How mobility networks have been dealt with socially and how they can better be dealt with in the future

Abstract: The city, since the industrialization period, is no longer the product of a single mind. With bold and massive investment in infrastructure networks that followed this period, engineering professions gained unparallel social status and gained importance in municipality ranks. In parallel to this, social sciences have been very slow to pick up on the issue of mobility. The global neoliberal environment and more competitive one in which cities are confronted today, has resulted with local governments, public-private partnerships and new ways of augmenting chances of economical investments. Municipality documents used as a basis for the production and construction of urban environments are not equipped to deal with commercial and political motivated drawings and plans. There is a lack of communication between both languages that result in an unfiltered ‘laissez faire’ of aesthetics. Spatial design fields are capable of creating terminology that can properly address the serious issues concerning our networks of flows but are not enough by themselves considering the economical environment and the following self-generated urbanity inflicting our cities. Landscape architecture offers an open-ended perspective on small to large scale networks of infrastructures, thus possibly being able to bridge the gap between institutional planning mechanisms and actual design. The theoretical background generated from this research will be applied to a case scenario. Boulevard Taschereau (also called provincial road 134 at some parts) is among the most important and used arteries of the South Shore of Montréal, Québec (Canada). A contextual solution to boulevard Taschereau’s congestion issues will have to be generated in order for it to meet the expectations and social needs of its current and future users.