Abstract

In this study the current conflict over traffic on the Island of Montreal is found to originate in the tension between a belief in nature as an ideal home environment and a belief in technology as an ideal means to resolve social problems. These ideals emerge in the nineteenth century industrial city in response to anxieties over urban life felt by the upper classes. Concerns over health, safety and propriety led to the acceptance of moral instructions that normalized the countryside as the location for family life and generated support for unprecedented investments and developments in transportation technologies to allow people live on the urban fringe. These factors have lead to a situation where a large proportion of society reside in a thickly populated countryside and have adopted mass automobile usage. Current concerns over health, safety and the environment pose challenges to this lifestyle. Conflicts over vehicular access to central neighbourhood streets, the opposition to urban highways, and the drafting of the Montreal Transportation Plan (2007-8) all indicate support for a reduction in automotive traffic and the development of a natural urban environment. This support is indicative of a value system that recognizes tranquillity as a natural attribute of home life. Reducing traffic and producing tranquillity are linked to earlier moral instructions and direct the re-invention of the city and society's continued expansion into the countryside