So the city wants to take down one of its elevated highways, now that green and grounded is the new civic planning method. The three-phase project would replace the Bonaventure Expressway – the main artery into downtown from the south shore, into a redirected “urban boulevard” that diverts away from the waterfront and then splits in two as it turns into the city. The Gazette today focuses on the latter part. Depending on who you talk to, it’ll either be a wide-median green-as-all-hell fantastic-view gateway to the city centre, or two parallel roads with big buildings between them to make up for some of the money they’ll be spending.

Columnist James Mennie is rightfully skeptical about the plan, because while an “urban boulevard” sounds all cool and stuff, it won’t look that great when 18-wheelers are spewing carbon monoxide all over the place.

Of course, the biggest problem for me is that everyone coming into downtown will now have six new traffic lights to go through, even if they’re just using the Bonaventure to get to the Ville-Marie expressway. Though they don’t specify it exactly, Mennie hints that their solution to this problem will be to convince motorists to use public transit, and will include a bus-only lane to help facilitate this.

Yeah, good luck with that.