Streets behind bars

>> Just how many roads can one city shut down in a single summer?

By PHILIP PREVILLE

As city dwellers, walking the sidewalks also means observing all sorts of ingrained rules: keeping to the right of oncomers, passing people on the left, waiting at street corners, always on our guard for the cars and the rabid motorists who drive them. Through it all, we long to roam free. And while we could do that at any city park, nothing feels better than kicking all the motorists off the streets and strolling unfettered on their big black asphalt ribbon.

To the delight of pedestrians and the disdain of motorists, Montreal welcomes almost any proposal to shut down vehicle traffic. As usual, it's not as simple as just putting up some barricades.

The bureaucracy: Even though the city rarely says no, you still have to fill out the necessary forms. The city's culture department handles major festivals and parades; economic development handles street sales; the sports and leisure department handles community parties. In 1999, the city authorized over 500 street closings. They expect to surpass that number this year.

The traffic: Once approved, all requests are passed along to Lucien Lespérance in the circulation department, whose job is to work out all the traffic detours. "I can ask people to change the date or time for their event, or I can suggest a different street," he says, "but I cannot veto anything. It's my job to make it work." That means rerouting the bus lines, and making sure it's always possible to get to the hospital or the airport. After the Festival de la santé blocked access to the Montreal General and Victoria hospitals two years ago, des Pins has been blacklisted for frivolous street closures.

It also means compensating Stationnement de Montréal for lost revenue from suddenly-idle parking meters. They get a maximum of $15 per meter, per day.

The emergency services: Forcing the cars off the streets is all fun and games until someone loses an eye or a building catches fire. Lespérance says all events must leave an open passageway through the street at least five metres wide for ambulances and fire engines; people can walk there all they want, but at the sound of the sirens they are expected to clear the path.

The barricades: The city has 2,300 steel barricades in a Plateau-area warehouse, valued at about $50 each. Technically they belong to the cops, but city blue-collar workers have access to them as needed. As with all other city equipment, a few dozen are stolen every year by local infrastructure klepto-enthusiasts. Says Lespérance: "We need to buy more of them, but it's hard to find money for those kinds of things right now."

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