In an effort to keep Montrealers and our visitors safe during these challenging times, the city of Montreal is improving their city landscape. Starting this June they will increasing the size of the pedestrian walkways to allow for more social distancing and to boost the economy. They want to make it easier and safer for people to go out to the shops and to travel to and from work safely.
As the weather is getting warmer and sunnier, more and more people are going out for walks and loosing up their self-isolation measures.
In a recent interview; our major, Valerie Plante, stated the following: “Since a large part of the population of Montreal will probably remain in town during the summer, it was our duty to offer it a pleasant and safe city that will allow it to move without the hassle and to rediscover all that the metropolis has to offer.”
The transformation of pedestrian streets will include Ste-Catherine Street between Metcalfe and Atwater. EC Montreal’s campus is right in this section, so we will benefit from this extra sidewalk space to keep our teams and students safe when we can return to our onsite classes.
The other two areas that will be transformed are St. Denis Street in the Latin district and the street De La Commune in Old Montreal.
In addition creating these pedestrian streets and increasing the sidewalk space, the city of Montreal will also be creating an active pathways circuit which is an additional 327 kilometres of bicycle and pedestrian paths on the island of Montreal. This city has always been very bicycle friendly given the number of bike paths and creating the bixi bike system, however, now more than ever, the city wants us to walk and cycle to and from work or school to avoid congestion in our public transportation system. This will surely help in containing the spread of the virus.
The city of Montreal is doing everything possible to make our city enjoyable and safe even in this time of uncertainty.
When the time is right, we look forward to welcoming you back to the city of Montreal and to EC. In the meantime, we look forward to teaching you and staying connected in our online English and French lessons on EC Virtual.
