by PATRICK LEJTENYI

Anyone who’s walked down Mont-Royal in deep summer will experience a) coughing fits; b) insufferable and interminable honking; c) near-death at perhaps the corner with the worst feng shui in Montreal at St-Hubert; and d) the irritating and preposterous sight of endless lines of cars stuck in traffic, inching along at a snail’s pace. God help you if you happen to be on the 97, the bus line that services the avenue, deemed among the slowest in the city.

But if the Avenue Verte Mont-Royal citizens’ committee get their way, the sluggish artery may be in for one serious makeover. In mid-November, the committee deposited an 18,000-name petition to the city demanding Mont-Royal be declared officially car-free. There would still be room for delivery trucks, emergency vehicles and public transportation, but cars would be out and out verboten. This is the first step, says committee spokesman Jean Ouimet, in developing a plan for the Plateau’s sustainable development, something that as yet doesn’t exist.

“Our vision has gotten bigger than just Mont-Royal,” says Ouimet. “We’re in touch with citizen committees from other parts of the city that are also interested in closing off streets from traffic,” he says. He has also heard from people interested in making parts of Old Montreal, Ste-Catherine, St-Laurent and St-Denis closed to car traffic.

With the boom in the Plateau’s popularity over the past few years - as witnessed by sky-high rent increases and the mushrooming of condos - a new, wealthier bunch has moved in, bringing their cars with them. Ouimet puts the human population at around 100,000, and the vehicle population at around 25,000. Congestion, especially on narrow, two-lane streets like Mont-Royal, is inevitable.

Obviously, something needs to be changed. Ouimet knows a lot about sustainable development, having been head of the provincial Green Party between 1989 and 1993, and advising former Parti Québécois leader Jacques Parizeau on the subject while the party was in opposition. He also knows about citizen-driven initiatives, and the power the people can wield when the will is there.

The petition is the beginning, and not the end. Ouimet hopes to take part in public audiences on the city’s next urban planning session, scheduled for the fall of 2003. If they aren’t heard then, the committee may put forward candidates for council seats themselves.

“I believe in participatory democracy,” he says. “We want to get 25,000 names on the petition. And if, by the next municipal elections, nothing has been done, those names could transform themselves into votes. And I think that politicians could find that fact strangely disturbing.”

The Avenue Verte Mont-Royal petition can be signed outside Mont-Royal metro, where they set up a kiosk twice a week. For more info, visit www.montroyal-avenueverte.com. :