Pedestrians can stroll down Mont-Royal Avenue one last time, before it is reopened to cars on the return from Labor Day. However, many people would have liked the experience to be prolonged.
“I would like it to continue into the fall. It’s too early, and it’s still sunny,” admitted Sandra Ulloa, owner of the Rütrafe jewelry store.
In her eyes, the experience was very positive, both for her and for her clients. “I like it, it changes the mood, especially with all the things they’ve done in terms of the layout. It makes the street beautiful. I love it,” she added.
She is far from the only one to make such an observation. On Friday, the QMI Agency went to meet merchants on Mont-Royal Avenue. Among the ten people met, almost all would like the pedestrianization to be extended for a few weeks in the fall.
“I would say another month wouldn’t have hurt. Or perhaps open the pedestrian street earlier,” suggested François Crette, florist and owner of the Les Champs Fleuris shop, which he opened this summer, when the avenue was already pedestrianized.
Since June 8, the avenue has been closed to cars between Fullum Street and Saint-Laurent Boulevard, a stretch measuring just over two kilometers. This is one of the ten arteries having had the right to such an experience this summer.
Amanda Weisbrodt, manager of the Bubbles store, believes that the initiative helps to improve the experience of tourists in Montreal, because of its uniqueness.
“I think it’s great. It went well for us, there are always plenty of people. I think it gives a good energy”, she noted.
At the Séduction boutique, Jasmine and Léa compare the experience of the pedestrian street to that of a shopping center, which allows passers-by to stroll at their own pace and take the time to observe the shop windows.
“People have more time to stop and give a shop a chance. There are people who wouldn’t have come to the sex shop on their own otherwise. It also helps to attract tourists, ”said Léa.
“The facilities are beautiful. I would have liked us to continue [la piétonnisation] later in the season. It’s really pleasant, but there may be a lack of places where there is shade,” noted Jasmine.
For his part, Alex Renaud, owner of the Adam et Ève boutique, is already apprehensive regarding the transition period that will follow.
“The week before it becomes pedestrian, the street is very messy. We lose a lot of people the time they make the rearrangements. And when they are going to reopen the street, nobody knows that it is no longer pedestrian and people will no longer come by car. Our sales are falling,” he apprehended.
In 2020, then in the midst of a pandemic, the City had launched the project for the first time, prohibiting certain commercial arteries to cars in order to allow better social distancing for pedestrians.
Believing that the experiment had been a success, the municipal administration repeated it in 2021, with thirteen streets having taken part in the project.
Moreover, in April, the City of Montreal announced funding of $ 12 million dedicated to the pedestrianization of its commercial arteries until 2024.
In the office of the mayor, we say we are “proud” of the success of the pedestrian streets.
“We can confirm that the pedestrian streets are now projects in their own right and not pilot projects. In collaboration with merchants, SDCs and the population, we are now at the stage of studying whether it is possible to create longer and more numerous pedestrianization projects for the years to come,” said Alicia Dufour, Press Officer.
