Montreal’s metro system is well spread out, with many convenient spots spread throughout the city. McGill metro station is a key stop on the green line for professionals who work in downtown, shoppers, McGill University students, educators, or staff trying to access campus, and tourists. It also has entrances connected to the RESO (Montreal’s Underground City), making it an important stop to reach many businesses and services. Because of these many uses and diverse users, it is important for a station like McGill to be accessible to everyone regardless of disability.
The layout of the McGill metro station helped push 4 Days 4 Lines’ founder Omer Juma to perform his accessibility audit of Montréal’s metro. The 4 day long audit has developed numerous key insights not only on this metro station but on all of Montreal’s metro stations. These Station Spotlights present some of these insights.
4 Days 4 Lines’s accessibility audit of Montréal’s metro found that this station’s layout presents challenges for non-able bodied users of this transit stop. While there are 4 different entrances to this station, none of them have elevator access. Passengers that arrive to McGill metro on their way to the Eaton Centre or McGill Campus, for example, have no problem getting up from the platform to the ground level and their destination (provided they don’t need elevator access).
However, passengers leaving the McGill area do not have the option of taking escalators down to the platforms at any of the stations. The only way down is by using the stairs; this means that passengers must go down a minimum of 53 stair-steps in order to reach the platform from the ground. This minimum is reached only if the passenger knows exactly what entrance to take: otherwise they may have to take up to 64 stair-steps down to the platform.4 Days 4 Lines’s accessibility audit of Montréal’s metro found that this station’s layout presents challenges for non-able bodied users of this transit stop.
The overview of the station layout presented above is an important first step to making our cities more accessible. Our cities are not designed for everyone. The able-bodied do not have to face the same obstacles that disabled people have to face on a daily basis. These posters and our work helps illuminate these obstacles so that we can brainstorm solutions for them together as an inclusive society.