Organizations and Groups Share Issues and Recommendations Regarding Montreal's Accessibility

For its third session of its series of public meetings for active mobility and accessibility, the City of Montreal, in collaboration with the Commission du Transport et des Travaux Publics, invited organizations and groups to share their thoughts, opinions and recommendation on how Montreal could become more universally accessible to citizens.

Similarly to what was discussed in the previous sessions, many organizations and groups, brought up topics such as of the length of the countdown of pedestrian street lights, the length and width of intersections, and accessible pedestrian signals.

Societe Logique, a non-profit organization that promotes universal accessible designs, added that street space should be available and accessible to more people. They highlighted how the current infrastructures were disadvantageous for many citizens. For example, parking spaces and bike lanes are often barriers for people with physical disabilities, there would need to be shared streets. The organization insisted that there needs to be better integration of universal designs into streets designs, an acceleration of the implementation of accessible design measures that are already known to be effective, and that the training of municipal staff and contractors who will work on those universally accessible projects, is systematized.

Ex Aequo, another organization, said the city, in its quest towards universal accessibility, should focus on three main points for people with mobility limitations: the visibility of people in wheelchair, curb ramps and traffic lights.
They called attention on how people with mobility impairments are often in wheelchairs, which means they are at a lower level of vision, and their field of vision goes less far as street infrastructures are not universally accessible and adapted. This leads to higher chances of incidents, especially since urban street designs often exceed the average 0.6 meters at which people in wheelchairs are, most often, visible. Another issue they mentioned was curb ramps. Over time, curb ramps wear out and become dangerous for wheelchair users and people with white canes. This increases the risks of individuals with physical limitations falling, and requires more physical effort for them. To avoid these issues, more maintenance programs are needed.

Organizations and groups recommended that the city put more effort into sensitizing people, citizens and merchants, to avoid delays and make Montreal universally accessible, faster.