Projects 2023

: In 2016, the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) announced plans to build the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), a state-of-the-art, fully automated 67-kilometer light-rail network that will fundamentally reshape transport in areas on and off the island of Montreal. When complete, the $6.3 billion project will link numerous suburbs—and Montréal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport —to downtown with frequent, high-speed rail service, that is universally accessible, altering travel and land-use patterns throughout the region for various groups of population. These changes are likely to have impacts on the health, social, economic, physical, and psychological well-being of all Montreal residents for the coming decades. The first branch, connecting Montreal’s South Shore, is expected to open in 2022, with additional segments coming online in 2023 and a final opening in 2024 for the full system. As one of the most ambitious—and costly—public transport projects in Canada in decades, the REM provides a unique opportunity to gauge the impacts of the types of major public endeavours that will become increasingly common and necessary as governments seek to decarbonize the transport sector. The REM's rapid advancement will allow us to pursue a comprehensive "before, during, and after intervention" research design to rapidly distill key lessons for future projects in Montreal and elsewhere in Canada. As part of research, we are collecting multiple waves of built environment data at the street level in a 1000-meter area around all future REM stations to understand the current level of accessibility and walkability around the network. Data will be used to monitor changes in the built environment over time around the stations as well as to provide policy recommendations for the REM and other transportation projects of various scale across Canada on beneficial practices in the implementation of accessible and walkable public transit stations. These insights will prove immediately valuable for cities where small and large transport infrastructures are currently being studied or proposed. The findings will also shape the province's future REM expansions, which the government of Quebec is already studying for eastern and northern areas of the metropolitan region. Interested students should send a cover letter, a resume, and unofficial transcript

• Field data collection (surveys, mapping data) • Data analysis and statistical modeling, • Conducting literature review, • write policy briefs, • help in drafting manuscripts,