Car-free day a bitter pill for West Islanders

Those promoting Montreal’s ‘In Town without my Car’ event, namely the City of Montreal and the two transit authorities, should realize symbolic gestures only go so far to change things for the better.

To be fair, the Agence Métropolitaine de Transport (AMT) held public meetings to address the commuter train delays and offered solutions to be in place this year, so we will have to see if those measures have any positive effect. But there are other issues that need attention, such as the need for more frequent trains, better access to stations and enough parking spots so people can leave their cars in the West Island and hop on a train to downtown, thereby reducing the number of vehicles on congested highways. With the ongoing work for the major overhaul at the Dorval Circle, including a new direct link to the airport from Highway 20, motorists are facing construction on that stretch for several more years.

Now that Laval and Longueil both have their metro, authorities are talking about extending new lines to those regions as well as parts of downtown. The West Island never comes up in speculation for a metro line although it’s on the Island of Montreal, probably for both political and demographic reasons. A metro line to the heart of the West Island, say the Fairview Pointe Claire shopping centre, is probably a pipe dream, but less costly endeavours, such as a much-discussed light-rail line to the airport in Dorval with a few extra stops, could be a ‘surface’ metro that would offer West Islanders a suitable alternative to the ever-popular car.

A recent Statistics Canada report states 72 per cent of people in the West Island drive to work and only 16.9 per cent of workers use public transit.

Too bad major improvements to public transit are not in place already to convince people to leave their car at home. It always seems that those in charge of public transit fall behind the pace in dealing with the needs of commuters.