I don’t think Montréal sucks that much public transit wise. And if you live south shore, it can be accessed by transit very well. In contrast I find people that drive downtown or wherever to work from south shore unnecessarily rather stupid.
That said, Montreal does lack good surface level transit on separated tracks. What Montreal has in the form of “missing middle” lacking in other North American cities, it’s lacking the street car tracks to move all those in the middle around.
The King, Queen and Spadina streetcars are excellent people movers, and it’s a joy to hop on and off of them to hit up multiple places enroute. The same can be said of the 2, 4/6 and 47/49 tram lines in Budapest. Or the metro line 1, which is basically subsurface like the London underground. Or all 12 tram lines in Brno. Or all the lines that hit the Jelačić square in Zagreb.
Imagine if Parc, Mont-Royal (even during the summer) and main still had street cars running, how much easier it would be to get around without the hassle of being stuck in traffic or having to go up and down for five minutes each into metro stations.
I don’t think Montréal sucks that much public transit wise. And if you live south shore, it can be accessed by transit very well. In contrast I find people that drive downtown or wherever to work from south shore unnecessarily rather stupid.
That said, Montreal does lack good surface level transit on separated tracks. What Montreal has in the form of “missing middle” lacking in other North American cities, it’s lacking the street car tracks to move all those in the middle around.
The King, Queen and Spadina streetcars are excellent people movers, and it’s a joy to hop on and off of them to hit up multiple places enroute. The same can be said of the 2, 4/6 and 47/49 tram lines in Budapest. Or the metro line 1, which is basically subsurface like the London underground. Or all 12 tram lines in Brno. Or all the lines that hit the Jelačić square in Zagreb.
Imagine if Parc, Mont-Royal (even during the summer) and main still had street cars running, how much easier it would be to get around without the hassle of being stuck in traffic or having to go up and down for five minutes each into metro stations.
Montreal needs to significantly beef up its bus service. It’s a lot cheaper and more flexible than REMs or subways
If it’s electric articulated buses with separated lanes like on Pie IX, I’m all for it.