REM boulevard

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Pierrefonds-Roxboro Mayor Jim Beis is calling on the Montreal Agglomeration to revise the urban boulevard plan for the West Island that was shot down by the Plante administration.

With traffic congestion at an all-time high on the three north-south corridors, St-Jean, Sources and Saint-Charles Boulevards while development and opulation growth has soared in a sector that was orginally designed for farm land until the late 1950’s, the plan for a new urban boulevard was designed to ease traffic flow in the West Island.

The boulevard was planned to span from Gouin Boulevard in Pierrefonds-Roxboro to Highway 40, in Kirkland near the new REM station.

Last year, the Plante administration decided that cars would not have access to the road planned in collaboration with and approved by the provincial government.

The administration turned the plans into part of its bike-path and public transit plans that all West Island Mayors say makes no sense, as the road was planned originally to alleviate traffic. According to the new plan imposed by the Plante administration, the Boulevard would be reserved for buses and bicycles only. It also reframed the route to span between the western tip of Antoine-Faucon Street in Pierrefonds and Ste-Marie Road. This entire decision was not only mad without consulting elected officials in the area, but also without consideration of the West Island populations’ needs, Beis says.

Kirkland Mayor Michel Gibson says that the new plan will backfire on itself, causing more public transit users to take their cars in order to avoid more traffic, rather than use the REM or other forms of public transit.

Both Beis and Gibson have called this plan “ridiculous” and “thoughtless”. “This plan does not coincide with the reality of our population,” Gibson said.

“This is another example of how the Plante administration ignores the reality of the population and the reality presented to them by the elected officials who represent them,” Beis has said. n