Policy analysis for the Turcot Interchange ReconstructionElham Ghamoushi-Ramandi, Jonathan Moorman, Erika Brown, and M. Munaf Von RudloffModal shift – an approach that puts mass-transit at the heart of transportation planning – is a sustainability-oriented concept that is gaining world-wide acceptance and acclaim. At the time of writing, a debate is underway in Montreal that has this concept at its heart. The Turcot Interchange, a large inner-city highway junction, is in dire need of repair, replacement or removal. The course of action taken by transportation engineers and decision-makers will reflect either a commitment to sustainability or a step further away from it. If a plan which simply repairs or replaces the structure is implemented, as proposed by the Ministry of Transport of Quebec (MTQ), no modal shift away from auto dependence will occur and the negative effects associated with automobile and truck traffic volumes will continue or increase. If a modal shift-oriented plan is followed, the impacts of traffic in an urban context will decrease. The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate these two potential courses of action in light of the federal, provincial, and municipal policies that are intended to guide transport and environmental decisions. Three sectors of the environment – noise, transport, and socioeconomic conditions – were used to assess the two alternative plans, the MTQ’s repair/reconstruction plan versus a modal shift alternative. Projected impacts were then compared with 124 goals extracted from the relevant policies. The level of compliance between policy goals and environmental impacts was given a quantitative value. Finally, a scoring and weighting system was implemented which produced a numerical value for each alternative course of action. These numerical values represent a “policy score”; in other words, they measure which alternative is most consistent with environmental and transport policy. On a scale of -30 to +30, the Modal Shift alternative received a score of +14.01 (i.e., complies), whereas the current MTQ proposal received a score of -10.92 (i.e., detrimental). Thus, the Modal Shift, or transit-oriented alternative is far more compliant with existing policy goals than the current MTQ proposal.INTRODUCTIONIn the present international climate of economic crisis, global warming, and the impending end of cheap oil, it is becoming increasingly apparent that our current way of life is not sustainable. Transportation methods, most notably our reliance on the automobile, are often pointed to as major contributors to non-sustainability, especially in urban areas where alternative transport means are readily accessible. Strategic-level plans and policies in Montreal often contain initiatives to reduce car volumes and increase the use of public modes of transportation. Such policy commitments, and accompanying environmental measures, are apparent at all levels of government, from the municipal (e.g., the City of Montreal’s Master Plan and Transport Plan) to the provincial (e.g., the Quebec Ministry of Transport’s own Environmental Plan), and federal (e.g., the investment plan in transport) level. Despite this apparent commitment to sustainability, major road and highway projects continue to be approved each year. An example of this contradiction is the Turcot Interchange reconstruction proposed by the Ministère des Transports du Quebec (MTQ) (MTQ 2008a). This project aims to reinvent the crumbling interchange by lowering its elevated portions to the ground, while simultaneously accommodating an increase in the total number of cars on the structure (from 332,000 vehicles per day to 347,000 vehicles per day, counting all vehicles using all parts of this complex interchange) (SNC-Lavalin/CIMA 2008). The MTQ proposal contained no public transit elements when the research for this chapter was conducted. This chapter sets out a policy assessment of the MTQ’s proposal, examining how well is performs against the sustainability objectives and goals contained in current policy documents relevant to the project. For illustrative purposes, we compare the performance of the MTQ’s proposal for the Turcot Exchange with one that could be a viable alternative and explicitly favours more public transit and a ‘modal shift’ away from automobiles. We chose the “Public Transit” alternative proposed by Pierre Brisset, architect for the Groupe de Recherche Urbaine Hochelaga Maisonneuve (GRUHM), which envisions a reduction in traffic volumes and an eventual removal of the inner-city highway 720, with commensurate increases in public transit (see chapter 2 (by Brisset and Moorman)). It is worth reviewing their proposal here. The transit-oriented proposal, described in chapter two, aims to eliminate 68,000 vehicles per day (v.p.d.) in the Ville Marie Expressway by 2016. This objective is achieved by implementing four complementary initiatives: (1) improving public transit service to the West Island; (2) removing ramps and introducing new mass transit links to inner city neighbourhoods to discourage "short" highway trips; (3) introducing drive-alone disincentives such as parking controls and congestion pricing to consolidate these gains; and (4) redesigning the Turcot Interchange to reflect and reinforce lower traffic flows.Our analysis, described below, shows that the “Public Transit” alternative adheres best to the federal, provincial, and municipal policies that are intended to guide transport and environmental decisions. Our research outlined the regional effects of the MTQ and public transit proposals on transport, noise, and socioeconomic conditions. These effects were then compared with sustainability goals of thirteen relevant policy documents (Table 1), with the transit-oriented alternative identified as the most strategically appropriate course of action. METHODIn order to make a comparison of impacts and policy adherence, we developed a series of steps for the assessment of the alternatives. In Table 1, we show ‘weight’ for each policy documents, a measure of their importance. First, each document was given a “strategic weight” based on the document’s significance to the Turcot Interchange Reconstruction Project, its regional scope, and its relevance to sustainable development goals for the individual sectors (transport, noise and socioeconomic conditions). Some of the documents made no mention of certain environmental sectors, and thus a new “sector weight” was needed that reflected the mention of explicit policy objectives for each sector in the various policy document (see Table 1). For example, Montreal’s Master Plan was assigned an overall strategic weight of 14%, however it has an even higher policy importance relative to other documents with respect to transport (16.87%) and noise (26.42%) since many other documents do not address these sectors.

Table 1: The 13 policies used in this study and assignment of strategic weightsLEVELDOCUMENTSTRATEGIC WEIGHTTRANSPORT WEIGHTNOISE WEIGHTSOCIOECONOMIC WEIGHTMunicipal

Montreal Master Plan: November 2004 (Ville de Montréal 2004)

14%16.87%26.42%15.05%Municipal

Montreal Transport Plan 2008 (Major 2008)

14%16.87%NA15.05%Municipal

Plan de Transport 2007 Mémoire de la Coalition Verte (Green Coalition Verte 2007)

4%4.82%7.55%4.30%Municipal

Plan d’Action Local pour l’Économie et L’Emploi 2007-2010, RESO (RESO 2007)

3%NANA3.22%Municipal

Transportation Management Plan, Greater Montreal Area (MTQ 2000)

11%13.25%NA11.82%Provincial

The Environmental Policy of MTQ, 1992 (MTQ 1992)

9%10.84%16.98%9.68%Provincial

Politique sur la bruit routier (MTQ 1998)

7%NA13.21%NAProvincial

Quebec and Climate Change, 2008 (MDDEP 2008)

6%7.23%NA6.45%Provincial

Quebec Environmental Quality Act (Gouvernement du Québec 2008)

7%NA13.21%7.52%Provincial

Quebec Public Transit Policy, 2006 (MTQ 2006)

11%13.25%NA11.82%Provincial

Quebec Sustainable Development Strategy 2008-2013 (MDDEP 2007)

8%9.64%15.09%8.60%Provincial

Transport & Public Health (Drouin 2008)

4%4.82%7.55%4.30%Federal

Looking to the Future – A Plan for Investing in Canada’s Transportation System (The Council of the Federation 2005)

2%2.41%NA2.15%

Total

100%100%100%100% From the relevant policy documents, 124 goals and objectives for each sector were identified. Policy compliance was then assessed by ranking the performance of each proposal (MTQ and Public Transit) against the policy objective; a simple scale of two pluses (++ or 2) to two negatives (- - or -2) was used to record compliance, with an accompanying rationale provided for each assigned rank (Table 2). Data on impacts were drawn from existing studies and established methods of environmental impact projections. For example, traffic volumes came from the MTQ (in Atlas des Transports and in the project document submitted by the MTQ for public assessment) (MTQ 2008b; SNC-Lavalin/CIMA 2009), while projected noise and socioeconomic impacts were developed by the authors (www.gpe.concordia.ca/turcotpolicyanalysis/tables.pdf

) (Brown et al. 2009).