Measures meant to ease traffic in the Plateau Mont-Royal borough have most definitely triggered a reaction.
An information meeting on the changes last week drew around 300 largely angry residents to a St-Joseph Blvd. church, demanding that borough mayor Luc Ferrandez and the Projet Montreal dominated borough council reverse some changes to traffic rules.
The borough council held its regular monthly meeting on Monday night, and the climate was not much different, though this time there were some supportive voices in the crowd as well.
Ferrandez felt compelled to defend himself as being anti-car through these measures.
On May 14, the changes went into effect making Christophe-Colombe Ave. one way northbound between St-Joseph and Laurier Ave. That has pushed several cars heading south on to Chambord St., angering those residents, even though the intent was to push traffic onto the major arteries of St-Denis and Papineau.
Laurier is also now a one way eastbound from St-Laurent Blvd., extending the one way portion of the street several blocks west.
Meanwhile, Vision Montreal Leader Louise Harel also weighed into the fray earlier Monday, even though her party has no councilors in the Plateau. But she says that Ferrandez and the Plateau-Mont-Royal should not be making traffic rules that cause headaches for their neighbours.
While residents and merchants alike chimed in their dissent on Monday night, a few others did go to microphone to applaud the measures because they encourage cycling and the use of public transport.
