What’s next for Transit-Oriented Development in Canada?
What’s next for Transit-Oriented Development in Canada? Transit Oriented Development (TOD), be it around a rail, underground, light rail, tram, or bus rapid transit line, has been a cornerstone of urban revival for the last decades. It is a remarkably simple idea: if people and urban activities are concentrated around key transit hubs, then users […]
Successes and challenges of decarbonizing transport in Montreal
Building fairer cities I had the pleasure of joining the panel at the World Car Free Day Summit to share my perspectives on how we build back more equitable cities. Specifically to look at some of the successes in decarbonizing transport that have been achieved by the city of Montreal – where my team and […]
Pedestrian comfort – in times of crisis and beyond
“Being able to walk outside while keeping social distance is one of the keys to maintaining the mental and physical health of the population.” This extract from a press release from Piétons Québec (a Canadian organization representing pedestrians) dated March 31, 2020[1] reminds us of the importance of promoting walking at a time when our […]
What if we pedestrianized Montreal’s downtown?
We developed a hypothetical pedestrianisation study of downtown Montreal to look at the impacts of pedestrianising the area for a 24-hour period during the summer season and testing alternative transport solutions. Using open data from EXO’s Origin-Destination Survey (2013) we extracted all vehicular trips during a 24-hour period to the downtown area. This initial data […]
Successful collaboration in planning urban parks: a NACTO walk in downtown Toronto
“It takes two to make a thing go right” – this title of one of the sessions attended by Momentum at the 2019 Conference of the North American City Transportation Officials held in September in Toronto captures the essence of some of the most successful transport and urban planning schemes. A walk organized by a […]
Trying it out
To complete the series on first impressions on Montreal, I wanted to touch upon the impressive wave of transitory urban spaces developed in the city. Urban spaces in the making Montreal has a number of examples of what experts call ‘tactical urbanism’. In London, most projects are planned from the outset, from a concept to […]
A Transit-Oriented Weekend in Ottawa
As part of a transit-oriented weekend organized by an exciting collaboration between YPT Montreal and YPT Toronto (https://www.ypttoronto.org/), it was great to discover some of the latest features of the cycling and walking network of the City of Ottawa last weekend. The soon-to-open LRT Confederation line (https://www.ligneconfederationline.ca/the-plan/where/) will provide 13 new stations connecting downtown Ottawa […]
Let it snow
Coming next in our series on urban quirks in Montreal: the unavoidable impact of winter on urban design and transport planning, which rarely plays the same role on our practice of planning in London. Winter is coming Indeed, one cannot think about Montreal, without thinking about its long and cold winter. Winter comes with its […]
The orientation of Montreal
Three months in: the quirks of city planning in Montreal This week, I continue the series on Montreal’s city planning quirks with a piece on compass orientation. Though the North is the only thing fixed wherever you are in the world, Montreal has made orientation the number one tourist trap and this article will tell […]
Montreal’s city planning quirks
After three months in Montreal, it’s time to pause and reflect on what I’ve learnt from moving to this new city. There are challenges and opportunities common to every large city of the world, such as the drive for sustainable development; rising living and housing costs; and changing technology, which impact on every facet of […]