A red light too long for Quebecor
Quebecor writer complains that the traffic light at Pie-IX and Henri-Bourassa makes drivers wait too long, with a claim inside that it’s deliberately set to frustrate drivers and keep them out of the city. Fluidity of motor traffic is understood here to be the general good while public transit and pedestrians are simply obstacles to be wished away.
What kills me is that, in a car, a person is in a bubble – presumably comfortable, warm, listening to whatever sound source they prefer – yet they have no patience for those of us outside trudging through the weather. We’re the ones that have to get out of their way, tabarnak.
Meezly 12:44 on 2019-12-02 Permalink
Funny, just reading an opinion piece from G&M asking why it’s still OK that cars kill?
“The obstacle now is complacency, the acceptance of collisions as a part of life. The injuries and fatalities caused by motor vehicles have become less important than drivers’ need to get places, fast.”
Not sure if it’s more reassuring or less that Montreal is not alone in this collective mindset.
qatzelok 13:35 on 2019-12-02 Permalink
Meezly, that Globe article is a good antidote to the fake-journalism TVA car-ad that Kate linked to above.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-why-is-it-okay-that-cars-kill/
Juanita Jackson 15:41 on 2019-12-02 Permalink
You are basing these very sensible observations on your experiences being there but what about when you – or any other pedestrian – weren’t there? The vast majority of time motorists spend at traffic lights is just wasted waiting for nothing and nobody and that’s a giant collective waste for productivity, efficiency and even clean air. Indeed the Unabomber was inspired to commit terrorism after realizing he was sitting at a red light in the middle of the night for no reason, it was an example of corrosive government control over his sovereignty and natural right to progress where he wanted to go. The situation needs to be fixed to allow people to progress sensibly when possible.
Blork 16:39 on 2019-12-02 Permalink
At the risk of sounding like I’m siding with the Unabomber, I will confirm that driving a car isn’t always the warm comfortable bubble it might seem like to non-drivers. In fact, driving can be quite stressful, particularly in Montreal where you are surrounded by so many idiot drivers, plus there are all the worries about pedestrians and cyclists in your blind spots. For the past few years there is the non-stop irritation (which can explode into outrage very easily) at the huge amount of detours, re-routes, and other confusion from all the construction, which can throw you off your route and put you in a situation where you don’t know how to get to your destination or when you might get there.
Add to that the inching along, feeling like it’s taking forever to get anywhere, and not infrequently this seems to be caused either by some other idiot having done something stupid and therefore causing a jam, or gridlock, etc., or it’s because of seemingly arbitrary detours or “no left turn” signs (seriously, you can sometimes drive for ten blocks before you can make a left turn). And then you find yourself at a red light that takes five solid minutes to turn green, and 30 seconds later you’re at another red light that takes five minutes to turn green, then 30 seconds later you’re at another red light that takes five minutes to turn green, then 30 seconds later you’re at another red light that takes five minutes to turn green (getting frustrated yet?). All this made worse when the five minutes (or ten, or fifteen, or twenty) that you’ve spent at red lights have been met with zero perpendicular traffic.
Add to this your three-year-old in the back seat threatening to barf at any minute and your 1-year-old screaming at the top of its lungs, plus your dog is whimpering because he needs to pee, your phone won’t stop ringing and you can’t answer it because you’re driving, and you just got a text that your house is on fire and the gangster you have tied up in the trunk is trying to kick his way out and it’s making a real racket.
So no, driving isn’t very relaxing.
qatzelok 18:07 on 2019-12-02 Permalink
We drive so that we can live in plywood boxes in the middle of nowhere, far from our friends, families, and activities that give life meaning.
Is all the complaining about driving ‘not being as fun as it’s supposed to be’ – supposed to make people want to help you to drive faster and across public parks?
“I spend all this money and I’m still supposed to stop at red lights and let pedestrians cross? WTF! ( :
Raymond Lutz 08:58 on 2019-12-03 Permalink
Pendant ce temps, de l’autre côté de l’Atlantique:
“J’aime la voiture, j’adore la voiture (…) La voiture, c’est la liberté et tous ceux qui la condamnent devraient se souvenir de ce qu’était l’Union Soviétique (…) La voiture c’est la France (…) c’est notre culture.”
B.Lemaire, ministre Français de l’Économie
https://twitter.com/EmmanuelSPV/status/1201566207335374848
Kevin 10:43 on 2019-12-03 Permalink
There are 750,000 vehicles registered by the 1,950,000 people living on this island. At 2.5 people per household, that’s a car for every home.
The people driving in Montreal live in Montreal.
jeather 11:30 on 2019-12-03 Permalink
Presumably many people who live in the suburbs have friends and family who also live in the suburbs,often the exact same suburb.
Raymond Lutz 11:41 on 2019-12-03 Permalink
“The people driving in Montreal live in Montreal.” Geez… je me demande bien où habitent les conducteurs des 1.1 millions de véhicules qui traversent les ponts chaque jour?
http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/url/ITEM/1119CF953C3EB02CE0530A930132B02C
Blork 12:11 on 2019-12-03 Permalink
Actually, CBC radio had a news story this morning about a recent study of commuting, and (if my memory serves me), more than half of Montreal suburbanites work either in their own suburb or in another suburb. Also, there is a significant percentage of Montrealers who work either in a different borough or in a suburb.
Basically, the study put the kibosh to the old notion that “commuting” is entirely a matter of suburbanites coming into downtown every morning and heading back to the suburbs at night. Not so! Most of those cars you see swirling around Montreal are driven by Montrealers, not suburbanties. Fully 50% of suburbanites who work downtown commute by public transit.
I can’t find a link to the story on CBC’s website. However, I will say that this comes as no surprise to me. There are jobs galore in the suburbs, and they’re not all taken buy suburbanites. Anyone looking at any of those bridges during commuting hours knows that there are almost as many cars heading OUT of the city in the morning as there are going in. I know of Mile-enders working in Laval, Plateauites working in Longueuil, NDGers working in Brossard, etc.
Kevin 12:21 on 2019-12-03 Permalink
@Raymond Lutz
Well, my wife is one of them as she drives from Montreal to Kahnawake.
But let me be clear instead of being sarcastic: The people on this blog need to stop pretending that *only* suburbanites drive.
Montrealers own cars and drive. All those cars parked in the Plateau overnight are owned by people who live in the Plateau.
Blork 17:04 on 2019-12-03 Permalink
The CBC story has finally showed up on the web site:
Public transit, suburban travel redefine Montreal’s typical commute
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/commuter-changes-statscan-montreal-1.5381514
Raymond Lutz 08:08 on 2019-12-04 Permalink
Quelqu’un a-t-il consulté les données de Statistique Canada pour l’article mentionné par Blork? Sont très mal définis (sinon pas du tout) les notions de “city core” et de “suburbs” ….
As for the asymmetrical flow of commuters, it seems far more pronounced than Blork’s “there are almost as many cars heading OUT of the city in the morning as there are going in.”
The statscan data shows the “traditional commute (outside-to-inside city core)” is FIVE FOLD the “reverse commute (inside-to-outside city core)” (as anyone looking at any of those bridges during commuting hours can observe…).
But is the city core simply a 5 km circle around the town hall? “The city centre is defined as the census tract where the city hall is located.” Really?