Crowd-sourcing Solutions for Montreal Metro’s (In)Accessibility

4 min readOct 11, 2020

French version / version français : Collaborer dans la recherche de solutions pour l’(in)accessibilité du métro de Montréal
Translated to French by / traduit en français par: Laetitia Amany

Calling on all Montrealers and Montreal-lovers to move our city towards Universal Accessibility. In this post, I am sharing the Excel file for Montreal Metro’s Accessibility audit I conducted in July 2020. I visually represented this data through 68 posters to help users navigate all 68 stations with ease. Designing and sharing posters was part 2 of phase 1, now with this open data, you can build and implement solutions. We will be highlighting and presenting three solutions at the Design CrowdSolve on October 30. Read more to learn how to submit your solutions or to just participate in the CrowdSolve and provide feedback.

Access and download the open-data Excel file from CKAN.

Inclusively making Montreal’s metro Universally Accessible

In the article, “4 days 4 lines”, we identified five odd structural barriers and highlighted two fundamental design questions. Now is the time to use this open-data from the accessibility audit and tackle the two design questions:

1: How can all riders access the metro with ease?

2: How can all riders complete their journey with ease?

A. Interested in hearing solutions and giving feedback?

Register and spread the word about the Design CrowdSolve by sharing this Eventbrite link with your friends, family, colleagues, and LinkedIn connections. We intend for this event to be inclusive and accessible to all communities, if you have any suggestions or ideas for how we can accommodate you, please email us at 4days4lines@gmail.com

B. Do you have complaints and pain-points about your experiences with the Montreal metro and transit?

Submit your complaints using this brief form. You may submit a complaint as long as you would like and in any language. This will help designers, policymakers, innovators, and engineers understand the users better so that we can collectively improve the user-experience. Your submission can be anonymous; submitting an email address will allow 4 Days 4 Lines team to follow up to learn more.

C. Do you have a solution or idea to enhance the accessibility of Montreal’s metro system?

Submit your solution or idea in French or English using this online form by 11:59 pm on Friday, October 23, 2020.

You can present it to the Montreal community, get live feedback from your target stakeholders, and gain traction for your solution(s). Three solutions will be chosen to present at the Design CrowdSolve on October 30th which will be facilitated by the 4 Days 4 Lines team to ensure high quantity and quality of feedback. Additional solutions and ideas will be presented at the next CrowdSolve and/or extensively disseminated through social media to gain feedback. You retain all rights to the data and idea but keep an open-mind about collaboration for the collective impact.

Your solution or idea can be related to architecture, technology, engineering, interior design, information sharing, retrofitting, urban design, or a combination of these. The more interconnected and integrated the solution, the better. Ideas will be gauged based on their thoroughness, relevance to accessibility in Montreal, practicality, timeline, and user-experience. Keep in mind the two fundamental design questions mentioned above. This Design CrowdSolve will allow you to improve your solution and implement it in collaboration with the 4 Days 4 Lines initiative. Submit your solution or idea in French or English using this online form by 11:59 pm on Friday, October 23, 2020.

You will hear back from us by October 25th, 2020 about the next steps and presentation preparation guidelines. If you are submitting the solution, please ensure you or your collaborator(s) are available between 3:00–5:00 pm on October 30, 2020.

Learn more about the 4 Days 4 Lines / 4 jours 4 lignes initiative:

Article 2 with 68 posters visually representing the data shared above
EN: User-centred Posters for Montreal’s Metro
FR: L’humain au cœur des affiches du métro de Montréal

Here is the first article with my initial observations and design questions:
EN: 4 Days 4 Lines — Montreal Metro’s (In)Accessibility
FR: 4 jours 4 lignes — l’(in)accessibilité du métro de Montréal

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