Montreal's Plateau Is Permanently Closing Some Street Sections To Cars & Making Others One-Way

Montreal's Plateau-Mont-Royal borough is about to become even more pedestrian friendly. Its borough council has committed to six changes to its road network aimed at making surrounding neighbourhoods safer for cyclists and people travelling by foot. Among the changes to select street sections are direction reversals, pedestrianizations and the institution of one-way traffic.

The complete list of traffic tweaks, per a borough council press release, is as follows:

• Rue Gilford will become one-way eastbound between rues Garnier and Fullum between this spring (east of avenue Papineau) and fall (west of Papineau).
• About one block of rue Lanaudière south of boulevard Saint-Joseph will close to vehicular traffic as of this summer.
• The block of avenue Duluth south of Parc Jeanne-Mance between avenues du Parc and de l'Esplanade will also close to vehicular traffic.
  • The borough says this change will restore the original boundaries of the popular park.
• Rue Berri (currently one-way southbound) and rue Rivard (currently one-way northbound) will reverse directions in the two-block stretch between the Mont-Royal metro station service road (rue Utilités-Publiques) and rue Rachel Est.
• In addition, the section of rue Rivard directly adjacent to the station, between Utilités-Publiques and avenue du Mont-Royal E., will close to vehicular traffic entirely.
  • The borough says the direction reversals will simplify paratransit service to the now universally-accessible metro station. the closure of part of Rivard will also make the square surrounding the station, Place Gérald-Godin, fully pedestrianized. All of these modifications are expected this spring.
• Finally, rue Laurier Est will become one-way eastbound between Papineau and Fullum as of this spring.

The changes in the Plateau come amid a push by the city to better secure streets for pedestrians and discourage reckless driving, especially in school zones and around other community gathering places. These initiatives follow the December 2022 hit-and-run death of a child in the Ville-Marie borough.

In addition to the Mont-Royal metro station, the Plateau borough council says the streets where it's carrying out its latest traffic modifications neighbour elementary schools, a low-income housing development, an early childhood centre and other community organizations.