People want downtown Lachute to be greener, cleaner, and pedestrian-friendly, but they also want there to be enough parking, and for the area to be safe for cyclists.
Those are the findings of surveys conducted by the city on the public’s impression of temporary measures it tried during the summer of 2022 to make the downtown area more accessible for pedestrians and to enhance it as a community space. Those measures included two phases of temporary traffic lane diversions, removal of parking spaces, and the installation of street furniture such as tables, benches, and plants.
The survey results were revealed at a press conference held by Mayor Bernard Bigras-Denis on Friday, April 28.
A total of 79 per cent who responded in the surveys for both phases considered it is important that the downtown become more dynamic, and 78 per cent said they visit the downtown area several times per week. Notably, 83 per cent said they are traveling by automobile when they visit downtown Lachute.
The first survey covered Phase 1 of the project, which involved temporarily eliminating the parking spaces in the median of rue Principale between rue Harriet and rue Bellingham. Parking was kept on the north and south sides of rue Principale with wider sidewalks and the addition of street furniture.
In the first survey, there were 690 respondents. The survey found 67 per cent of people visit downtown Lachute to go to restaurants, 67 per cent go there for shopping, and 31 per cent use the downtown to obtain services (banking, medical, dental, etc.). People also live downtown, and they represented 27 per cent of the respondents.
Just 42 per cent said the temporary changes had a positive influence on their visits downtown. Among the positive elements respondents identified were the cleanliness of the downtown, improvements to its green appearance, and more secure pedestrian crossings. The negative elements were fewer parking spaces, less safety for cyclists and too many temporary measures that were not age-friendly or were too close to the street. Among the respondents, 58 had a very positive impression of how the changes improved the cleanliness of the downtown, but just 23 per cent had a very positive impression of how they improved safety for cyclists.
For Phase 2 of the project, parking spaces were eliminated in the median of rue Principale between rue Bellingham and rue Water with street furniture installed in their place. Parking spaces were kept on the south and north sides of rue Principale.
The responses for the Phase 2 survey were like the first, but only 181 people responded. Cleanliness and greenery were identified as positive elements, but lack of parking, lack of safety for cyclists, and noise were identified as the negative elements. And 57 per cent of respondents said the temporary measures improved the cleanliness of the area, and 52 per cent said it improved the greenery of the downtown. Just 22 per cent said the changes were good for cyclist safety.
Respondents to both surveys suggested what the city should do to improve the downtown area. Fifty-one per cent said the focus should be on optimizing the median area of rue Principale while 49 per cent said the focus should be on larger sidewalks.
For summer 2023, the city plans to return the measures it took last summer to improve pedestrian crossings. The street furniture will instead be set up in various municipal parks, and no downtown parking spaces will be reduced.
“The population places a high value on parking on rue Principale,” commented Bigras-Denis.
He said the survey is a very good indication of what people want in the downtown area.
Bigras-Denis also said the survey will help the city determine the future design of rue Principale in the downtown area in a planned reconstruction project. No date has yet been set for that to take place.
