Urban Planning 2020
URBP 001: Impacts of the new Réseau Express Métropolitain (REM) on mobility, health and equity: A pre-post intervention study
Professor Ahmed El-Geneidyahmed.elgeneidy [at] mcgill.ca |
Research AreaTransport, land use, travel behaviour, healthy cities |
DescriptionIn 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 tranche, connecting Montreal’s South Shore, is expected to open in 2021, with additional segments coming online in 2022 and a final opening in 2023 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 modelling the REM's impacts on people's lives using a quasi-experimental, pre-post with control group design and a variety of innovative-but-tested technologies, including online questionnaires and custom built smartphone apps, to monitor travel behaviour, physical activity, health, and well-being. The team will be applying various statistical, as well as artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques to unlock the potential of the collected data to generate better public policy. The impact of this research on the development and implementation of future transport projects will be significant. The lessons gleaned will be applicable not only to projects of similar scope, but also to smaller ones that may nevertheless generate comparable impacts in health and travel behaviour. 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. Tasks per studentTasks will include the following: Data analysis and statistical modeling, conducting literature review, write policy briefs, help in drafting manuscripts, data collection on the ground including surveys, if you have a drone license it is a plus as we will be collecting drone images,
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Deliverables per studentPolicy briefs Academic papers |
Number of positions3 Academic LevelYear 2 |