Côte-des-Neiges–NDG merchants launch petition against Queen Mary bus lane

A new reserved bus lane is coming to Queen Mary Road this summer, between Côte-des-Neiges Road and Macdonald Avenue, but some merchants have started a petition against it. They say the reserved bus lane in front of their stores will hurt their business.

“Our daily business is kids coming after school. Their parents pick them up, and they drop over. If they have to come from school and look for a parking spot, they’re just going to keep driving,” says Barbara Vininsky, who’s family has owned the Jack and Jill toy store on Queen Mary for decades. She is one of the people behind the petition.

“If people can’t park in front of my store that come in a wheelchair, walker, they’re going online,” adds Sandra Climan, owner of Bibliophile Bookstore, who also participated in launching the petition.

The reserved bus lane will run eastbound during the morning rush hour and westbound during the evening rush hour. In a statement from the Office of the Mayor of Côte-des-Neiges-Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, they say during afternoon rush hour, on weekdays, 40 parking spots will become unavailable.

“We are not against the bus lane. We just want it to end three blocks sooner at Decarie when most of the traffic goes north or south to the expressway. Their commute home is not going to be affected by having the bus lane three blocks shorter. When there’s no traffic.” says Sandra Climan.

#WATCH: A new reserved bus lane is coming to Queen Mary Road this summer, but some merchants have started a petition against it. They say the bus lane in front of their stores will hurt their business. Watch the full interview with merchants tonight at 6.https://t.co/TnIfbUAWFU pic.twitter.com/MWVarycVlN

— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) August 11, 2022

The merchants argue traffic is not bad west of Decarie. The borough mayor’s office says the is STM is in charge of defining the layout adding reserved bus lanes do not start or end with the most challenging area: they must be seen as a whole.

New reserved bus lane coming to Queen Mary Road between Côte-des-Neiges Road and Macdonald Avenue. Photo Credi: Martin Daigle/CityNews Montreal

The borough also says some 8,000 public transit users will see their commute cut by 7 minutes with the new bus lane.

“The 6 minutes that they’re going to be making faster for the commuters are going to cost us a lot of customers because there’s no place to park. Not everybody goes by bus or bike and certainly not in the winter,” Climan adds.

The mayor’s office says they plan on creating 60 new paid parking spots to make up for those lost.

“They’re taking away 40 parking places, that’s huge. And, I don’t know where they’re going to put these 60. It just seems like a false premise,” says Climan.

The borough says it will show flexibility with the project to ensure it goes smoothly but Barbara Vininsky says communication has been a struggle.

“It’s not clear what they’re doing. The only thing we are aware of is that they want to put the bus lane and take away parking. Nobody’s come to discuss at all. When you want to do something, you go in the neighborhood and you talk to the people who this will affect,” Vininsky says.

Climan says she invited the borough mayor to her store when she heard about the bus lane and she came but she did not feel heard.

“Their minds are made up. They aren’t listening. They think globally and they don’t care if they eliminate the businesses. There are more and more empty stores. We have two and a half years of COVID and now they want to interfere with our best business hours. You’re going to get rid of businesses that are just not going to be able to sustain it,” she says.

The mayor’s office says a meeting with the borough, the STM and Queen Mary merchants will be held next week.