25 Awesome Urban Transformations You Need to See
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
- Thanks to Paradox for sponsoring this video. Check out Cities: Skylines II at our link here: play.citiessky...
Montreal’s urban transformation to become less car-dominated and more livable is nothing short of amazing. By now everyone knows about the big examples like the very well-used express bike corridor on Saint-Denis or the lively car-free summer streets, but if you walk or bike around the city you’ll encounter dozens more changes, big and small, that have only happened over the past decade or so. The thing is, you might not know that the changes were new, and that the city wasn’t always like this. In this video we’re going to highlight 25 recent, ongoing, or upcoming improvements we’ve never covered before that show how cities everywhere can turn the page on car-centric design.
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Wow: Steam tells me I played the original Cities: Skylines for a total of 800 hours. How many hours did you put into the original game?
Check out the sequel with our link here: play.citiesskylines.com/OhTheUrbanity
A little over 1,000 Hours. To be fair, a lot of that is "Booting up C:S in case I want to play when I get home" due to having an old computer until a couple weeks ago. So, starting the preload before heading out to work this morning feels natural.
lol same. 803 hours for me.
2011 hours for me LOL I didn't even know
300 hours, rookie numbers I know. But hey, maybe you can nudge Paradox to add some bike infrastructure to C:S 2?
2358.2h... 😱
What I’m most impressed is that they don’t seem to wait for that final product but have multiple quicker builds that make it better in the interim. I wish my city could think like this
Yes!! Instead of spending a whole budget on just environmental review and architectural renderings.. this is so awesome to see
Allows them to collect data to make their case too! The same was done in Times Square in NYC when they turned car lanes into a seating area. It's hard to believe that such a touristed area was ever dominated by cars!
Its crazy how many places that I went to and enjoyed in the city were just updated/made more beautiful in the past 5 years. Amazingly steady progress.
We even originally compiled about 50 of these in the script, but decided not to try to cram them all into one video!
@@OhTheUrbanity You should make a part 2. I was so happy seeing all these improvements.
What really stands out to me is how many of these places I've been regularly enjoying over the last few years. I've always felt the changes, but it's easy to take for granted how it is now compared to how they used to be. This video does an amazing job just highlighting that change is really happening and gives a good sense of the pace it can happen with!
@@Hannwes Probably will!
Yet, the mayor of Montreal is getting so much hate from people (people not living in Montreal)
The dominant theme: iterative improvement.
You don’t come in with a grand master plan that gets everything built to a final state all at once. Rather, you take what you have and make it a little better. Then you come back and make it a little better again. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Always making little changes to make things a little better when and where you can.
Good term
Montreal is doing beautiful work. Here in NYC, some stuff is happening, but there is such intense opposition. To the nimbies, losing a dozen parking spots is an existential crisis. I just can't imagine anyone looking at this footage of Montreal's projects and denying the benefit to the community. Even liberals in this city have a very car-centric view of life. Even my most progressive friends will hate on cyclists; as if car supremacy is part of a program for normalcy. I don't even start with these people, but I wish I could make them understand what a conservative impulse a status quo bias can be. I know Montreal must be very similar in certain ways, but NYC really seems to hate itself. Nobody can get behind a plan that doesn't directly benefit them.
Don't get us wrong... There is intense opposition in Montréal too.
Congestion pricing is a good step although nationwide opposition seems…intense
That's especially bizarre for a city as densely populated as New York, but it's the same in London with the recent expansion of low emission zones. People were trying to claim poor people were being forced out of driving. Truth is the poor already weren't driving and were taking buses or trains and the rules only affected a small number of cars, most people were unaffected by the change.
Too many people see driving as a right regardless of how many children their big cars squish or how much CO2 they put out, but the perception needs to change to it being a privilege and it also needs to not be a necessity (hint: it's not necessary for most people in London outside of specific jobs and those that are disabled)
@CannedFishFiles Sounds exactly like SoCal
@@Wozza365I nearly had a stroke when I saw news reports of people rioting in the streets of Miami over Florida no longer recognising foreign driving licences. Ever heard of the metro and Tri-rail/Brightline? Probably not, because public transit wasn't mentioned once. It's all about driving.
As a Torontonian I am simply amazed by the notion of a city that cares about making itself livable for its locals (:
Toronto votes for conservative mayors. If they spend money on nice things, even if economically done, they will be seen as wasteful. And then there is the traffic mentality. Car movement is given priority, limiting application of complete streets and vision zero initiatives.
My employer probably wouldn't be too happy with me identifying them in a comment here, but I work in the urban renewal space. There's progress being made in Toronto, but it tends to be very isolated in scope and geographic footprint. Broader progress seems to me to still be impaired by the former suburbs vs. downtown mentality that still prevails in Toronto. I reached out to my former and current councillors to try and get a temporary pilot of some streetscape improvements to the four lane stroad with two lanes of street parking near my house, and they weren't overly receptive. It doesn't seem to be an issue of left vs. right (in fact I had more traction with a former right-leaning councillor), but one of not wanting to upset people with any changes. Stagnation seems to be the default position in most of this city.
@@MrJoeSomebody They're not elected as part of a party, but in the case of Toronto the connections are obvious. Tory was PC leader for 5 years prior to becoming mayor, and Rob Ford with his now PC Premier Doug were extremely anti-bike lane.
In a bright spot going forward, Doug Ford's preference for fellow anti-bike lane crusader in Saunders lost to Olivia Chow who made a point of biking to work on her first day.
I think Montreal's European influence has to have something to do here. Toronto is WAY to American for things like that, but I believe those nice things will come someday.
It's crazy how livable Montreal is becoming, and how quickly it's happening. Other cities should take inspiration from it. The only concern is that, as livable as Montreal is getting, the rents are skyrocketing. I worry that only a select few will be able to enjoy the city's livability in the future.
the only thing stopping neighbouring cities from doing the same is themselves.
What helps keep Montreal affordable is the Quebecoise pro-French laws and attitudes. Because knowing French is a prerequisite for full integration in Montreal society, it makes it less attractive for the sort of investors and developments that plague Toronto and Vancouver. Because it is harder to move to Montreal and harder to invest than other Canadian cities, it is a bit sheltered from the Canadian Real-Estate Bubble (that is more overvalued than a bundle of Tulips in 1630s Amsterdam)
It’s nice to see other cities going in the right direction. In my city they set up protected bike lanes during the pandemic, but recently removed the bollards and turned it into a shared bike lane citing the need to “improve traffic flow.” As you can imagine, the number of cyclists in the area subsequently decreased and traffic is just as bad as ever.
which city is this?
@@CommentsTroll It's one of the cities in Metro Manila in the Philippines. It's a small, affluent city with gated communities and large private schools, so you can imagine where the clamour to remove the protected bike lanes came from. For such a dense megacity, Metro Manila is super car centric, hence the horrible traffic everywhere.
Very impressive. I love the "do a temporary thing, and then make it permanent later" way of doing it. It allows people to experience something first without having to fight to convince locals it's a good idea, because they can say "it's only temporary", but then I presume the locals mostly like the changes, and then it's easy to get sign-off to make it permanent. More cities should do that.
6:14 Merci du fond du cœur pour diffuser ainsi la culture nationale québécoise et la présenter comme telle sous son propre nom, peu de chaînes le font quand la culture québécoise a tellement à offrir au reste du monde. Vous êtes ma chaîne d'urbanisme préférée, c'est pourquoi je viens de m'abonner, vous m'avez convaincu!
Merci infiniment!
Because of your channel I've moved to Montreal and in comparison to everywhere else in Canada it really is a gem!
That's awesome to hear!
How was moving there? I'm seriously considering moving from Winnipeg to Montreal. Really can't find any downsides... I'm trying to at least become more familiar with French before moving.
@@Wtfevenisthepointofus living without French is easy. Finding a job without it is mission impossible, unless we're talking IT jobs
@@WtfevenisthepointofusTake some french classes before or when your get here ! Even if living without french is indeed easy in most of Montreal, Montreal is in Quebec, a french province! You wont truly fit in if you don't at least understand/speak a bit of french. Effort is key, if people see you're trying, they'll be nice to you, but if you come without the goal of integrating and learning french, you probably will have some unpleasant encounters...
@@dez7800 I agree with everything being said here. The effort is very much key, people need to see that you are putting in the effort. They don't expect perfection but they really value the effort.
Also, it is possible to live in Anglophone pockets of the city, especially in the western part, however it would be an isolated bubble lifestyle without fully experiencing what city in its entirety has to offer. The core cultural aspect of the city living is very much in French.
From my observations, local and expat Anglophones that live in Montreal without learning French have city life similar to immigrants that move to other cities in Canada but don't really learn English; Only hanging out within their own ethnic circle and trying to reproduce a lifestyle the place where they originate from while being blocked off and unable to participate within the general society and unable to take advantage of everything it has to offer.
All that to say that learning French will pay off exponentially if considering a move to Montreal.
Perfect video to show people that say that this type of city design isn’t possible outside of older European cities. Great work!
I live downtown and in the last month or so, I quickly saw protected bike lanes take over an entire car lane on Av Viger and Rue St Antoine and it made me so damn happy. I often cross these streets and Viger especially can be super scary with a load of fast moving cars, having that extra space is incredible and it shocked me to see how quickly and efficiently Montreal is constantly improving their infrastructure.
The rest of North America has loads to learn from this city, great video!
This makes me fucking proud of my city. Incredible to look back on what all these space used to look like. Incremental changes add up.
Also important to note that this is almost entirely the work of Project Montreal, the current mayor’s party. Politics is important!
You know what ...
I recently started paying attention to the changes occurring in Montreal, but I didn't realize the full scale of these changes before watching that.
Although the memes about the massive concentration of orange cones in Montreal are, often, genuinely funny, I suspect that most people making fun of Montreal are actually missing the point (like I was).
That vidéo just shifted my perception of the orange cones from "annoyance" to "progress".
Thanks !
1- One thing to not be underestimated for this urban culture: the French influence. Not the old and historic link with France but the actual city planning collaboration between France and Québec. Bordeaux has transformed a neighborhood after the visit of the Mayor of Bordeaux dans le Vieux-Montréal and the riverside of Québec city. Also, Paris and Montréal are developing bike lines at the same time (sharing experiences). 2- Young Architects and urban planners got involved in politics and were elected. That makes a huge difference. Being a montréalais since the 80's, all my adult life, the younger generation of politicians had a great influence about city life.
Exactly! The rest of Canada is WAY to American to consider ditching a parking lot or a car lane for a bike Lane.
Almost every Québécois (e) has been at least once to France in their lifetime. The European example has been a big influence in the renaissance of Québec City, and later of Montréal.
Your stance on optimism is excellent. Thanks for this! I'm going over it with a fine toothed comb for ideas to rally around for my own city.
Hey, I love this low level overview of changes in Montreal! Last time I was there was before the pandemic, as I grew up in New Hampshire and wanted to enjoy the lower drinking age with my friends😁, and am excited to see how it's improved! In urbanism we often focus on the big picture, but I like to see specifics of how improvements were achieved too!
I've only lived in the city for 10 years, but the changes that have been happening to the city are phenomenal. It's great to live in such a livable city and not have to rely on a car to enjoy it.
Absolutely my favorite video of yours!!! Maybe make another video about how Montreal was able to achieve these goals politically?
I definitely would love to see such a video!
this is why i'm moving to montreal soon, my native city of lévis barely bothers with having any bike infra whatsoever. even the police tells people to park in the bike lanes for the famous "2 minutes" and trends to victim blame people who end up in dangerous situation because of the bike lane parking. montreal is actually doing changes to aocmodate bikes and makes traveling within the city much safer and easier
As-tu considéré St-Roch ou Charlesbourg?
This is my perfect video: before & afters, urbanism, and Montreal. Keep it up, y'all!
as a Montrealer, we still think that it's not enough ! we want more bikes less cars !! (and more public transit)
Love seeing the progress done over time for some of these projects! It’s so important to remember that the good infrastructure we almost take for granted might have started out as a pilot project!
I live in Ottawa but come to Montreal as often as possible and you've highlighted many of the reasons why. These changes make wandering around the city a constant joy. Spaces feel to human scale, safe and filled with life and colour.
I wish our city had the same passion for change and cared as much about people's lived experiences. Not only do the changes benefit people who live in Montreal, I really do feel they draw me and others to visit as well.
Thanks for sharing all of these changes
This is such a fantastic video that should be sent to mayors and city planners around North America. Tons of spaces where cars were removed within only 10 years. There is no reason we shouldn't be able to do this everywhere.
I love these examples of real world improvements. We've got some holdouts on our city council who cant understand why we need to change things, let alone how to get there. But having an easy before -> after of small improvements really helps me show regular people what can be done and how to get there. Jokes on them though, since a lot of the local ordinances theyre shooting down are getting rammed through by the state. One NIMBY at the last meeting even said "while i dont want this development built, i think we have to realize that the developer only wanted to build a few spots and we said no, then he went to the state and now theyre gunna build a huge building. We sorta shot ourselves in the foot here and people have to realize that"
Of course, the "monstrosity" they were talking about was.... 4 sets of 3 townhouses... but things are changing for the better!
If people decide to destroy the shitty rotting house I live in to build a townhouse it serves me right for not being financially able to make it better and less tear-down-able looking
I deserve homelessness
Holy smokes Montreal is really doing amazing work! Those projects are fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing!
Best city in north America. Love it
I’ve lived in Montreal all my life, and use my bike for almost everything. But I have to say, seeing all these projects all at once, it kinda makes me realize how lucky I am to live in such a beautiful bike-friendly city. And yeah, you should move here! It’s awesome!
I LOVE this video because it gives me hope. It's so easy to not see the progress of things when you look at a snapshot in time.
Montreal is making some great strides!
Really great video on how turning stroads, roads, and parking. Into friendly pedestrian ways.
Only Edmonton can only dream of this
I feel the same way about the Greater Vancouver area. Hell, even Vancouver proper. Outside of a few streets on the western side of downtown, and a few streets in downtown that are basically just outdoor shopping malls, it's hard to see anything truly pedestrian-friendly like this. Best case is moderately wide sidewalks and a few bike corridors.
incredible to see these changes. Montreal is on a great momentum
Wow, I remember exploring Google Maps about a decade ago and being a little underwhelmed when looking at Montreal's bike infrastructure, but it seems like Montreal is now among the best and fastest-improving bike cities in North America, especially among the larger cities. It seems particularly impressive just how many new pedestrianized plazas there are.
It feels like the former leaders in bike infrastructure like Portland and Minneapolis have stagnated even when just cycling infrastructure is considered. I'm not aware of anything like the rapid conversion of road/parking lanes into permanent plazas/gardens/businesses on the scale and ambition of Montreal after the covid blip of pedestrianization, especially not in Minnesota. The big urban renewal project here is turning a huge lot with a vacant K-mart that formerly disconnected Nicollet Avenue (restaurant/shopping street) into a . . . street with some shops and a park. Like, we have a street that was already disconnected, and all of the city's design proposals involve reconnecting the street, and only one of those have a modal filter, and even that one still allows transit rather than keeping space dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists (wonder how many private/commercial vehicles would just use the street anyway).
It would be awesome to see similar videos covering improvements that have been made in other Canadian cities like Vancouver or Halifax
We’d love to see other people do similar videos on other cities. It probably wouldn’t work for us to do them because we want to visit and get footage from most of them before featuring (also, it’s a lot easier to find them in your own city).
This video was the final star for me to move to Montreal. I'm now even settled in yet and my life quality increased a lot
Welcome!
"or 3 if you count the sidewalk like this van did" you guys are priceless
So refreshing to see streets and public spaces being reclaimed for people rather than the storage of automobiles.
I love how many creative uses Montreal has for all of its space! I absolutely love the idea of a place for kids to learn to ride bikes and of the mini outdoor gym.
What I’m most impressed with is the willingness of the city leaders to actually make those changes. Where I am, barely anything happens proactively, if at all.
Montreal makes me so hopeful for my own city.
It's nice to recognize so many places in your videos! Didn't know most of them even just 3 years ago, and I've lived in a nearby city all my life. I go by Terrasse Roy on most week days when I work at the office. I'll often stop there to either eat lunch or drink some water from the fountain and sit beneath a tree for a couple minutes if it's a nice day out. Great use of space. Not only is it very welcoming, but it also creates a kind of super block in that area. Since the street doesn't allow through traffic, you only get a few residents who use their vehicles, which calms the street down.
I also started noticing a whole lot more of these modal filters in several places in the city. It really is starting to feel like you can go off the big paths like the REV and still have good, safe streets wherever you go in a vast portion of the city.
Merci pour cette belle présentation des améliorations à Montréal et pour votre enthousiasme ! Bravo pour le sponsor avec Cities skylines ça correspond bien avec votre sujet et votre public!
This video reminds me of the Gwanghwamun square in Seoul South Korea! It’s an amazing pedestrian plaza with a park/greenway nearby and I visited it multiple time and have such great memories of it. Later when I got back in the US, I saw a pic on Instagram of it, but it looked different with roads 6-7 lanes of roads on both side. Turns out the plaza has only been like it has for a bit more than a year, but no one cares now that 6 car lanes were removed and that I will always remember it as the new improved version that it is today
I’m impressed with what Montreal is doing. I wish my city would have the option to do the same thing.
It's wonderful to see the progression and creativity of urbanist projects in Montreal. Lots of great examples to learn from. I must make a trip there soon.
Essential videos! We all too easily forget what the city looked like just a few short years ago and need to realize what the city would be like with another business as usual city administration. The longer the Plante admin stays in power, the better.
Could I suggest you more of these kinds of videos when changes warrant them and put them in a playlist? It could also be a useful tool to convince people, as well as remember to appreciate the progress made!
ua-cam.com/play/PLN3OhfIDlvuN2b8iJ8NYUK7n6MrKCYIUF.html
City skylines sponsorship is dope dope lmao
Wow! Some amazing actionable improvements for the city of Montreal! I can see why you both love the city so much!
My only add to some of these places would be raised crosswalks. I think cities should take every opportunity to slow down traffic as much as possible!
and raised intersections in general
The changes look amazing! The streets look so much more inviting with all that greenery and space to cycle/walk. I want that outside gym, looks so cool!
I do think the city planners should think of car parking, as people are still reliant on their cars in the US and Canada. Amsterdam is removing 10K parking spots in the city so people get more space in the streets (and children get more space to play outside), but they also built an underground parking garage so residents can park their car. Usually residents get a special pas they can leave in their car, to "prove" they are a resident and need a parking space. Cities also build transferiums, car garages at the edge of the city, so people from outside the city can park there and then use transit to get into the city center. Even with good bicycle infrastructure and transit, people still need or want to drive and residents still need to park their car somewhere. You want to get everyone on board with this and not get people angry. Some people need to haul groceries into their homes or they have a handicap and can't walk far, so you can't just say 'screw you and your car'. The goal (at least for now) should be more trips on bicyles and less with cars, not that everyone has to give up their car. In the Netherlands 30% of trips are still done by car (mostly commuting to work and sometimes to get a big grocery haul for the family) and there's still a high percentage of car ownership. In the future it would be nice if car sharing would be the standard.
I am extremely jealous. And I am from Europe!!
I am serioulsy speechless and I watched the whole video with my mouth open... This is unbelievable and I think this can change Jason's opinion on US future.
What does Montreal have to do with the US?
Really heartening to see this progress.
It's so impressive seeing how much positive change Montreal making. In NYC, each change is met with small but strong opposition from drivers. Even more impressive to me is seeing how all of the changes in Montreal start out as temporary and then become permanent. In NYC, while we have quite a few "bike lanes" and other improvements, they all seem to remain what you classify as "temporary" changes forever, never moving on to being physically permanent.
Its incredible to see the transformation of this city. Truly the greatest north American city, and a model so many others should follow!
In Montreal, the more "east" or "west" you go, the more you'll encounter resistance for these types of urbanization projects. Lots of people are stuck in their suburban mentality still. I love that they finally did something about all those "roads" and parking spots that dissected Laf park.
Je me déplace à vélo. Et je découvre à chaque semaine de nouvelle transformation. Je suis émerveillé et pas mal fière de ma ville.
Avez vous visité la transformation du parc rosemont ? Un concept incroyable.
Totalmente de acuerdo. Montreal es uno de los lugares más interesantes que he visitado en Canadá. ¿Crees que seguirá progresando, o ves resistencia en la ciudadanía ultimamente?
Je pense que je suis passé à vélo sur D'Iberville pendant les travaux. Peut-être que j'irai voir le produit fini bientôt!
@@Frostbikeroui, mais les effets spectaculaires réduisent la résistance au minimum.
@@aluet30 Je ne comprends pas ce que vous voulez dire ?
A well done video document on changes to our city. I have lived in the heart of the "Plateau-Montréal" borough for the past 39 years. For a long time, we were convinced that what we had, and were building, was one of the best kept secrets in Canada. Well, I guess that secret has now been revealed.
wow! its great to see how montreal goes from a temporary space, to permanent infrastructure. It allows city designers to learn from the temporary space and fix issues before making it permanent. i feel like this is something that Toronto greatly struggles in. We have some progress, but its mostly just paint and temporary structures. It seems rare that that things get improved from mediocre temporary structures, to much improved permanent spaces.
And on top of that, Montrealers are infinitely kind. "I know, I've been living there for 60 years."
About a year ago I was in Montreal sitting at a park and I thought to myself "Wow, what an nice little urban space, locals really seem to use it as a gathering place." and now it's in the thumbnail for this video.
Have you ever considered getting involved in municipal politics? You obviously love Montreal, and you seem to have a great vision and understanding for the city. Regardless, thanks for putting our city under the spotlight!
Never say never, but Montreal is already on a pretty good trajectory. We think of our role more as presenting Montreal's successes as a model or inspiration for other places in North America.
it feels so good to see positive changes occur. small, incremental changes are so important and impactful. the shift from a parking lot to an area where children can play and ride bikes seems small but is actually a huge change in quality of life for children. it provides an opportunity to make new friends, learn new skills and just be a kid. what was once a desolate, un-utilized parking lot is now an area for life. it makes me so happy and optimistic to see what montreal has accomplished.
I like how you showed and explained about the transformations at each stage, nice work! I think it would be a good idea to make another video on changes in pedestrian and bicycle usage in each of these places, as well as how the changes affected automobile traffic flow and parking availability in adjacent areas. I mean, the cars that used to use these streets and park there need to go somewhere, right?
I am excited for the people of this city for that they got so many New little Parks and saver streets!
This is how a city in transition to a more livable city should look like. Good for Montreal. I see more glimmers of hope on YT, but this is citywide and with political support against the car lobby. It’s a first that I see a politician without a rubber spine, but a politician who keeps standing firm against the car lobby. This is a win-win. A win for pedestrians, cyclists, environment, and a win against the car lobby. At the same time a better city to visit and a better city to live in.
I don’t usually comment, but this is a brilliant video! Thank you so much for making this.
I would love to see other urbanism content creators make similar videos for the cities they live in. Seeing progress in the US and Canada is awesome!
Thank you! We'd love to see similar style videos from other cities too.
Magnifique! Wow... Montreal is becoming more and more tempting by the day. And that MR-63 project, reusing the old Metro trains, I've got to check that out. Merci for the video!
I know you're based in Montreal but I would love if you ever did a video on Washington DC. It's not quite the same but there have been some great updates in the last decade.
We'd love to visit sometime, it looks like it has a lot of really cool medium-density neighbourhoods and the Metro coverage seems really good
@@OhTheUrbanity Yep, I think you touched on it well in the Top 10 Urbanist N.A. cities video. Metro covers the city fairly well and also acts as commuter rail to suburbs that, while car centric, have good density around certain stations. The Orange Line corridor in Arlington was built dense to spur urbanism in the 70s, and the same is likely to develop along the Yellow, Silver, and Red Lines in the coming years. Bike lane expansion has been fairly rapid for a N.A. city with a cheap bikeshare system. It's not perfect but it's got a lot going for it, especially for a region that spreads into 2 states from DC.
This is a fantastic video, geeat inspiration for us all
If you looked at the facebook comments ( when news articles were allowed on facebook in Canada ) , you would have thought that Valérie Plante was killing Montreal and that the city would never recover.
Not listening to car apologists is probably her strongest quality so far 😆
5:32
As an american it's so weird to see a walmart without a desert of a parking lot in front of it.
It's not really the norm here either, but it was cool to see
I think the city recently passed a rule mandating minimum 40% canopy coverage when trees are mature. I hope this parking becomes the new norm.
Solid work. Thanks!
This makes me want to use my Canadian citizeship and move to Montreal!
This is amazing. I think this is really important to show people what can be done. I can't imagine anyone looking at those new areas and not thinking they looked nice and inviting. Wish we could get this in Ottawa.
next you should cover the expected transformation of the waterfront from highway to green cycling/pedestrian corridor
So inspired by all these spaces and places and safe (and beautiful) ways to get there! Just dreaming about what is possible here in Fort McMurray...
This is probably my favorite video of yours. So awesome. I loved montreal when i lived there
The fact that there are people that had the vision to transform these spaces so dramatically and make it work so well is mind-blowing to me. I come from a car-centric north american city where change is being made but super slowly. I think small projects like infilling a parking lot, (of which we have a lot of downtown) are extremely important for keeping people motivated that the city can change, especially when a lot of these urban transportation plans have goals like 2050. Our city has been like this for so long I doubt many people can even imagine that it can be any different, and places like montreal give hope that things can be different if there is the will for it to be so.
Very thankful for the positive aspects of things that are happening!! Makes me hopefully more will happen
My question is, how did Montreal make this transformation look so easy while US cities struggle to reclaim even a single parking spot? Does the city simply have fewer regulations and red tape for NIMBYs to weaponize? I feel like every single one of these projects would be set back decades due to public hearings, idiotic environmental studies, lawsuits, etc. if they were to be implemented in a US city.
It's a good question that we want to explore more in the future. There are some unique features of Montreal politics, including the boroughs having a lot of power (so the more urbanist areas can experiment with bike lanes and pedestrian streets more actively). Also, Montreal has political parties at the municipal level (actual city-specific parties like Projet Montréal, not just local versions of national parties like Liberal/Conservative or Republican/Democrat).
Many of these improvements can be implemented the borough level which has a lot of power in terms of urbanism. These kind of projects which don’t require the approval of the central city. They also face less opposition and scrutiny compared to projects led by the central city.
Also, many of these projects were implemented in boroughs where the political party won with a big majority (55 to 75% of the votes) which means they knew they had the support from their constituents.
A lot of Montreal shown in this video was developed before the 1950s. First, less car-centred design to begin with. Second, higher density zoning (lots of multi-unit housing) means neighbourhoods support small businesses and are more walkable - taking away the need-a-car rationale. Third, a robust traffic grid. Lots of continuous local streets mean that if one street is pedestrianized or narrowed, there are nearby parallel routes.
This is very impressive. In the last few years Ottawa has also been doing quite a lot of improvement for bike users, as well as pedestrians. Sadly, with our new mayor elected last year, I am afraid the pace of change will slow down, or god forbid be reversed.
I went to so many places on this list this summer. It is really pleasant to find out how recent and rapid these changes have been. it gives me a lot of hope for Victoria bc which is set to make a number of similar changes
Hey you spoke about Parc des Gorilles! I'm glad my Tweet seemed to have reached you ! :)
We went and got a drone shot not long after!
Its urban renewal, but the second generation: Actually making cities better instead of destroying them!
I´m from Germany was a lot of time on bussiness trips in Montreal. Its by far the city that i like the most in north america. Less car more public Transportation and transforming the big streets in smaller and green ones ist perfect.
This is so cool! There are many changes listed in this video that I didn't even know about even though I live in Montreal! I typically use 511 Québec to see which construction projects are taking place around the city, and there will sometimes be information regarding new bike paths there. However, it doesn't show everything... I'm gonna have to go check out some of these changes for myself ^^
Also I'm sad to see how far behind my borough is in terms of taking spaces away from cars. We still have slip lanes at even some minor intersections to allow cars to turn right on red or without a stop sign...
I really wish Vancouver, instead of sliding backwards, would emulate Montreal and invest in more protected bike infrastructure and pedestrian improvements.
All of these were very beautiful and interesting to look at. My favorite one was #23 , it just looks so much nicer AND even still allows cars to get through (at a slower speed), so everyone wins.
Montréal is the best exemple to how transform an American style city in something more.
First put some paint and physical road block so people see it’s a good change, then make it permanent.
I just have to say, the way these improvements provide a sense of beauty and charm to the area is hard to overstate. It's incredible how harmful cars are to our visual environment, and it's striking when you see it represented by the before and after shots in this video.
Montreal combines everything great about Vancouver and Toronto.
One issue about parc-ex and avenue Querbes is that almost every way out of parc-ex is still very dangerous for cyclist so many don't consider cycling as a viable option yet. Sadly the protests didn't addressed that much as far as I know, and only focused on the removed parking.
Having spent a lot of time around the neighbourhood filming recently, you're very right. I believe there's supposed to be a REV on Jean-Talon in the next few years though, which should be a big improvement.
The city and Université de Montréal could have solved the problem when the new MIL campus was built. Instead, they opted for a private overpass that's impractical for bicycles and poorly maintained in winter. But it looks so good on the architects' model.
Please do more of them 🙏
Closing the Old Port and the Mont-Royal road to cars was so good, finally!
I live in Park-Ex where there have been protests against adding bike lanes. it wasn't mentioned in the video, but in addition to taking away one lane of parking on Querbes, they are planning on removing all parking on Ogilvy, which would connect the train and metro station on one end of the street to Town of Mount Royal (TMR/Ville de Mont-Royal). a lot of the people protesting against the removal of parking are elderly people and non-white immigrant parents who need their cars to go to work (usually far away) and are concerned about safety of their kids and themselves... and consider bikes to be a white young-adult thing. what they don't really get imo is that the bike lanes will make it easier them or their children to move around the neighbourhood safely, because frankly right now a lot of drivers are coming through the area and not driving safely at all, and taking away parking will help with that enormously.
i'm sure there are plenty of multi-car households of younger, white, non-disabled folks in park-ex, who are willing to give some space to those who need it, right? r i g h t ?
The Querbes path will also provide an easy connection to the Marché Central and its hundreds of jobs. Clearly a benefit for the Parc-Ex residents who don't own a car, 50% of the neighborhood.
Wow! Makes me want to move to Montreal.
The changes made are still good, but the east and west of Montreal are still neglected
This gives so much hope for those of us that think rebuilding a city for people would take too long.
It's encouraging to see the improvements in many areas of the city, but unfortunately, such changes are not yet common in all burrows. I live in Ahuntsic and not much has changed near the 2 awful stroads that are Henri-Bourassa and L'Acadie. I know that there are plans to redevelop part of Henri-Bourassa, but I wonder if enough space will be allocated to anything other than cars.
Two things that I ❤ : Oh The Urbanity! & City Skylines (2)!
PS can you ask Paradox to get Colossal Order to add a Bixi style network option to their eventual DLC that will add bicycles to CS2?