The STM announces the implementation of bus, taxi and carpool priority measures on Côte-Vertu Boulevard

Montréal, May 6, 2019 –– The Société de transport de Montréal (STM) is announcing the implementation of a reserved lane for buses, taxis and carpools on Côte-Vertu Boulevard, between Hervé-Saint-Martin and Montée de Liesse. This reserved lane will be operational from May 13, 2019.

“The implementation of these two new reserved lanes brings the number of lanes available to carpools to five. When possible, adding carpools to reserved lanes encourages sustainable mobility,” says Philippe Schnobb, Chairman of the STM Board of Directors. “The addition of this reserved lane is in line with our vision of optimizing service to employment hubs on the Island of Montréal. The workers who carpool to this area will be able to use the lane.”

“This is excellent news! Adding reserved lanes is an efficient solution to ensure mobility and reduce congestion. Once again, our administration is showing a clear intention to promote mobility in Montréal through a wide range of solutions,” says Éric Alan Caldwell, City of Montréal executive committee member responsible for urban planning, transportation and the Office de consultation publique de Montréal.

“The continued deployment of bus priority measures is one of many measures used to reduce greenhouse gases. This excellent collaboration with the STM and other partners means that Saint-Laurent remains at the forefront of sustainable development. The borough reduced its overall greenhouse gases by 21% from 1990 to 2017, in particular through its 2016-2020 local greenhouse gas emissions reduction plan. In the face of the climate change emergency, the Laurentian administration is pursuing its efforts to meet the initial target set by the City of Montréal and achieve a 30% reduction of greenhouse gases by 2020, compared to 1990 levels. Recently, we also acquired nine BIXI bike-sharing stations and are currently developing Communauto Flex, Communauto’s car sharing service without reservation,” says Alan DeSousa, Mayor of Saint-Laurent Borough.

“The STM’s initiative to encourage the many people coming to work in this area, and others, to think green and prioritize bus priority measures is great news for our environment,” adds Edgar Rouleau, Mayor of the City of Dorval.

Totalling 3.8 km in length (both directions), the reserved lane will be operational from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m. westbound and from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. eastbound from Monday to Friday. Other bus priority measures will be implemented in a second phase on Côte-Vertu Boulevard in 2019 with the replacement of traffic light controls to enable bus detection at intersections and respond to real-time requests for priority sent by buses to improve travel times. These measures will benefit approximately 1,300 daily customers, with 820 mostly during peak periods, on the 174 Côte-Vertu-Ouest line.

In addition, the service on the 174 Côte-Vertu-Ouest line was enhanced in early January to align its schedule with the beginning and end of work shifts of businesses located on Côte-Vertu Ouest Boulevard, west of Highway 40. This improvement includes additional westbound departures during morning and afternoon peak periods from Côte-Vertu station and eastbound departures from the Côte-Vertu/Air Canada terminus. The Côte-Vertu-Ouest shared taxibus service was also enhanced in both directions on Saturdays and Sundays, including public holidays.

Bus priority measures are installations on the road system that ensure priority is given to public transit, thereby improving the reliability and on-time delivery of service. They include reserved lanes and bus priority traffic signals. This work is made possible through funding from the Ministère des Transports du Québec.

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Isabelle A. Tremblay
Public Affairs
Société de transport de Montréal (STM)
medias@stm.info

Laurence Houde-Roy
Attachée de presse du comité exécutif
Cabinet de la mairesse de Montréal et du comité exécutif
laurence.houde-roy@ville.montreal.qc.ca