Canada at least it's tough to find a cheaper option that lets you live quite well without a car.
I'm moving to Montreal in January after growing up in THE fake London. I tried to move elsewhere, but my work wouldn't let me permanently relocate outside of Canada. While anyone who says it's as good as the best European cities is obviously on crack, it does stand out in Canada as the best combination of urbanism and affordability; it's still better than somewhere like Toronto but costs half the amount to rent there.
Congratulations on the move! It'll definitely be an upgrade.
You're absolutely correct: Montréal really is one of the best cities in Canada and (for now) it's more affordable than Vancouver or Toronto.
I really think the problem is not the city, it's the way it's portrayed in urbanist circles. I don't know if this is ignorance (they just don't know what great urbanism is because they've never lived outside of the US or Canada), or if they're just trying to be overly optimistic when there's a lot of negativity about American car-centric urban planning online, but whatever the reason it results in very skewed coverage.
I'd like this video to be a dose of reality that might spark some discussions as to how the city could be improved in the future.
Hopefully you'll be able to live in one of the walkable islands and if so, I think you'll really enjoy it as an urbanist!
I'm from Europe and have travelled all over Europe and North America, and Montreal is in my top 5 cities. It's fantastic
@@NotJustBikes Nope , you have spent too much time in Europe. You are have lost the North American optimistic point of view . Just being direct and critical as a standard dutch/ western european. From a former blasé parisian who has spent too much time in Canada.
@Bradum hoping to make the same move in 2 years after I'm done schooling at Western! Didnt grow up in fake London, but I'm sure ready to leave it.
@@emiriebois2428 It's not an optimistic point of view. It's a delusion.
I have a friend who recently moved from montreal to a medium sized Albertan town, she says one of the biggest shocks was the severe lack of transportation, no cycle lanes, no buses, even taxis are rare
Alberta, the Texas of Canada.. pretty self explanatory
Edmonton Alberta is earmarking 100 million CAD towards bike lanes
@@jasonriddell It needs 100 billion for it to be at least 1% decent.
It's a misdirection, due to the $300 billion going to the fossil fuel companies.
In the planning profession in Quebec's municipalities, one of our biggest pet peeves is the fact that many high-potential streets, or plainly ''main street'' crossing whole communities, are owned by the MTQ, the provincial transportation ministry. If you see a road which have a green plate with a number between 100 and 399, it's provincial owned. Many main streets in Montreal (Sherbrooke, St-Denis, Pie-IX, Décarie, Papineau) or in smaller cities and villages can't be optimised or get more liveable, because the MTQ are a bunch of traffic engineers who absolutely LOVE cars and trucks. Cities have to beg to the MTQ for simply adding a crosswalk, or even a sidewalk or stop signs because obviously cars can cross the whole village without even having to stop. And the fact that the actual provincial government is a populist right-leading party elected by suburbia and rural areas, nothing is done to make communities more liveable.
We loved “no right on red” in Montréal. It felt so much safer while crossing. And then I came home to Ontario and had way too many close calls with drivers turning right on red!
You briefly mentioned Hamburg, the city I live in, with the "Hauptbahnhof-Test" and while I think that Hamburg is fundamentally different to Montreal, I noticed a lot of patterns described by you that bother me about public transport and urban planning in Hamburg as well (for example we have a few examples of one-way multilane stroads in downtown as well). My conclusion is basically: Don't trust cities, where the wealthy and influencial are not forced to use public transit, because they will never be aware of the issues they create.
It is still a pity, that Hamburg as the second largest city in Germany is the only one without a tram system before Münster on place 20 (in terms of people living there). But the more frustrating part is, despite all the efforts for bike infrastructure and the improvements with rapid transit with S-Bahn and new Hochbahn lines, how strong the opposition against tram systems is here in Hamburg even today, mainly driven by an uninformed or selfish class of people with mansions large enough that the street noise doesn't really affect them.
Well-said. Hamburg has a lot of potential but it's being overwhelmed by cars. At least the foundations are there for a great city though! It would be so great if they got some tram lines built.
I'm a big fan of Hamburg. It's my favorite big city in Germany. But I absolutely hate that super annoying rapidly timed pedestrian traffic signal you encounter when you leave the main station and have to cross Glockengießerwall. It's so uninviting to visitors.
@@SomePotato One problem I have as a pedestrian in German cities in that jaywalking is illegal and you can actually be fined for it. If you're going to fine people for crossing at a red light at least make the lights change quickly for pedestrians. Some pedestrian lights here in Ireland can be slow (still better than Germany in my experience), but jaywalking is completly unenforced and everyone does it so it doesn't matter as much.
The most important thing is that Mainz has a tram system and Wiesbaden does not.
@@niall123 It's only illegal if you cross a red light or cross the street too close to a traffic signal or zebra crossing. Otherwise you are free to cross the road wherever you want.
In any case the fine is just 5-10€.
The secret to the OPUS card is you can also top it off at Jean Coutu, an extremely common drugstore chain, as well as some other businesses. So if you use a pass, you can save yourself the trouble of a super long lineup by including it as part of an every day errand. I haven't asked many people, but it seems like a LOT of people who queue at metro stations don't know that. Personally I pretty much always top up my card at the local Jean Coutu and it saves a ton of time. That said, yeah, overall, the OPUS system is pretty inconvenient compared to others, especially if no monthly pass really covers your needs.
For the record, this fall Montreal has created a system of specific bus routes which are there every 7 minutes. They've had funding issues and had to reduce the time for the metro at night, but they really are trying to improve, and they're doing a damn good job at it
Whoah, nice! When I visited (last in 2021), it seemed almost all bus lines were 30 minute ones except for Sherbrooke.
@@mindstalk yeah, those are definitely the highest priority, but it looks like now the high frequency lines are every 2 to 12 minutes. There are 9 that are high frequency from 6 am to 8 pm, 2 of which are on Sherbrooke, and then there are 22 lines that are high frequency during rush hour
I'm not sure how much of that has been implemented yet, but they've definitely got signs everywhere about it :)
Those bus routes are not new. The "high frequency" buses with purple signs is a rebranding of the existing frequent buses. They used to be "10 minute max" but they are not committing to that level of service anymore.
49:00 I think it would actually help if you made more videos like this about more American cities.
It shows how paying lip service to urban design isn't enough - we need a complete urban network.
Seeing how what we consider "good for NA" falls apart when you go 2 more blocks is very powerfull.
As Montréalers, we ALL know this; it's infuriating;
We are suffering from decades of mismanagement.
The inertia outside of a few arrondissements is overwhelming. (see NDG bike path fiasco).
Our current provincial government is not helping at all.
High five from Toronto for the same unfortunately!
NDG is ridiculous. Such wasted potential.
Angery skateboard rant:
Im so mad rn.
As a skateboarder, we are often arbitrarily forced out of pedestrian/cyclist pathwaysjust because people don't like the aesthetic. They see skaters and think we're criminals or something. We are some of the most specially efficient comuters there are, taking up little more room than a pedestrian, and needing no parking, because we can just carry our boards. Cities should love this exept people seem to think we look like criminals usually. And then they say "Oh, but you cant brake on a skateboard, you're dangerous." yes you can, and no we aren't. And if we can't use the bike lanes and sidewalk we'll still skate in the street, but now it actually is dangerous. I hate it, and how are we any more dangerous then cyclists on a pedestrian area? And right there we see a pedestrianized area, with skateboards banned.
Alright rant over
Hello from Montreal, I never thought skateboarders as criminals, I thought them as nut cases especially when they’re tagging (ridding) on your car bumper or the back of a bus. Anyways I have nothing against skateboarders they have just as much right to the bike paths. I think powered scooters with their speed on the paths are worse. Be patient and all the best.
A skateboard is entertainment, not transportation.
It's like a pogostick or unicycle
I live in South Carolina, and i wish we had more folks like you in our city council. My state is investing millions into making more roads, but cutting back on support for bikes, scooters, mopeds and public transit.
That was disappointingly accurate. As a montréaler, I endure everything you described. But what's great about montréal in my opinion is the fact that, no matter how slow, inperfect and disjointed it is, there is change.
As a Japanese in Tokyo that is about to move to Vancouver, your videos always scares me a bit 😂
I saw your comment in a video about Japan that you are visiting Japan next year. If you are going to make a video like this about our cities, I can't wait to see what you think about Japan's infrastructure. It's really interesting to hear about ways a city I am very familiar with can improve. Also it's difficult to find videos that criticize our infrastructure, maybe similar to Montreal in that sense. Even though there's big issues, like how trains are so crowded during rush hour that most high school girls in Tokyo are victims of groping.
That'll be interesting to watch! It'll be cool to hear about the pros and cons of Japan's cities. Any particular cities you think he'll check out?
Right now many US and Canadian cities are degrees of less bad, than degrees of good. Too much damage from the drunken orgy of car oriented urbanism, in the last century, partly pushed by car lobbyists.
I'm guessing Tokyo and it's surrounding prefectures since that's the most obvious choice. Maybe Toyota city is interesting too being the headquarter of Toyota. That place you can kinda survive without a car if you live close enough to the station, but probably very inconvenient. My grandparents lived there and they didn't own a car, but they used taxis few times a month. @@thefactspherefromportal2740
Vancouver is probably the second-best after Montreal, so don't be too worried! Transportation will probably still be very disappointing in many ways compared with Tokyo, especially the car and bus dependency, lack of amenities in train stations, and the scarcity of public restrooms. On the plus side we have an abundance of garbage cans. My recommendation is: when you get to Vancouver, get outside of downtown! Vancouver's downtown is often depressing these days. Spend time in places like commercial drive, south granville, kits beach, main street, olympic village, Lonsdale quay. Spend a sunny day riding a bike around the seaside route from downtown to UBC. Spend another sunny day riding the greenway from Granville Island to the fraser river, stopping in Kerrisdale for lunch. If you're here in the springtime, we have a diversity of sakura trees that rival any Japanese city, and the best way to see them is on a bicycle. That's my advice!
There’s a great video by a small Australian CZcamsr about why Japanese people cycle on the footpath. czcams.com/video/dUYe4eY2JWw/video.htmlfeature=shared
Bro NJB, thank you so much for visiting Montreal. This video was my most anticipated video ever since that community post you made back in August. I've lived in this city all my life and I've constantly seen praises towards it from others online which is appreciated and deserved but I've only seen a handful of people ever mention the problems of Montreal. Despite you only being here for a bout a week, you hit bull's eye on basically EVERYTHING (both good and bad) about this city and it's greater areas.
I related to basically all of the problems you listed with this city, especially the ones related to the land use of stations (metro station on stroads) and the whole urbanism dropoff from borough to borough. As you saw, Montreal is still very much a car centric that still has pretty strong car culture. I'm still seeing some people from Montreal on social medias bashing the bike/bus lanes, the mayor for wanting to reduce the space of cars, etc. Those people vary from age too, it's not only older people doing it. The same happens whenever I discuss of the effects of car dependance, how to solve it with friends & family (they all think I'm nuts 💀)
Despite all of that, I still continue to bring up the topic (I've always been a transit fan 🤷🏾♂) and thanks to your videos, I've become interested in urban planning. There's lots that has been done yet there's still so much to do tho things seem to be headed the right way (event tho the provincial govy & some of the neighboring the boroughs/cities are being run by 🚗🧠).
Nevertheless, I genuinely appreciate the dedication, time, effort, passion & money ( all those taxi trips 💀) that you put into this video and to the others as well. In my opinion, this is the best video you've made this year. It quite literally hit home for me and I'm pretty sure it did for many others as well. You've done an exceptional job capturing the essence of Montreal in terms of urban planning.
I'm glad you ended off the year with this banger of a video. I'm already looking forward the content you will be making next year! 😁
Wow, thank you so much! It means a lot to have a Montréal native feel that this video is a fair analysis. I really tried to properly review the city, both good and bad.
One of the things I've noticed about the Netherlands is that Dutch people complain about _everything._ It's actually really annoying, but it's also the reason things keep getting better. In Canada, when I complained about things like this, the most common response I got was, "you should be thankful! It could be so much worse!" I mean, yeah, that's true, but that's not going to make anything better, is it?
It's one of the reasons I lost interest in advocacy in Canada.
I hope that Montréal urbanists don't dismiss the things I said in the last half the video, but rather use it as a checklist of what to improve!
@@NotJustBikes For real it's way better to live with people who complain a lot.
@@NotJustBikes Thanks for replying! I've definitely received comments saying how I was ungrateful or greedy for always wanting more transit, better urban planning, etc.
I know a lot of people don't like you calling out/bashing cities in NA or NA as a whole. I can get behind how they feel because it's things that we (people like us) are already aware about and having that being repeated in almost every video can get annoying. I personally don't mind it tho. I think it helps for the first time viewers of the channel. I think it helps show how you feel about car dependance and why you feel that way, it shows where you stand on the matter and why you stand that way on the matter, it shows you want change and why you want change, etc. You say it how it is because it is what it is you know?
To me, the second half of the video served as a reminder of the work that needs to be done. Most of the things you mentioned were things I already knew but there were a few things here and there that I didn't realize or never thought about like the draw backs of temporary pedestrianized streets ( difficulty to make things permanent). IDK if others will see it this way tho, I hope so!
people who do this for fame,masses,popularity get all that...people who do this for things that actually matter gets appreciation from those Few who seeks the same..
@@vokasimid5330 and "hate" from people that DONT want the same
I hope this comment gets noticed...
One big dissapointment Jason touched upon was the amount (lack of) trains that depart the station. What was not mentioned, is that this is often when people need to transfer from one train, to the next.
Unfortunately, if you are taking a train from the east (Toronto, Ottawa) and making a connection in Montreal, you are most likely not going to be able to pair that up with a train THAT CONTINUES east, say to Quebec city.
A personal story - there is a via train I could take from Ottawa (Canada's capital), that arrives from Montreal - and there is a train that leaves Montreal, that travels east to service some small communities (yes - shocking) like St-Henri, where family live. I WOULD GLADLY TAKE THE TRAIN and pay triple than drive that distance...
... but unfortunately, the train that LEAVES Montreal heading east to Shawinigan, departs 45 minutes BEFORE the train from Ottawa arrives. However, this train only runs every other day, so even renting a hotel room overnight won't work.
Thank you for this video about Montreal. Hopefully at the very least you got to visit Shwartz, or St-Viateur.
As a Torontonian, I gritted my teeth through this whole video, especially as you'd often complement Toronto as often doing better than most North American cities. But I have to admit that Montreal has really taken the torch from us over the last few years. The rapid re-urbanisation is a great step forward and Toronto has been stagnant for almost 15 years (hopefully our new Mayor will get this sped up). I mean, let's be serious, in 2023 Toronto LOST a metro line and Montreal gained one.
I'm a French person that moved to Montréal some months ago, and after two nights in the center, I was like "Was my memory wrong?" because I mostly remembered the public transports and small quiet streets of Anjou and Rosemont. Now I live at Boulevard Pie-IX, which where traffic is frequent, but there's a fast bus line to go directly to the metro station. However, if you see the bus before crossing the street, it's already too late.
I'm glad I know live there, because wow, I just love the culture of this city!! But yeah, roads are bad here. "Arrêt" or red lights everywhere... But I lived in a French city called Meaux, and it was also horrible for a pedestrian, once you leave the center.
I also wanted to cross the city from east to west, and couldn't because of the transcanadian roadway. You have to go to Pie-IX to find a bridge to go under.
I don't know if you did this, but you should introduce people what is the "priority to the right" and how it speeds the traffic.
I think it’s worth mentioning that Montreal is a city in transition just like Amsterdam was from the 1970’s until now and it is also still transitioning only it is much later in its transition than Montreal and things happen a lot more rapidly too.
In your video you mentioned a street that ripped out a bike lane only to put it back at great cost only a couple of years later… that’s common place was/is common in the Netherlands too as anti-infrastructure neighbourhoods will bitterly fight against bike lanes only until it becomes apparent that they wind up losing credibility and value to neighbourhoods that keep their bike infrastructure.
When it comes to great infrastructure progress is slow until everyone begins to “catch on” that is to say that they start to envy thy neighbour.
I’m almost certain that if you talked with Mark Wagner of BicycleDutch he would confirm this phenomenon in the Netherlands because he often makes videos about it.
It takes a lot… a fucken lot to enact change in a car centric city but Montreal is on the path to change that is abundantly clear as are many North American cities.
As a Melburnian I agree with you that infrastructure in North American is not as good as what we have in Australia however what we have in Australia is not as good as what they have in Europe but we’re working on it….
Every year it feels as though infrastructure gets better and better here but it happens sporadically almost like haphazardly until it gets renewed and reinvented at which point it seems to get better again and the process repeats.
It’s exactly like the Netherlands and Mark Wagenbuur made a terrific video about it only two weeks ago about Utrecht and the street he grew up on where they removed a modal filter that was first constructed in 1973… removed in 1978 because of a court ruling and then constructed again in 1998 and it and its entire neighbourhood will be renewed again in the future as there are plans to remove through running routes for motorists and replace them with parks for residents.
yup losing the culture that built the city over hundreds of years to make something more multicultural LA "Potterville" (It's a Wonderful Life) or Biffville (Back to the Furute 2).
Mark Wagner terrific video ... got url?
Montréal suburbs could in theory sprawl almost indifinitely since Québec is 40 times the size of Netherlands but only half of it's population. Québec population 3 century ago was only 1/100 of what it is right now... What I mean is that you have to put things in an historical and geographical perspective before comparing two different countries.
@@antbrk986 and mind you it took Utrecht 20 years to make things right in that neighbourhood instead you know like it’s taking 2 or 3 years for our neighbourhoods to reach the same conclusion so yeah that’s at least one positive thing we seem to be doing vs the Netherlands.
@@antbrk986 youtube.com/@BicycleDutch?si=NOEzKjIvtcHjpGPP
As a Vancouverite I feel compelled to point out that we've had driverless trains for years, including one that goes from downtown to the airport every 3-5 minutes during the day. We also just auto-rezoned for missing middle housing within distance of transit. We've also got tons of the pedestrianized streets (permanent, not just in summer). These all need to be expanded but I can't let Montreal get the cred for copying our homework lol
EXPO 86 and the "expo" line is one of the first automated metros in the world and its unique linier induction drive makes the cars so MUCH LOWER then "normal" cars
EX vancouverite here
Which streets in Vancouver are pedestrianized? I can only think of a couple where the end of the street is blocked off and has picnic tables (which is great!) but are there any true pedestrian streets with businesses?
from what I've seen of REM I think pound for pound we have better land use around our metro stations. besides a few standouts like 22nd street or scott road. even the Langley extension has plans for development around nearly every station.
@@tezpokemonmasterYou're saying that GVRD has better land use? I think so. Brentwood is arguably better than downtown Vancouver.
Translink finally started investing in real estate years ago. I wish that I could have taken credit for that, but some genius probably beat me to the punch.
@@donkeydik2602 you didn't contest the fact that skytrain land use is better than the REM
Can I just say, as a geography student who dabbles with cartography and GIS software, I really like what you (or your editor) are doing with the maps in your videos. Really visually striking and also easy to read.
I’ve lived in this city all my life and as much I love it, I agree with most of your critiques. Your observations about our stroads, busses and transit payment systems were spot on. I incessantly rant about how slow our busses are and how absurd it is that we detour them so often and allow them to get stuck in traffic. Our payment system is so awful one of our newspaper published a dossier about it and why it’s taking so long to revamp it.
We’re thankfully working to fix a lot of our stroads, but it’s unfortunately gonna take a while because we have so many of them. I have no idea how can we’re gonna fix our highway situation though since they’re strictly under provincial jurisdiction and they’re very unlikely to let the city shut them down.
I wanted to clarify a few minor details that were not 100% accurate though. The parking structure in the old port belongs to the federal government, not the provincial one. The city is still finalizing plans to revamp rue Berri (the one by Sherbrooke station), revamp the bike lane and reduce car space. I’m not aware of any dates though. Rue Hochelaga, the one by the eastern branch of the green line, will get a complete redesign once the city deploys the REV there sometime around 2027.
Overall, I think it was a pretty accurate exposé on the work still ahead in our city. And I’m really anxious to push things further and much faster.
Anglophone Canada, through gritted teeth: "We're so happy for Montreal, really, this is great for them, I'm so proud they've come this far."
*pained, stuttering, slow applause*
I've been living in Montreal for close to 40 years and I'm so happy with the accurate representation of this city in your video. I stumbled upon your channel about 6 months ago and I could see all around me the bad urbanism you described in you previous videos. Yes Montreal is better than many large North American cities, but it's very var from being good.
I used to live in Montreal in the Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood and then moved to Houston about 6 years ago. I have never been more depressed since. Although Montreal is not perfect, I absolutely miss being able to walk to around the city instead needing a car. When I lived in Montreal I would longboard, walk and use public transit to get to school, but in Houston that’s impossible unless you have a death wish haha. It’s so isolating in Houston compared to Montreal.
ex-Hochelagan here as well. I loved being right on rue Ontario, loved the scale of the architecture and the design of Boulevard Morgan and all the cool shops, the proximity of the farmers' market, and how it still had a very strong working-class solidarity vibe even as its old factories became condos. Plus being near the whole Espace pour la vie complex (biodome, stade olympique, planetarium, gardens). But even this was an "island of walkability" walled off in between Notre-Dame E, Pie-IX, and Sherbrooke.
Dunno if you ever saw the nearby experimental (in the 1940s) neighborhood called Cité Jardin? It was an attempt to do a traffic-calming cul-de-sac, but with a walkable "garden" core with an elementary school and rehab center. Jean Drapeau lived there!
The biggest shame of humanity was to abandon the streetcars. Only a few cities, such as Oslo and Melbourne have kept much of its tram network then and now. Other towns re-introduce them like Porto, Portugal, and Bergen, Norway. I am living in Oslo and I love your content. I agree with you.
Agreed. Eastern Europe still has lots of good tram networks, but they've also generally been busy bulldozing for the car...
In Germany it is actually the other way around with most of the cities above 100k still having at least parts of it's tram network. The 3 german speaking western countries of Austria, Switzerland and Western Germany were basicly the only ones in the entire former west were so many trams were kept. In Western Germanys case this is even more notable with it having one of the biggest car industries in Europe. After unification Germany went even further and kept many disrepaired but still operational tram networks in east german cities under 100k.
I mean yes but from the perspective of people in the 1940s when bus became common they were seen as better because they were definitely more versatile and didn’t require all the infrastructure needed by streetcars.
And as an RM transit video shows, maybe it’s not the best idea in every situation, especially because they are often not grade separated (although modern version are often designed with it).
On the tire fixing thing, I work in a bike shop in NL, and there are just more practical limitations to fixing a bike here compared with the US. Most Dutch people ride 'stadsfietsen' or 'omafietsen' which are very rugged, but not the easiest to work on. If I need to replace the rear inner tube, then its not as simple as just popping the wheel out and replacing it. Most American bikes have derailleurs and quick releases, so the wheels can be removed in seconds. Dutch bikes often have internal hubs, and roller or backpedal brakes, which are attached to the frame in several places. It can be such a hassle to remove the wheels, that we will literally just bend the frames of steel bikes to get the tubes on the wheel. It takes longer, its more labor intensive, and as you said, we are often busier than North American shops. Our shop will usually allow you to leave the bike and we will fix it when we have time, usually within a few hours. But its just a pain when you have people coming in expecting immediate service, especially when they then go sit right outside the shop or stand around the shop and essentially breathe down out necks the whole time. Though it is also worth noting that because NL also has great public transit, people are significantly less likely to be stranded without their bikes, so most people are more willing to be patient.
Thank you for the comment!
Do you have any idea if Japanese bikes would have the same problems? I know that mamachari and omafiets overlap a lot in design.
i find it hard to believe that the netherlands has great public transit, even compared to cities like tallinn where trams run up to every 4 minutes
@@mindstalk Never seen a Japanese bike in person, but by just googling it and looking at some pictures, Mamachair's do seem to be basically the same as omafietsen and would likely be a similar situation. Though I do not know for sure, and would contact a shop that sells the bikes for more concrete answers.
Though it should be noted, while these types of bikes are more labor intensive for your mechanic, they are a lot LESS labor intensive for the person riding it than a traditional derailleur/cassette setup.
@@PM_ME_MESSIAEN_PICS I mean the channel you are now watching has videos on this very topic. But yeah, there are counties with better public transit, though even by European standards NL is still one of the better ones. By American standards, Dutch transit is god tier. Depends how you look at it, I guess.
@@PM_ME_MESSIAEN_PICScompared to Tallinn or whole Estonia?
Everything you said here feels exactly the same about how I feel living on Vancouver. I came from the states, specifically the midwest where there's barely even bus lines to get around central downtown areas like Indianapolis, but the idea of a "walkable island" fits Vancouver to a T. It's a lot better right down town, and there's the benefit of "Vancouverism" and not having any major highways slicing through the city and surface parking being eliminated where possible, but the moment you cross one of the bridges into Olympic Village, Kits, South Granville, you're immediately struck by massive stroads and the ends of the SkyTrain lines. Places like Surrey and Richmond are especially bad with the SkyTrain dropping off right in front of major stroads with basically nowhere to go as a pedestrian. Honestly would LOVE to hear your thoughts on Vancouver in a similar style to this.
I really wish you would do a video on Vancouver already. It's a really interesting city from a design standpoint, with a real patchwork of walkable and flawed neighborhoods.
I always think that the people comparing Montreal to any European city, have never been in Europe. There was a lot of improvement in the last years, but there's so much more to do! It's still crazy for me how some parts of Montreal are just a few minutes away by car, but at least an hour away by public transport... no wonder why so many people still have cars in the city!
Yeah, I’ve generally found Boston feels a lot more European than Montreal. Boston feels like a London with a touch of New York. While Montreal feels like some random middle of nowhere European city with a touch of boring generic American city. As an American that still makes Montreal way way better than nearly every other city on this continent but every European I’ve visited Montreal with all said it was very meh for them.
I think people tend to 1) visit the old port and 2) hear French and go “oh, Europe”. It is kinda silly, but if you live in Mississauga or Calgary or something I can see why you might react that way
@@Alphabunsquad i guess it’s because Boston was part of the 13 colonies, so the GB feeling is present. Montreal has been between French and English possessions, and that mixed up a lot of things, in the mentalities, architecture and business
@@rlwelch hahah, we speak “spicy French” in Quebec ;) but I get it, old port is not representative of Montreal. Gosh even the old port is not that cute compared to Old Quebec honestly.
Thank you for covering the reality of Montréal. Not just the good stuff.
I spend most of my life in Montréal. Today, even with my job in the federal government, I can't afford to live in the neighborhood I grew up in. So I can't blame people who move to suburbia.
The good news is that many suburbian cities around Montréal are also moving toward better infrastructure for walking, biking and transit.
Give Edmonton 4 years and we might pass Montreal in some aspects.
Don't get me wrong, I actually love Montreal, it's just Edmonton has some very good planners doing some very good things
-132 Avenue project = 60 block long "Amsterdam class" road project
- $200 million project to build a gap-free city-wide cycling grid (half funded and under construction)
- complete abolition of single-family-home zoning, citywide
- complete abolition of "parking minimums"
- "Walking accelerator" (Valley Line) from 95 Street to 124 Street plus extensions into suburbia
- Very nice connection from the new tram line to the Metro and Capital lines
The reason the métro runs on tires rather than rails is because mayor Jean Drapeau decided in the 1960s to keep it out of Canadian government's oversight, as railroad transportation is under federal juridiction.
In the Netherlands you usually learn to fix your own flat tire. But I agree, there should be more “fix while you wait” places.
Exactly, I've only ever seen foreign students drop their bikes off to get a tire fixed.
Soo not so difference with drivers calling agency to change the flat tires of their own car....😂
From what I see here Montreal unfortuately misses a hugely important point, and that is the integration of the pedestrian, cycling and public transit networks to provide a complete alternative solution to car traffic. When you look at the metro stations at 24:03 or 24:26, there is just no way to continue your journey. This might work in a city with a super dense metro network like Paris or London with stations all over the city being only a few 100 meters apart, but that doesnt seems to be the case here. I believe that urban planners call this the "last mile problem" and trams, cycling facilities and pleasant pedestrian streets are the way to solve that, under the condition that they tie in with the rest of the network. In The Netherlands youll find that biking lanes and bike parking facilities are almost always connected to the public transit. Even a remote busstop in some village would have at least 2 or 3 places to put your bike. If you need to walk for 15 minutes along side some stroad to get there, the temptation of taking the car is just too big.
the metro stations here are all more-or-less 10 minute walks apart. In some metro stations you can see the next station platform down the line when you look down the tunnel.
@@tomslastname5560 Sure, thats not exactly what I ment however. Like in Amsterdam, the Montreal system doenst exactly cover every part of the city, unlike Paris or London. The big difference is however that in Amsterdam every station is connected to railway stations, tramstops, pededstrian areas or at least ample bike parking facility with biking lanes. It creates this complete secondary network system, often completely seperated from cars. The problem in Montreal is that lots of metro stops seem to just dump you on a sidewalk or a parking lot, making it rather a part of the exisiting car network rather than a thing on its own.
Montreal is overall really good for this actually. There are bike sharing stations at most if not all metro stops, bus stops at all of them, train stops at many of them, bike racks/parking at almost all of them (plus you can take your bikes on the metro and buses), and the city overall is very walkable. Of course the further away you get to the east and west tips of the island or across the river, you'll have less and less of that, but the metro doesn't go to those places anyway. You do have the REM and trains from most of those areas into metro stops on the island.
@@meanwhileincanada "Of course the further away you get to the east and west tips of the island or across the river, you'll have less and less of that, but the metro doesn't go to those places anyway."
Well, and thats a bit of the problem, because most journeys do not take place within the city center, but rather to and from it. Im sure its all work in progress, and it seems to be going in the right direction!
The one major "mistake" going forward is, like I said, these huge roads and parking lots surrounding the train and metro stations. Im sure it has its uses, however it does 2 things wrong: The land directly surrounding the station is the most valuable. This is where large mixed use high rise apartment and retail space should be, because obviously its all within walking distance from the station. Further more, it suggests that commuters still need to use their car in one way or another. And once they are in it... why not just drive the whole way anyway? It defeats the point of having an alternative-to-car network. You want people to get rid of their cars entirely. In The Netherlands, Europe in general or places like Japan, you can see the densest urban enviroments always directly around the transportation hubs, connected to large pedestrian areas. Its all about how the transportation system interacts with the use of space. And the fact is, that cars take up way more space than any other form of transportation, making it way too expensive and inefficient.
@@ageoflove1980In Montréal you have 4 month of very cold snowy weather. Québec is 3 times the size of France and population 2 century ago was less of a tenth of what it is right now. New-York is 600km away, Toronto 550km... large distances better covered by car than train since North America is not keen using long distance passenger train.
So people need cars because density is low and it's basicaly the only option.
The pedestrian and bicycle concept is quite recent in Montréal, only since the early 2000s. Also people used to have large families in Québec and needed large suburban houses and space. The demographic change is only quite recent.
15:52 ty for noting this! I'd love to see more exploration of how non-car infrastructure and transit can be inclusive of people with disabilities or limited mobility. Some elements you touch on (continuous sidewalks, level entry for trains, etc) but it would be nice to see a more in-depth exploration of what works, what doesn't and where we still need to improve. You have such a good history of reaching out to other creators for their knowledge and personal insight, it could be a great opportunity for a collab!
haha, now i NEED your "most disappointing city" philadelphia video! Great work on this one, maybe your magnum opus. I love how you adressed the difficult realities politically of implementing good urbanism. Thanks for showcasing the good and the bad, as I wasnt actually aware of the highway/stroad problem from other online content. I still hope to visit one day though.
Really appreciate you telling it how it is. No bullshit
Jason got that Dutch Directness :D
Je me suis sentie finalement comprise pour la section sur Namur. Quelqu'un avait besoin de le dire, et ça aura été toi. Merci d'avoir dénoncé le purgatoire terrestre qu'est cette station absolument horripilante.
Oui, aussitôt qu'il a mentionné l'orange julep, je savais qu'est-ce qui s'en venait. C'est tellement horrible comme emplacement de station.
J'aurais pas pu mieux le décrire que par purgatoire terrestre...
De la Savanne c'est pas mal non plus . Mais il faut le dire en Amérique du Nord l'esthétique secondaire au pratique.
C'est le nom d'une ville en Belgique. Je ne savais pas qu'il y avait une station de métro qui s'appelait comme ça au Québec.
@@emiriebois2428 Je pense même que de la station de la Savane est un peu plus déprimante que Namur. C'est litérallement entouré par des concessionnaire.
from montreal here. the absolute funniest part of the underground network is the 1km long stretch between bonaventure and place d'armes in which there is absolutely nothing. completely empty malls, deserted food courts, long tunnels with the occasional artwork on the wall. it's kind of a weird place, you were like two escalators away from it
Hello from Montreal, actually the underground linking the downtown was thriving when there was more work and the winters were colder. The so called underground city. Now with work spread out outside the downtown core and the global pandemic these areas have become obsolete just like the big shopping malls. Even today you can go to work by taking the metro to your office then at lunch walk to a food court or restaurant or go walk to a department store all without going outside. Take care
@@davidgill2520 Real, that's probably the reason why this part exists. I feel like every time i go there something new has closed down
Before I got orange pilled I visited Montreal to see a friend. This was back in 2016, and it immediately became my favourite Canadian city. I just loved existing there even though the heat was stifling haha. Now, after the orange pilling I see WHY i loved it so much. No need to drive, beautiful neighborhoods, easy to get around, enjoying just existing OUTSIDE. Honestly wild that such simple common sense things make all the difference. (I'm a Winnipeger so I never enjoy existing outside for MANY reasons lol)
as a "pegger" my self there are a LOT of wonderful areas around "to be outside" BUT you NEED a car / centrally located home
I live in Old St Vital and ride my REAL DUTCH bike to the FORKS / around downtown / "the village" and URBAN EXPLORE my side of the city AND have a GOAL of BIKING TO IKEA ON bike trails
there are off/on talks about building trams and there are 3 extensions to the BRT to go along with "car sewer" grade housing developments with NO TRANSIT OR ANY connection to the job centres without a personal car )-:
but as a "back water" small city I think we are moving in the right direction
@@jasonriddell oh I know, I live in st Boniface (near Marion area) and I love so many pockets of this place but yeah you need a car to get to all those "pockets". I think it really discourages a lot of people from going out if they always need to find parking...I know that it discourages me LOL. I have been participating in a lot of the political discussions and surveys to improve downtown... Honestly our new mayor is giving me a bit of hope for some more pedestrian friendly downtown planning, but it's a slow process... Winnipegers are very car pilled so...I feel like it will be an uphill battle to get people on board with some real positive changes city wide.
Funny you mention Val-David, it's my hometown. The removal of the train (which happened way before i was born) is one of the things that pushed me to study urbanism. I live in Saint-Jérôme and use an EXO train nearly everyday to reach my downtown Montréal university.
Montreal has some of the best pedestrianized areas I've seen outside of Europe. It's a shame that they're all so far from each other and you have to play IRL frogger to get to them.
Thanks for the visit and the in-depth video, I think you nailed it. There are many if us here who love the improvements that have been made to make the city more human-centric but still many more stuck in a car-centric mentality who despise the mayor for building cycling infrastructure, complain constantly about cyclists, and look down on transit users. I hope this video gets tons of views and helps the city keep changing in the right direction!
I'm a cyclist in Bristol, UK, and the "highway in the middle of the city" thing cracked me up because it exists here too lol. We have cycling infrastructure along those big roads but like you said, it's a big island in an even bigger sea of car-centric infrastructure. I live on a 2-lane-2-way road that is quite busy and I avoid that road as much as I can just because of the dozens of cars that would overtake me (and the handful and would honk at me for no apparent reason) every time I ride on it. Most of the sideroads are narrower than the ones in this video too, so I have to choose to either risk getting close to pedestrians or getting close to cars, neither of which are pleasant. I've come to ride along a route that literally makes me ride around the outskirts of the city along some pretty major roads just because the sidewalks there are wide, have few pedestrians, and are designed to be multi-use sidewalks. The painted cycle lanes in the centre of the city aren't really separated either; they just go right into the middle of pedestrian zones so cyclists have to be extra careful. There is a long cycling route that a lot of people consider to be the best in the city, but it run rights through the east side of the city, and as someone living in the south, I don't get to use it or see how great it is very often.
Related to your "small street cycling" point:
Many cyclist prefer small streets because they are calmer and safer. Honestly, I think there’s no harm to building a bike lane on a parallel small street one block over instead of on a main road. It is easier to remove space from a less busy small street in order to build nice infrastructure, and the experience cycling can be nicer due to less car traffic. One block doesn’t make a huge difference, so a cyclist can easily go one block over to use the nice bike lane instead of being stuck with cars, while having as direct of an itinerary because, as you said yourself, every street is a through street (and therefore every street is direct enough to make just as much sense for cyclists as the big road besides).
I agree, although it can still be frustrating. For instance I often bike to get groceries on St. Laurent in Montreal, but to get there I often have to lock up my bike a block or so away, same thing with getting to my gym to work out. It’s a small thing, but it’s annoying that it’s so difficult to bike on the street that has the things I want to get to.
As a Montrealer (and a cyclist), I loved part 1 of your video. About part 2, please come back in another 20 years. I'm convinced it will be 100x better for cyclists !
I believe the "story" would make more sense if the video contrasted 2010 Montreal to todays then draw a LINE to 2036
Don't bother coming to Regina, friend. My rating for walkability and cycling would be "No Redeeming Factors." They're actually REMOVING the one block of pedestrian space downtown, and increasing the number of parking spaces required at new suburban "malls." I COULD take a bus from 750 metres away from my house, to get to work. Except the direct bus ends 3 km from my workplace, and the only bus that stops across the 5-lane divided street from the building takes 20 minutes to get from the connecting point.
Regina used to have a streetcar system; I know, because I watched them tear up the tracks from under the street in the middle of downtown in the 1990s. But now, Regina is designed for, and around, cars.
We won't discuss here how Regina is divided in half by a train line, that used to have passenger traffic. To get from the orth side of the city to the south, you have 6 main streets, of which three tend to flood when there's a rain storm, and one is closed during football games. Regina is a textbook example of how to design cities badly.
As you sort of mentioned, most urbanist videos about Montreal only focus on the positives. It was interesting to see light shed on the negatives. I think what makes Montreal special to me as a North American is that it's one of the few cities on the continent that seems to be consistently making progress in the right direction and is doing it very fast rate too. It's quite nice to see coming from someone that lives in a city that's very content with its awful infrastructure.
IMHO for a "north american" seeing Montreal and the RAPID transformation it would be HARD to NOT compare it to a European city IF you are NOT European your self and ONLY "holidayed" in a tourist infested area of Europe
Thanks Jason for the video. I study urban geography at McGill and got to escape my small town car-centric life to go to Montréal, which I chose in part for its urbanist leanings. You hit the nail on the head with the problems around inconsistency in the network, but I think it’s a symptom of the city doing as much as it can that is politically convenient. I was thrilled in the fall a few months after your visit when a street in my neighborhood had parking removed to add a bike lane and another had a lane removed to provide a contraflow bike lane. The one thing the city seems good at is making incremental progress, and you feel that especially in the summer, where it feels like there’s more livable infrastructure and more people using it every year. We certainly have a long way to go, but hopefully we can keep clawing back spaces and provide a model for how other North American cities can do the same. Let’s hope Montréal is equally unrecognizable in 30 years as it was 30 years ago!
This is amazing. This is a NotJustBikes Master Class. It illustrates that a few (or even a lot of) bandaids do not make for good urban design. Describing the forces at play, I can see why you gave up on North America and moved.
Thanks! I went back and forth on this script and re-wrote it over a half-dozen times. I originally considered just releasing the first 17 minutes, but that wouldn't be my honest view. Plus I thought this was the perfect opportunity to point out those issues that I rarely see discussed in other urbanist content, like the land use around transit, connecting walkable islands, or the concept of transit as a walking accelerator. I'm glad you enjoyed it!
@@NotJustBikesI’m happy you did go back and extend the video. Recognising the good parts is important, but also highlighting where there are major issues and short comings is important. I see very much like a game being reviewed in that if you was honest opinion then one will be given, with snowflakes being damned.
Without this we risk resting on our laurels, and the other areas and politicians might not recognise that they are part of the problem (if they even care).
46:20 Yup. In Finland they run the district heating pipes underneath pedestrian streets to keep them snow-free in the winter
Thanks for making this video - it's helpful to see a closer representation of how North American cities can de-car, and the struggles that come along with it. The transit cliffs really are quite stark just blocks away
Hey Jason, great video!
I want to add something that you probably noticed but it flew by you since you're now used to European standards.
I live in Toronto but I spent a few days in Montreal last month. I used Bixi and biked over 60k around Montreal, Nun's Island, and whatnot, but basically downtown and immediate areas around. In my entire time biking, I only faced a vehicle in the bike infrastructure once. And that vehicle was a police car actively attending an incident, so i understand that.
Meanwhile in Toronto, I have to face cars parked/stopped/Uber dropping off or picking up/trucks loading/etc. CONSTANTLY. And on protected routes too like along Bloor and along Yonge. I started keeping track and in Toronto, a car or truck kicks me out of dedicated cycling infrastructure on average every 2.5km.
My Montreal sample is small, but to have 1 over 60km (and not the usual asshole driver) was refreshing. And it made me realize cycling is far far less stressful in Montreal than in Toronto.
So this may sound like a dumb point, but my point is Montreal does a good job of keeping cars outside of cycling infrastructure, (for North America that is).
Hey Jason, this video is absolutely PHENOMENAL. I am a student at Concordia so I live in downtown Montreal, and I never really noticed how car-centric it is. Plateau Mont-Royal and Ville-Marie are definitely the best boroughs (in my opinion anyway) and the concept of bike-lane politics is not anything to ignore. Honest to god, my biggest criticism of Montreal is that the transport agency has no fucking idea how to build transit. Everything outside the city center is absolute dog shit, especially Exo (which Reece also made a really great video about) and it actually makes the city quite depressing in my opinion. They focus too much on mediocre buses and not enough on trains. Exo honestly makes GO Transit look like the best fucking thing ever conceived, and I feel like if someone said that to the ARTM, they'd fall flat on their knees and want to do something about it. The lack of streetcars and a good walking accelerator is also extremely disappointing, and every time I look for articles online about potential improvements, I find absolutely nothing, and that is the worst part. The ARTM doesn't care about transit, it's probably run by people who drive to work and park in a parking garage downtown every day. All they want is to take cars off the freeway. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Toronto might actually be better at building transit than Montreal, and that is extremely sad. Public transit in Montreal, for the most part, is a massive fucking joke, and there are no concrete plans to make it better.
I could write a whole paper on how much I hate Exo and public transit outside downtown Montreal, but that's not really for the comment section. Again, excellent video. I hope someone on the city council will see this video and take action. Btw I kinda wish you'd also met with Paige Saunders who also has a lot to say about public transport in Montreal, especially the REM l'Est.
The thing is that the city council is not your main problem. The provincial government is. They are the ones who could fund new infrastructure.
@@Twilink36yeah but the artm doesn’t have any plans on their website
As a tourist I also thought Torontos public transit system wasn't all that bad. The Go trains are an actually working S-Bahn-System and there are quite a lot of trams with bus lines to fill in the gaps. The one thing missing imho is a solid subway system, the one Toronto has is horribly undersized for a city of this magnitude.
Meanwhile, the subway system of montreal is excellent but apart from that there is one REM-line (which is basically just another, albeit awesome, subway branch in terms of functionality) and a whole lot of super shitty buses that get stuck in traffic. Montreal desperately needs to build a streetcar system!
Both cities suffer from bad intercity train connections. The windsor-quebec-corridor is absolutely predestined for high speed rail but alas, you guys got stuck with Via which somehow manages to be even worse than Amtrak (which at least manages to have something resembling decent service on the eastern corridor).
@@lb2791you took the words right out of my mouth👏👏apart from the metro, everything in Montreal is absolute dog shit
Thank you so much for this video. This video really opened my eyes as to how lucky I am to be living in Montreal. I really enjoyed taking more trips lately without my car as oftentimes it is much faster to take the metro or exo train than driving. Luckily for us, this winter hasn't been too snowy yet except that one big storm early December, usually the biggest problem I find is the bad snow removal which makes walking/cycling a lot harder than it needs to be. Sure we still have a lot that need to be improved, like reducing the amount of parking spots and cars on the road, but I really feel like downtown Montreal is already a good start especially compared to other boroughs in the west of the island.
31:39 LMAO - Canadian here: i knew the beatdown that was about to ensue after the pause of "Namur Station" 😂😂
visited montreal this summer and coming from NYC, i actually found it pretty difficult to get around without a car. it was possible, but me and my friends were often walking under highway overpasses, over large hills, or just walking for more than half an hr at a time to get to other parts of the city not connected by transit. but i admit we are really spoiled by how well connected everything in manhattan is
41:36 LMAO Death star trench… thats my new favorite urbanism term
lol. I must admit, I was inspired by this (very) old Strong Towns video: czcams.com/video/zWG49xlZ_eQ/video.html (5m02s)
So true about Canadians using Winter as an excuse to do or not do things. I live in Northern Ontario and it's unbelievable how many people think snow and cold weather mean that nobody should be bicycling or even walking.
50 mins of NotJustBikes, what a Christmas gift. Thank you!
Thank you so much for making this video, everything you said is actually spot on, i did a trip this summer from Montréal to Granby on South Shore, and there was soooo many stop signs everywhere, once we got out of Montréal there were pretty decent cycling infrastructure if you find them, they are passing through nature and are very relaxing, pleasing and mostly completely separated from cars
I'm glad you enjoyed it! I really did try to be fair in my assessment to give a realistic picture. Thanks for the SuperThanks! 👍
@@NotJustBikes What he is mentioning there is part of 'La Route Verte' which is probably the most impressive inter-provincial bike path network outside of Europe...
Regarding the time for fixing a flat tire: that sounds like it's mostly Amsterdam. The few times I let it fix at a bike shop it was done within a few business hours. I suspect the cause of the problem is partly because many people just patch the tires themselves, so you suddenly add an investigation step (i.e. 'check if a patch will do').
I was about to make the same remark, most people just patch the tires themselves, once you know how it will take less than ten minutes.
That was an absolutely _delightful_ and incredibly insightful video! The fake ending sent me lmao. And despite all the imperfections, I really want to visit Montréal now! Hopefully the city can continue to make progress (and get those *highways* outta the downtown areas, I mean, what even is this?!)
I live in St-Hubert (Longueuil). And drive through the path at 35:54 every day. For whatever it's worth, the construction on the right side of Chemin de Chambly that you filmed at that point in the video is part of a 2 year project to carve out a good chunk of that road and make large bike lanes and a grassy island separating both sides of the road.
The work has progressed tremendously over the past couple of months since you came here. I'm excited to bike to work next spring!
As a Montreal, I can tell you, this is your masterpiece! It simply says it all!
I love Montreal's efforts to become walkable and transit oriented. That said, Vancouver built a walkable downtown, a decent cycling network, and an automated LRT decades ago - all of which is still being consistently improved and expanded upon. Of course, it's great to see Montreal go down this path, and it was already a great city to begin with, so the improvements make an even bigger difference. What makes Montreal a better city than Vancouver is not it's urbanism, as both cities do a fine job, but affordability, as a regular person can actually afford to live in Montreal.
I frequently visit Namur station as described in this video . The situation you described is what inspired me to donate to strong towns . You killed my video ambition dreams lol, I wanted to make a video on that
As someone who lives and works in Le Plateau Montréal without a car, I've gotta say I'm a lot less pessimistic about Montreal than you. Everything I need is within a 15 minute bike ride of my house, and most of my friends live in the neighbourhood whom I run into regularly (most densely populated neighbourhood in Canada btw). Our downtown is trash compared to Vancouver and Toronto's, but while they have old expensive single family homes surrounding their downtown, we have (relatively) affordable multiplexes, which were built before even the streetcar was commonplace. These neighbourhoods make for great bases for urbanism to spread through, and our girl Valérie Plante has been doing great work with this.
Funny thing is how your comment proves hit point,
Such a good video and the only one I've seen that addresses the explosion of North American "urbanists" supporting car-centric "urbanism" so long as there's a bus line there or a bike gutter. It's CRAZY how we went from realizing what North America is, to trying to cope with how bad it is by pretending theres actual good progress, when its all the same, islands of expensive wakability surrounded by impoverished car centric areas. You also addressed the fact that transit, especially speed-focused transit, should take you somewhere, not a car infested stroad. Also that dig to philly near the end is so deserved and I hope you make a video on the city. Its a city that a lot of American urbanists that live in, promise you its super great and walkable and like Chicago! Meanwhile its just like any other car centric American "city", except it also has literal crumbling infustructure
I find that a lot of online urbanists only go as deep as "bike lane = good." It's maddening how shallow the analysis is.
The thing about Philadelphia is, compared to the utter garbage that is the rest of North America, it's among the best (and then, as you say, only within an island of expensive walkability). But compared to *actually good* urban development, well...
@@lunasophia9002 it's not...Real cities in the country are Chicago and NYC by far. In terms of cities that get close to them, that belongs to Boston and D.C, I wouldn't add Philly to that list. The only thing Philly really has going for it is the commuter rail, which sucks when you realize it's just used as a worse version of the subway, as shown by the subway maps. There are PLENTY of cities better off than Philly in a lot of ways. What angers me most about Philly is how expensive it is for how garbage it is. I'd say yes, Philly is better than the rest of the usa overall; but I mean that's not hard, just don't be a parking lot.
One of your best videos yet, and I loved that you split the video in two parts 😁
Honestly depressing that places can be so bad that Montreal appears good. North America, that might have the most beautiful landscapes in the world, is reduced to this.
Thanks so much! 👍
I agree with you. Canada is a beautiful country full of some of the best natural places in the world, and yet almost every human settlement is completely car-infested. It's such a shame.
Great video as always! I'd be very curious to hear what you have to say about my city of Sofia, Bulgaria. I think we definitely need someone sharing their critics from such outside perspective of a visitor. The city has potential but also has many issues that need improvement
To be fair MTL is definitely not an European city but it is still a place where you can get some glimpses of it. As you perfectly described it there are some few neighborhoods and districts that managed to keep their previous century heritage but i agree there are only too few of them and all new developments are still way too much cars centric.
I was very surprised to hear you say good things about boroughs because in London, the boroughs are the reason why a lot of cycling projects get pushed back, specifically the very rich ones in the centre. It definitely makes sense then that good urbanism drops off suddenly because no matter how well-meaning one borough is, their neighbour can be the complete opposite
He wasn't explicit but I think he implied it was a mixed bag. Stuff locally gets done quickly when a borough wants it, but then you get patchworks because the borough next door doesn't.
Montreal is still improving. Every infrastructures for cycling and pedestrian is new.
Great video! Back in the 90s I lived in Montreal and used my bike and the metro to get around. The trick is to realize that there are usually quiet streets parallel to the stroads, so you always ride your bike on the quiet streets, never on the stroads.