Tag: city

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Opinions

Technological advances for Uber aren’t enough

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin.

Drivers should be more interested in keeping passengers safe and comfortable

There’s a reason why Montrealers have been using more Ubers than taxis in recent years. The Uber app makes it easier for users and drivers to find each other, because their locations are shared through the app.

According to documents obtained by Le Journal de Montréal on March 23, the number of cab drivers filing for bankruptcy in Quebec has tripled since the arrival of Uber in 2014. I believe it’s due to taxis’ lack of accessibility. In the city, people can catch a cab driving down a street or hop into one in a designated waiting area. However, once you’re in a residential area, you have to call a cab company, because the odds of seeing a free cab passing by are unlikely. So, people turn to Ubers.

Waiting for an empty cab to drive down a busy street is something people want to avoid nowadays. Think about it—we have reached a point where we are used to finding the things we need in almost no time, thanks to our smartphones. I believe cab companies should hop on the technology train—or should I say Uber train—to stay accessible. The fact that people can split the fare of their ride is an added plus for Ubers. Although some taxi companies, such as Diamond Taxi, have location and prepaid services, I believe all taxi companies should advertise for it more.

All these technological advances in Ubers, like the location access, the direct payment and the option to split fares, make it an efficient application. However, Uber drivers can be and are often less experienced compared to taxi drivers. Both types of drivers go through a similar vetting process. Both are required to hold a Class C4 driver’s license, speak and read French and have no criminal record. However, Uber drivers only have eight online modules of training compared to the 150 hours of mandatory training Montreal taxi drivers have to go through. Taxi drivers’ training covers 53 hours of taxi transport regulations, 50 hours of geography and topography training and seven hours of training for transportation of a disabled person.

While I take Ubers due to their easy access, almost every Uber driver I ride with has harshly swerved on turns or ran red lights. Sometimes, they’ve made illegal turns. In other words, their “driving etiquette” isn’t perfect. I believe these drivers need a lot more training. On multiple occasions, I have had to change my destination to a closer one and get out of an Uber earlier because of reckless driving. This lack of professionalism has made me feel unsafe in Ubers.

To be fair, many Uber drivers have the “entertainment” aspect down in their cars. Some offer water bottles, phone chargers, and many have an AUX cord at their disposal for their passengers to blast their own music during the ride. In other cases, they are more interested in starting conversations and playing music than focusing on the road. While these additions are nice perks, I don’t believe they are a priority.

When an Uber ride begins, the GPS automatically creates a route, which often seems to take detours that make the ride longer than it should be. According to an Uber customer service agent, “If you have a specific route in mind, you can always request that your driver follow those directions.” Yet, when I ask the driver to follow my directions, I am either ignored or even told, “No, you don’t know how to get there.” Most of the times my destination is my own home, and these detours result in a more expensive ride.

Ultimately, neither taxis nor Ubers are perfect, but taxi companies should take advantage of the technology available in today’s world to make their service accessible to more people. As for Uber, their drivers need to have more extensive training to make sure their passengers are more comfortable during the ride.

Graphic by Zeze Le Lin

Categories
Opinions

Cycling safely down busy city streets

Highlighting the ways cyclists can feel more comfortable riding in Montreal

It terrifies me to read about a cyclist getting killed in Montreal. I ride my bike everyday. Actively dodging car doors and avoiding vehicles turning right without signaling make it crystal clear how easily a daily ride could be my last.

Unfortunately, it all went wrong for a 61-year-old cyclist on Sept.14 when she was hit and killed by a school bus, according to CTV News. This tragedy reignited calls to increase the number of bike paths in Montreal, many of which were established after a series of fatal cycling accidents in the summer of 2016. News outlets like CBC ran stories highlighting the dangers of cycling in Montreal, citing studies showing rising cyclist fatality rates and running interviews bemoaning the current state of the city’s bike lanes.

Here’s what most outlets didn’t mention.

Over the past eight years, the number of cyclists in Montreal has increased by 50 per cent, according to Vélo Quebec, a non-profit organization that collects cycling information. One million Montrealers ride their bikes at least once a week, according to the same source. This spike in cyclists inevitably leads to more deaths and injuries, a correlation explained by an SPVM official in a CBC article covering the incidents during summer of 2016.

Blaming recent cyclist deaths on a lack of infrastructure is not fair or accurate. Since 2009, Montreal’s total kilometres of bike lanes has grown from 90 km to 750 km, according to City Lab, a digital news organization. Montreal has the most bike lanes separated by a median of any Canadian city, as well as the longest on and off road bike paths in the country, according to a report by the non-profit think tank, the Pembina Institute. As cycling infrastructure expands, so does the interest in cycling… and the frequency of cyclist accidents.

Instead of the cycling community focusing on what they don’t have, Montreal cyclists should make the most of current bike lanes to ensure they stay safe. The best person to ensure your safety is you. Riding a bike is a method of transportation, a way to socialize and a whole lot of fun. By choosing to cycle, you choose to better your health, see the world around you and usually get to your destination faster than you would using public transportation.

However, this choice involves accepting and addressing the risks of cycling in a metropolitan area. Not that these risks are particularly high: for every 100,000 cycling trips in Montreal, two result in an accident, according to the Pembina Institute report.

I’m not a perfect cyclist, but I’ve been cycling daily for seven years in both Toronto and Montreal and have yet to be involved in an accident. Below are some techniques I feel have kept me safe and happy on the roads.

Being able to ride with one hand allows me to signal turns and stops. Observing car wheels is important, as they most clearly show the vehicle’s speed and direction. Looking at a car’s sideview and rear-view windows helps me avoid getting doored—if you see a head moving inside a car or a face reflected in side-view mirror, slow down and give the car plenty of space. Passing right-turning cars on the left hand side keeps you out of their blind spot. The car can turn sooner and you won’t have to stop and wait. After passing the turning car safely, move back across the lane to the curb side.

Another important technique is to make the most of your space. According to Quebec’s Highway Safety Code, motorists are obliged to give cyclists 1.5 metres of space on roads where the speed limit is more than 50 km/h, or one metre if the speed limit is less—so make them do it. It’s better to be a bit in front of a car and get honked at than to get pinned between parked and moving vehicles. And last but not least, ride a lot. Practice makes perfect. Take different routes home, turn off your GPS and get lost on your bike for a while.

Graphic by Alexa Hawksworth 

Categories
Student Life

Making city living responsible living

Graphic by Thom Bell

University of the Streets Café hosted a talk on urban health, environment and social problems

University of the Streets Café held a discussion on the impacts of city living for Montrealers, and invited attendees to share their thoughts, experiences and ideas about how to improve all aspects of city living.

“We tend to forget that we live in the city at the cost of someone else,” said Baijayanta Mukhopadhyay, a guest speaker for the bilingual conversation, which took place at Montreal’s downtown YMCA on Oct. 10. Mukhopadhyay is a family doctor in Northern Ontario, a volunteer physician with Médecins du Monde Montreal and the co-coordinator of the Canadian chapter of the People’s Health.

Mukhopadhyay said that people tend to believe that cities like Montreal are self-sustainable urban organisms.  However, he said most resources come from outside the city, and cities may not actually be the healthiest places to live. “Cities are not the centre of our society,” he said.

For example, he explained that a lot of food travels a long way to get to cities, and as a result, it is often more processed than the food that gets shipped to rural or suburban areas.

Other factors, such as housing and public transit infrastructure in cities, can be damaging to physical health and have major influence on people’s well-being, said Mukhopadhyay.  These factors can result in sickness, such as asthma in kids.

Robyn Maynard, a Montreal-based activist, educator and writer, addressed the social and economic inequalities suffered by communities within Montreal every day. Maynard’s research focuses on gender and race issues, and her fieldwork experience includes street work within the disadvantaged communities of Montreal.  She said the city can be a discriminating place for minorities, and the at-risk population, which includes homeless people, drug addicts and sex workers. She noted that part of the population is often denied security.

She and Mukhopadhyay agreed what people think makes a city healthy may actually make it unhealthy.

Attendees discussed who is responsible for addressing these problems, and brainstormed solutions for making the city a better, healthier and safer place to live.

One of the proposed solutions was for people to attend their neighbourhood and city council meetings. Attendees discussed this solution as a good starting point for getting involved in the conversation of city health and security, and opposing elitist urban planning.

Abby Lippman, the event moderator, discussed violence and its toxic effects on Montreal and other cities. Lippman is an associate researcher at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute and a long-time feminist activist.

“I think about violence as what the system is doing to people. I think the system is being violent by taking money, by taking health away, by putting up lousy housing,” she said.  She suggested that if society and authorities worked on bettering people’s health, then violence control would naturally occur.

The next University of the Streets Café conversation will take place on Oct. 27 at Aux Deux Marie, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Aux Deux Maries is located at 4329 St-Denis St. The conversation will explore the topic of rebuilding communities.

Graphic by Thom Bell

Categories
Student Life

A Summer’s Tale

An ode to the season of warm nights, light reads, and many memories

Summer in the Interstices                        

Why, summer has a tendency,

With boisterous, bold temerity,

To carry those from overseas,

Who – to Montreal are bound.

As tourists flock, they shuffle feet,

And dawdle down Ste-Catherine Street,

Their hands at ends to spend a treat,

On the wonders that are found.

As sunshine grazes milky skin,

She melts the heart of Scrooge within,

Yet streets are tinted with chagrin,

For ears prick – at curious sound.

With squeals escaping from the crane,

Construction works bring little pain,

Poor yellow bird whose neck is strained,

Lifting high above the ground.

The Mount has traded wintry cloak,

Instead for trees that boast and gloat,

But soon they too must change their coat,

For fall is near around.

And as leaves part, we ought return,

Our nose to books; we’re taught to learn,

Inflated sums we got to earn,

To splurge – when summer’s back in town.

By Joshua De Costa

 

I Turned 19

All my hometown friends are watching me,

As I watch them from the shore’s edge.

“Are you doing okay, Jules?” someone calls out,

And I realize how hopeless I must look.

I’m trying to crab walk out of the water to where it meets dry land,

But the waves keep pushing me down.

The rocks aren’t balanced enough to let me stand.

The rocks have too many barnacles to let me kneel.

So I’m just shuffling along until I find a rock,

Big enough and bare enough to sit on.

I stay there and breathe for a minute

Before tripping my way back up the beach.

“Are you good there, Buddy?” someone else asks,

As I sit back down on a log with the group.

I look at my legs and there is blood dripping down,

My calves and feet from barnacles scraping my skin.

I put Band-Aids on and blow out candles,

And everyone helps me celebrate another year,

Of being beat up by the same beaches since childhood,

And another year of thinking I’m too good for Aqua Socks.

By Juliet Booker

Categories
News

“Nobody likes to wait”

Press photo

Beginning in metro stations across Montreal and culminating in front of the Régie du logement building on Réné Levesque, protesters on Feb. 19 set up mock waiting rooms as a challenge to the current wait times tenants are subjected to when bringing a case before the rental board.

Press photo

According to the Régie du logement Quebec’s annual report, (2012-2013), tenants wait nearly two years to have their cases heard, while landlords have their cases heard within 1.2 to 1.4 months.

“We see that there is a systematic prioritization of landlord needs and concerns at the rental board to the detriment of tenants,” said Fred Burrill, a representative for the POPIR-Comité Logement, one of the organizers of the protest.

The protesters are advocating for the rental board to hear cases within three months, that cases be prioritized on a first-come-first-served basis and that emergency cases, such as those affecting the health and safety of tenants, be heard within 72 hours.

“Nobody likes to wait. Tenants are in situations of real urgency that have significant impact on their quality of life and the rental board is supposed to be an impartial tribunal and not what it currently is, a clearinghouse for evictions,” said Burrill.

Students are no exception.

“We do see often that students, especially students from Concordia and McGill, have a hard time defending their rights and don’t necessarily know about the existence of the rental board to begin with. As a relatively transitory population by the time they get their hearing, which may be two to three years, they may no longer live in Montreal,” said Burrill.

Approximately 150 people participated in Wednesday’s protest. Protesters managed to block traffic on René Levesque for half-an-hour, said Burrill.

The protest was organized by the POPIR-Comité Logement, Le Regroupement des comités logement et associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ) and Project Genesis.

In addition to this protest, a five-minute documentary has been prepared through the collaboration of a number of tenant committees and organizations.The documentary aims to portray the kind of issues tenants are facing and is set to be released in the coming months.

Categories
Arts

A new, yet familiar face is at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal.

Press photo

The only Canadian museum exclusively dedicated to contemporary art just got itself a new director. Concordia University graduate, John Zeppetelli, is the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal’s 13th director.

Press photo

Zeppetelli’s travels abroad have given him the opportunity to embrace all kind of arts, but this opportunity is specific to contemporary art. After completing his studies at Concordia, Zeppetelli left for England. This was the turning point in his career. At the Institute of Contemporary Arts, he worked with Iwona Blazwick who went on to create the Tate Modern, Britain’s national gallery of international modern art in London.

In New York, Zeppetelli graduated from the Whitney Museum of American Art’s independent study program; a prestigious curriculum wherein only 15 students get the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of cultural organizations.

Upon returning to Montreal in the mid ‘90s, Zeppetelli worked as a librarian in Hampstead, Montreal, and often lectured for art history and design at Concordia. In addition, Zeppetelli took on the position of curator at the Saidye Bronfman Center. Afterwards, he worked as the art director and chief curator of the DHC/ART foundation for contemporary art for the next six years.

At that point, Zeppetelli had cultivated a wide contact roster that has now become valuable to his new directorial career.

His nomination as the head of the Montréal Contemporary Museum is something of a  revolution in the museum’s history. He is the first amongst the museum’s 13 directors in 50 years not to come directly from within the organization.

Zeppetelli is excited about the large undertaking of renewing the museum’s physical space. With help from the board of directors, the museum will receive funding of $35 million for expansion that will double the gallery space, and create a new entrance on St. Catherine Street.

“If everything goes well, in one year or so, construction should start,” said Zeppetelli. The museum renovations would be ready in 2017 for the 375th anniversary of the city of Montreal.

“It is important to offer platforms to exchange ideas, debate, discover. We do it but I want more. Presenting conferences, movie projections, this is my new vision of the museum,” said Zeppetelli

He wants to combine and continue to use the museum to welcome the Jazz Festival, POP Montreal, Nuit Blanche as well as welcoming electronic music.

Respecting the museum’s original mission is also important for Zeppetelli, adding that it is imperative that they “promote and preserve contemporary Québec art and to ensure [there is] a place for international contemporary art through acquisitions, exhibitions.”

The Montréal Biennale of 2014 is an event the museum looks forward to participating in. It is Zeppetelli’s goal to put his museum back on track and position it at the forefront of the world’s contemporary arts stage.

More information: http://www.macm.org/en/

Categories
News

City in brief

Students block access to Ministry of Education offices
About a 100 students blocked the entrance to the Montreal offices of the Ministry of Education last Friday, in protest against tuition hikes. Students said they were blocking the entrance just like the government wants to block access to higher education. “We’ll be blocking the outside of the building to demonstrate to the government of Jean Charest that for as long as he plans to be blocking access to higher education, we’ll be blocking things in Quebec,” a student spokesperson told the CBC.
New Year’s revolution for social activism
The Quebec Public Interest Research Group at Concordia launched the “New Year’s Revolution 2012” campaign last week, kicking off the new year with a series of events promoting awareness on social and environmental justice and community-based social justice research. The events went from “Day of Winter Survival Skillshare workshop” to “Solidarity not Charity: Activism in Montreal workshop.” QPIRG Concordia is a student-funded non-profit organization that seeks to create campus-community links and inspire social change on campus through engaging approaches. Visit www.qpirgconcordia.org.

Shafia trial comes to an end
Three members of the Shafia family of Montreal were found guilty of first-degree murder on Sunday afternoon. The Afghan-Canadians face an automatic penalty of life imprisonment with no chance of parole for at least 25 years for the murder of the family’s three daughters and the first wife of the Shafias’ patriarch. Mohammad Shafia, his wife Tooba Yahya and their son Hamed, who pleaded not guilty, all professed their innocence once again after the verdict was read. Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson said honour killings were a barbaric practice that was unacceptable in Canada.

Smells like gas
Environment Quebec rushed to the Montreal Heart Institute last Tuesday to try to pump 16,000 litres of diesel fuel out of the sewers, after a truck accidentally replenished the wrong tank. Environment Quebec was alerted by nearby residents of the Rosemont area, worried about a strong smell of gas coming from underground. It took the Montreal fire department four days to determine the source of the smell, according to The Gazette. Hospital officials said there was no safety risk for the patients.

Categories
News

Citizens demand moratorium on UdeM’s Outremont campus project approval

Both community organizers and regular citizens braved freezing temperatures last week to protest the city of Montreal’s decision to discreetly approve the Université de Montréal’s campus expansion project.

“If we’re going to be injecting $1.5 billion of public money into this project, we deserve a full public consultation,” protester Holly Nazar yelled to the crowd occupying the front steps of Montreal’s city hall building. “So we’re demanding a moratorium on any decisions until the consultation process is complete.”

The new additions to the campus are to be built on the grounds of Montreal’s former Marshalling yards, the biggest vacant land the city currently has to offer. Located between l’Acadie and Outremont metros, the former Canadian Pacific site was purchased by the University in 2006 and is poised at the junction of Outremont and Parc-Extension — two boroughs deeply divided by polarized socio-economic, cultural and ethnic realities.

The plan, designed by Groupe Cardinal-Hardy, has been repeatedly praised for its sustainable nature and has received countless accolades including the 2007 award for Urban Planning by the Canadian Institute of Planners.

“But the project in its present form is just not working for us,” said community organizer and leader of the Parc-Extension Citizen Committee, Giuliana Fumagalli.

“Not only are there things that need to be improved in the current plan, but people need to be informed. Most citizens in the area have almost no information about how the Campus Project is going to pan out. It’s completely appalling.”

Along with demands for transparency, social housing, gentrification protection and job security; concerned protesters made requests for a development project that would help solve longtime problems with isolation in Parc-Extension.

Currently cut off from neighbouring boroughs by train tracks, busy boulevards or, in the case of Town of Mont-Royal, locked fences, Parc-Extension representatives are calling for a project that would open up the borough and offer its citizens access to the green spaces and urban luxuries provided by the Outremont Campus infrastructures.

As protesters made their feelings known outside, indoors executive committee member Richard Deschamps sternly responded to public inquiries voiced during the question period of the City’s council session. “We have been consulting publicly with everyone involved for over six years now, it is our privilege and duty to make decisions in these instances and we have. From here on, all will be welcome to voice their concerns during the public consultations related to the projects [programmes particuliers d’urbanisme].” According to organizers however, in the case of the campus project these consultations were insufficient and purely symbolic.

Despite their efforts, the protests on this occasion were to no avail. The requests for a moratorium were rejected.

“What’s next?” asked Fumagalli rhetorically as she led the group of noisemakers out of City Hall. “We head back to our citizens and let them know what was done and said here tonight. They’ll be the ones to tell us what they’d like to do next.”

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