City promises faster road markings
There were complaints last year that road markings had been worn away in a lot of spots and not renewed after winter, so the city has promised to work faster this season and has acquired a pricey new truck to speed up the process.
Roman 09:23 on 2019-07-06 Permalink
That is such bullshit. St. Henri has virtually no markings. Lots of dangerous areas. Lots of honking.
What they need isn’t “faster” marking, but rather ones that stay longer. It’s completely unacceptable that these markings need to be re-applied every year. Not for a second I’ll believe that it’s weather or some other bullshit excuse. Markings on the highway stay way longer with way more traffic. It’s pure corruption. But what’s new?
mare 10:04 on 2019-07-06 Permalink
@roman the road markings are ground off by the snow scrapers. A layer of crushed ice pushed over paint is a pretty good abrasive. This year it was even worse because we had so many freeze-thaw cycles. In my neighbourhood there are even many spots that have teeth marks in the concrete from snow removal trucks that took a bite.
They should just stop removing snow from the roads in the winter. You still want to drive? Shovel it yourself. Or use skis or a sled. You live all the way in Boisbriand? Tant pis.
david100 13:48 on 2019-07-06 Permalink
There were barely any street markings anywhere in the Montreal 10-15 years ago. I remember feeling somewhat bummed out when they started to come in.
david100 16:00 on 2019-07-06 Permalink
Another one was overhead traffic lights. Never used to have those either, at least in most of the city, until ~10 years ago.
Roman 09:37 on 2019-07-07 Permalink
@mare
Are you telling me there’s no snow or ice on the highways?
Also US across the border somehow has magically better weather?
It’s the story that these corrupt organizations want you to believe. That it’s weather related.
Cmon we’ve been to space. Are you telling me there’s no paint that can withstand weather and snow removal?
I just don’t buy it.
Have you seen the testing paint strips on highways? Those last years and they are in direct contact with tires all day long, because they are perpendicular to traffic direction.
The lane separation lines and much less in contact as you aren’t driving on them most of the time. And they last less than a year.
CE 11:10 on 2019-07-07 Permalink
The way the city paints the lines is also very inefficient. They come one night and paint one side of a bike lane then a couple weeks later do the cross walk, then the stop lines, then the yellow line down the middle and maybe later this summer they’ll get around to the other side of the bike lane and the chevrons. Speaking of the bike chevrons, the fact that a lot aren’t painted on the lanes that go against traffic is very dangerous. Without those markings, many drivers think cyclists are riding against traffic and get aggressive. Some cyclists also don’t know that these are contra flow and ride the wrong way down them which causes issues when other cyclists are using them the right way. It’s a mess!
Kevin 15:28 on 2019-07-07 Permalink
The paint sucks because it’s water-based. Everywhere across Canada that has stopped using oil based paint has discovered this problem.
It’s even a problem in parts of British Columbia where it never snows and they never plow.
Governments were trying to do the right thing by listening to lobby groups and using paint that supposedly had less environmental impact but they ended up causing more environmental damage because the paint has to be reapplied multiple times a year.
Roman 19:34 on 2019-07-08 Permalink
That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard. There’s so much data on paint strips. Every highway department in North America has this data. Why not just ask them. I’m sure they’ve tested every paint formula in existence.
I’m sure they “listened” to lobby very carefully when they heard the bills crunch.