This friendly competition between businesses and institutions from all Quebec regions is a way to raise public awareness about the use of sustainable means of transport.

Moreover, since this year, the challenge offers its services through a free app, that can be downloaded on any smartphone.

The latter will make it possible to count the total kilometers travelled, as well as the kilograms of greenhouse gases.

translated by Alec Brideau

L’article A challenge to Encourage Sustainable Mobility est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

Elections are always an opportunity for the various organizations to send their grievances to the parties presenting themselves. The ATCL is no exception to the rule. The OBNL (non-profit organisation) has sent a press release in which appears an exhaustive list of its demands for the next mandate.

“We want the candidates of the six ridings to learn about the projects we’re defending, and commit to supporting sustainable mobility if elected,” said Nicolas Lemire, president of the ATCL.

Among the requests, the ambitious development of a structuring transport network deployed throughout the municipality. The ATCL board of directors even argues that the city is ready for a more developed public transport network that would serve its entire territory. Also according to the association, the budget allocated for public transport should equal the budget allocated to the maintenance of Laval’s road network.

A metro line, light metro or tramway crossing the island from East to West, and connecting to downtown, is also part of the requests sent to the six candidates of the different parties. Such an initiative regarding the public transport network would consolidate the development of the city, and change transport habits of Laval residents, according to what the OBNL’s board of directors suggests.

The ATCL also expects a favorable response to its proposal to extend the orange line to downtown Laval, as well as for the expressways it would like to see erected on the entire road network of its territory.

“The provincial government is an essential player through its support for various public transport projects,” Lemire concluded. “From an ecological transition perspective, candidates must show it’s a priority for them, as it is for us.”

translated by Alec Brideau

L’article It’s ATCL’s Turn to Lengthen its Requests est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

These past years, the STL has been trying to increase its number of electric buses in circulation. It won’t be easy to ensure public transport’s electric shift in Laval, but the committee working on the file has been preparing for it for a long time now.

Alexandra Gallo, project manager and engineer, says that in 2018, the STL started a pilot project with 10 hybrid buses, thus making it possible to better see the needs and changes necessary in the future for the desired full electrification.

“[Those vehicules] are currently circulating on our roads in Laval,” Gallo said. “They’re doing so since May 2021, and have been randomly dispersed across the territory in order to allow the majority of users to enjoy them. We’re talking here about a way much quieter and ecological experience for users. When we received those buses, we did a lot of tests, in part because of the new technologies they’re bringing.”

In total, the project is worth nearly 246 million, including studies, plans and other preparatory work. Of that amount, the Government of Canada will pay more than 85 million, while 18 million are from Laval. The Government of Quebec is giving more than $142 million for the project.

Space Needed

In total, 145 new parking places will be built for these electric buses.

A 20 megawatt electrical entrance will also be added in order to power the buses. That energy need will increase the area of STL’s site by 50 per cent, since 25,000 m² will be added next to the current garage. The space the new garage will occupy will replace a parking lot.

Executive Director of the STL, Guy Picard indicates that the shell of the new electrical entrance will be built in 2024.

“We will thus have our facilities, and will be able to park our vehicles,” Picard said. “However, it’s only from 2025 that we’ll be able to manage the electrical load.”

Mayor of Laval, Stéphane Boyer, says he’s happy to see such a historic project moving forward in a convincing way.

“It will give wings to Laval,” Boyer said. “Our hopes of developing public transport and electrifying our trips are depending on the ability to have electric buses. The start of the construction of the electric garage is planned for the next few months, and that’s kind of the starting point we needed to get fully into the project. I’m happy and I think it will help provide better service to citizens.”

For his part, Sainte-Rose’s deputy Christopher Skeete recalled that even if it’s a long-term project, Prime Minister François Legault had committed to making this shift.

“We distinguish ourselves in Laval,” Skeete said at the press conference. “We’re even more aggressive. Laval is growing quickly, and the STL is very well positioned to initiate such pilot projects.”

With the completion of this project, bus maintenance costs would also be reduced by 15 to 20 per cent, according to the STL website.

L’article Historic Project for the STL est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.

“There must be an equivalent in Laval and on Montreal’s south shore,” he followed during a press scrum held with Mayor Stéphane Boyer, from the communications room of Laval City Hall, on May 17.

From the start, Legault had indicated that the extension of the orange line, and the development of a structuring mode of public transport on Saint-Martin’s axis were among Boyer’s priority requests during their first official tête-à-tête.

“It’s time for Laval to connect its neighbourhoods together, making it easier to travel on the territory, Mayor Boyer explained while indicating his clear preference for the deployment of an integrated east-west transport network in the neighbourhoods, instead of an extension of the REM in the right-of-way of Highway 440.

Legault agrees there’s a need to improve public transport options on the north-south and east-west axes, specifying that Quebec and Laval “were looking at different scenarios”.

“What’s important for me is that citizens have access to a variety of low-carbon transport modes,” Boyer said, recalling that 70 per cent of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Laval are from the transport sector. “After, if it goes by a tram, a BRT (bus rapid transit) or metro, I think the studies will be able to guide us on the choice of technology. But, above all, it’s the citizens’s mobility that’s important.”

That being said, the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project in the axis of boulevards Notre-Dame/De la Concorde – in the pipeline since 2018 – remains a priority for its administration, Laval’s Mayor ensures.

As for the implementation of new reserved bus lanes, carpooling and electric cars on Highway 15 (North), the Minister of Transport, François Bonnardel, will make the announcement in Laval in the upcoming weeks.

“It’s progressing, and we want the work to start this year,” Legault said in an interview with the Courrier Laval.

translated by Alec Brideau

L’article Public Transport: François Legault Wants to Treat Laval Fairly est apparu en premier sur Courrier Laval news.