Car-free zones in Old Montreal

You've heard of car-free day. How about car-free Old Montreal?

The Tremblay administration wants Old Montreal the way it used to be - pedestrians and horse-drawn calèches. Starting this summer, it's aiming to get cars out of some parts of the old city, and it's not ruling out a wider permanent  ban someday.

The city is introducing pedestrian-friendly measures and car restrictions in some sections of the old city, usually packed to the cobblestones in the busy summer months. Executive committee member André Lavallée is in charge of the project.

"More than 10 million people are visiting Old Montreal each year."

And that's not including the 4500 residents, 35 000 workers and 1600 hotel rooms there.

So as part of the city's plan to "re-invent Old Montreal", parts of St. Paul Street and Notre-Dame Street will become pedestrian malls for most of the day and motorists will be encouraged to use Viger and St-Antoine instead,  new signs will lead motorists to  parking lots at the outer limits of Old Montreal, the MTC will introduce a new bus linking it to downtown, tour buses will be restricted  to special drop-off areas and parking lots on the periphery of the Old Montreal limits, and St. Laurent Boulevard will become a two-way street between Viger and Notre-Dame.

Lavallée is convinced they can make a majority of Old Montreal car-free in the future.

"We have to convince merchants, and residents, and people working in Old Montreal that the area will become better with those measures."