Health and Transportation in Montreal

A piece in the Montreal Gazette reports on Montreal's Public Health Agency report (available in French) which states that cars are related to all sorts of health problems. These extend from the effects of pollution, to injuries on the road (the word 'accident' is kind of problematic), to obesity.

[Begin personal rant] As a Montrealer, I find traffic is becoming insufferable in the downtown area. It really irritates me that people from off-island or the burbs are able to drive into the city so easily and find free parking in high-use areas. Case in point: If such a large percentage of people in the Plateau don't own cars, where are all the cars coming from? [End personal rant]

La Maison d'Aurore is trying to do something about this: they would like a 30 km/hr speed limit and speed bumps. The Montreal Mirror reports that they're organising a march on Saturday, May 27, at 11 am from Laurier Park to Lafontaine Park, to increase awareness. I think it has to go much further than this: Create serious obstacles to driving into the city, and make public transit more appealing.