Canada/Pedestrianization of Old Quebec: a 20 km/h limit and new bollards

The Marchand administration wants to perfect its pedestrian zones in Old Quebec before creating new ones.

A number of new traffic calming measures in Old Quebec will be added for the Summer 2025 pedestrianization plan, in addition to those carried over from last year.

New features will include a 20 km/h limit for all vehicles travelling inside the walls, and tighter barriers to further restrict motorists' access to pedestrian streets.

The two pedestrian-only zones in the Latin Quarter and south of rue Saint-Louis will return, but there will be no new ones this summer.

However, the boundaries of the zones will be slightly modified, notably due to construction work. Rue De Buade, for example, will be excluded due to archaeological excavations.

Some streets will also be excluded because they did not meet with the full approval of residents, such as Côte de la Fabrique.

We're maintaining the existing traffic calming zones, but we're also enhancing and improving another set of measures, which will be more permanent," explains city councillor Mélissa Coulombe-Leduc.

Starting with a speed limit lowered to 20 km/h for the entire old town inside the walls. It's really about calming things down," maintains the Cap-aux-Diamants district councillor.

She points out that the city is proposing these changes to promote safety, quality of life and reduce noise in this part of Quebec City, which is extremely popular with tourists.

Two calming thresholds - speed bumps - will also be built on rue Saint-Geneviève.

Shared streets, with well-defined spaces for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists, will also be installed year-round in the Latin Quarter.

Bollards instead of iron barriers

Manually-activated bollards will be installed at the boundaries of the calming zones to better block motorists while allowing residents of the targeted areas to pass. The structures will replace the barriers that city employees used to install to block the zones from 11 a.m. to midnight.

This will ensure that the zones are watertight. [...] We knew there were intrusions, and that's one of the comments people made to us," explains the person in charge of quality of life in Old Quebec.

Longer period of appeasement

The measures will be in place for a longer period, from June 2 until Labour Day in September. Last year, it was from Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day to the end of August.

This allows us to run it for three weeks during the school year," explains Ms. Coulombe-Leduc. A test run before the next phases, which promise to be more complex.

Subsequent phases could include streets running perpendicular to Rue Saint-Jean, for example, which will require a lot of access control. I think we need to come and perfect our ways of doing things," sums up the councillor.

The Marchand administration's aim is to make the historic downtown area more pleasant for its residents, although it does not have a precise timetable. The mayor's team is inspired by the "calmed mobility" of certain member municipalities of the Organization of World Heritage Cities, such as Brussels and Namur.

A first pilot project was set up in the summer of 2023.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca/