Elsewhat

I’ve been a big fan of the Transit for years now. I know that they’re truly dedicated to their mission of helping people get around without cars. During the winter months, I use Transit several times a week to figure out how to get around Montréal. However, I don’t tend to use it for over half the year, as when it’s not icy I tend to get around on my bike.

Well, Transit has come out with beautiful bike routing and directions in their app. So now I can use their app in the summer too.

Read All About It →

This isn’t quite new information for a lot of us, but I keep seeing the same tired arguments saying that closing cars to streets kills businesses. As a Montréaler, I’ve seen more and more streets closed while businesses continue to thrive.

As fellow Montréaler Toula Drimonis writes in the Walrus:

…once merchants saw the street fill with milling crowds, they were convinced. The pandemic initiative became an annual event. By 2023, the avenue’s commercial vacancy rate plummeted from 14.5 percent in 2018 to 5.6 percent. A few years earlier, in 2021, the pedestrianization of Wellington Street in the Verdun borough had increased foot traffic and shoppers by 17 percent. A once-drab strip is now lined with restaurants, bars, and cafes.

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Paste-up by unknown artist found in a railway underpass.

One more take on Fabre Metro, shot through an arriving train.

Photo by Taras Grescoe

From author Taras Grescoe comes a nice little meditation on what make Japanese streets particularly great. Since my partner and son went to Japan a few months ago, I’ve heard many times about how wonderfully human-scale Japan is, and how its multiple modes of transportation absolutely blow away all of the lauded European cities like Amsterdam or Copenhagen in terms of livability and transport.

Grescoe writes:

There are no cars. Sure, drivers might pass through, but they don’t stick around: that’s because there’s no on-street parking. A simple reality, which explains why the streets in so many neighborhoods of Tokyo and other Japanese cities are a paradise for kids (and cats).

Read More Here →

Montreal author Heather O’Neill has just launched a serialized, 50-part mystery story set in one of my favourite places, the Montréal Metro. Launched in partnership with the Montreal Gazette, where you can read more about the project.

Read the First Chapter →

I was lucky enough to have stumbled across some amazing tile mosaic portraits by artist Chuck Close at the 86th Street subway station in NYC, including this magnificent self portrait.

Outremont Metro taken May 6, 2023