On the other side, the path from Sector T was open so I walked down the path for a bit but realized they’ll see my footsteps. I noticed they added a ditch between the homes, planted trees, and path:
On an unrelated note, because of the Santa Parade with so many people travelling downtown, we had a surprise and the 90 bus (which normally goes between Chevrier and TCV) stopped at Panama to pick some people up:
Wow ! It’s quite a guided tour that you made us there, @mashdash !
I love what I see (and what you shared with us). And I can’t wait to take a closer look at all the stations of the whole network.
A huge thank you for being our eyes on the ground at Panama !
Dans le poste de Chuck_A de juillet, on voit les «heaters», dans l’allée centrale le long des portes, ça va être la même chose dans les ailes, de ce que je déduis.
Yes! In another email I asked the REM, and they said heaters will be installed in the next few weeks which will be nice. They had a shortage and put them in the REM stations first because they thought it was going to open on December 1st
A few months ago I emailed about the bus signal not having bus priority. That’s still the case, I plan on eventually timing the current light and proposing how to change it.
I also mentioned how pedestrians and bikes feel like not a priority as they need to request to cross. They’ve now made all the crosswalk lights automatically activate around Panama because of that! Woo one step closer
I haven’t visited recently but I noticed that the permanent signage does not show the northern parking lot that was added on more recently (to the right in the photo above). Hopefully this means it will just be temporary, and instead replaced by buildings/park at some point.
I have visited the bus terminal. Several changes surrounding the area. I wished to have seen this complete by tomorrow, the original date, but it won’t be. The metal structure to hold the heaters is installed in aile B, no cables yet!
Median strip line was painted, and lots of grass was added:
I believe the blue post is meant to be the future Panama bus sign that will go there, I think because it’s blue they’ll get some old AMT bus signs and use that until the REM signs are ready.
The sidewalk along the bus terminal is complete, with just the construction generator (lit up in the back) in the way now:
Because of the heavy winds today, a lot of the fences were knocked down, allowing easy access better photos of rue Philippines which has a TINY portion of sidewalk remaining on one side:
I’m going to propose to the city of Brossard connecting the REM path to the rest of the bike network. It’s less than half a kilometre away, behind homes in the old MTQ right of way.
This was once highway that touched up against the homes, so there’s this space, and it would make this connection to the REM more worth it (and help solve the last mile problem). I put in 7 random addresses in Sector T, and compared travel times: going on Boulevard Pelletier over the highway, going through the new pathway, and my proposed pathway.
Average travel time over Boul Pelletier bridge to the REM:
Walking: 18.4 minutes
Biking: 6.2 minutes
Average travel time via new pathway to the REM:
Walking: 16.1 minutes
Biking: 4.6 minutes
Average travel time via proposed pathway to the REM:
Walking: 13 minutes
Biking: 3.7 minutes
This might seem like a small change, but reaching under the 15 minute is essential to influencing people to walk to the REM station. My proposed connection would not only reach that, but also not require walking over a highway (which in several cases with the current path, the bridge is faster). It would also connect the major bike path that connects to other sectors, and La Prairie, right to the REM station.
I visited when it was day finally so these photos should be able to show more.
Street signs are being installed, the worker here is pulling a cable to wire a light:
Boul Pelletier and Rue Philippines corner sidewalk seem to be temporary and just tar instead of concrete too. The rest of the sidewalks on Rue Philippines are complete, with the concrete just drying under the plastic:
It could be in the future I guess, the sidewalk along the bus terminal is concrete though with no dedicated bike path, and it ends at Panama which doesn’t have a bike path currently either. It’s nice to see a wide sidewalk for once though, even if it’s asphalt!
Something else I just noticed, all the temporary paper signs as seen below are replaced with metal ones that are identical, I didn’t get a photo this time but I will next time.
My guess is because the previous ones couldn’t go through a winter storm, and now with the REM delayed they have to keep the signs up for longer.
Also regarding the sidewalk being asphalt, there’s manhole cover where the sidewalk is, so they might eventually redo this area and move it to the street.
Interestingly, this sign says “Station Panama,” unlike the signs at Du Quartier which just say “Du Quartier.” My guess is inside the tunnel at the entrance of the station itself (over the doors) it just says “Panama,” and this sign says this to differentiate itself from Terminus Panama right next door.
Après plusieurs jalons importants franchis depuis 2018, les travaux tirent à leur fin dans le secteur Panama à Brossard.
Le 12 décembre prochain, pour une ultime phase avant la mise en service du REM au printemps 2023, le stationnement incitatif temporaire sera fermé et l’espace sera remis en état. Les usagers seront dirigés les deux nouveaux stationnements permanents de la future station Panama.
Impacts et mesures d’atténuation
Les usagers du terminus Panama devront emprunter la nouvelle rue Philippines, via le boulevard Pelletier et l’avenue Panama, pour accéder aux stationnements.
Il sera possible d’entrer dans le stationnement situé au nord du terminus Panama uniquement par le sud. Il est donc recommandé d’y accéder via l’entrée du boulevard Pelletier.
(sidewalk to it about to be made):
12 décembre 2022