Frustrated: no cars in Montreal

Foto: Bettina Hoffmann

Streets without cars? unthinkable in many cities. And yet, was this week so far: In the French-Canadian city of Montreal were numerous roads closed in downtown traffic. And when it comes to the organizers, this was only the beginning. Katrina Bathow

Carlos, a thin man in a red shirt distributed leaflets and broadcasts: "The air is much better and the noise is gone," With him the group Tai Chi exercises performed slowly in the middle of the busiest street in Montreal, the Rue Sainte-Catherine. real grass is in the long queues on the sidewalk, only the sound of loud birds coming out of the boxes in the corners that are slightly too high. "If cities have always been so, it was reassuring," said Malvina, who works for an animal welfare organization, and sits in the middle of the road under the sun. "People today eat even outdoors. Otherwise, they sit huddled together only at McDonald's." There is a car-free day in Montreal, in the city center a few blocks in the afternoon, closed to traffic, which is a bit like being on vacation. But the parts of the city altogether to make a free parking area, following the example of European cities? "There's still too soon," Charles hesitated, "people in Montreal are not prepared for it." "The city is about to burst, it does for cars, if you can," said Malvina.
Not far from the car-free zone, which explains the large shopping center complex Desjardins, and in the afternoon at McGill University, German and Norwegian experts, such as car-free life is like in Europe, and why even the weather North should not be argument for the car. Ulrike Reutter, Dortmund space planner, Mark Heller, an architect and urban planner in Berlin Mr. Craig Ericson of Oslo, at the invitation of the Montreal Protocol Goethe-Institut, which made the car-free village concept known in Montreal and along the Montreal Protocol Urban Ecology Center, a major environmental organizations in Canada, and McGill University, much discussion about possible. A whole week, experts from Germany and Norway on several concepts of European events and discuss how they can be transferred to Montreal. "Green City is planning for several years a focus of our work, but the area free of cars are far more radical question we set ourselves," says Mechtild Manus, director of the Goethe Institute. Montreal is an island, cut off from the mainland rivers. This morning the car roll column 16 bridges in the city, in the afternoon we headed back into the field beyond, an incessant process of change, which is difficult from year to year. The highway system was built in the 1950's, today is overwhelming. Residents evening barbecue on the roof of his house renovated brick expensive near Jacques-Cartier bridge, get a good view of about 35 million cars passing by every year at this point the San Lorenzo River."City Planning in North America is so far, to separate work from home in space and establish new suburbs in the field," says Nik Luka, a professor of architecture and urban planning at McGill University. "People come to town to work and live nearby. Therefore, there is hardly any major city in the apartments for families. European cities mix." Modern loft apartments, which are currently under construction at the old factory buildings in the port of Montreal, could be attractive for families couples well win, are not.
Is at the heart of Montreal little car owners in Berlin and in neighborhoods like the Plateau Mont-Royal Mile and the end are more bicycles than cars in front of the doors. For car-free areas and in Cologne, Amsterdam and Edinburgh, this is not much, says Nik Luka. The interest in new concepts for the traffic was there, was the movement from below. Architects and city planners must respond and offer new ways of living. The fact that people are receptive to new ideas in Montreal, is seen in the bicycle rental BIXI. Since last year, the wheels at stations located throughout the city and meet with good spirits, and men in suits sitting in a briefcase and an umbrella on the grid shortly before the arm tied.
"The issue in Montreal is not: Do we want car-free zone, but how we can implement," says Luc Rabouin, head of the Montreal Protocol Urban Ecology Center at the end of a one-day symposium for planners of the city of Montreal and other cities in the region. Germany's Ulrike Reutter space planner added: "The timing for the car-free district in Montreal is right now. Seize the opportunity." The visit of the morning, the two German experts, the workshop of a citizen initiative, advice, how certain neighborhoods in Montreal, which without cars. And that could happen faster than Carlos thinks.