Perez claims road congestion a Projet ploy
Well, he’s losing it. Ensemble’s Lionel Perez claimed Tuesday that traffic congestion is a deliberate ploy by the Plante administration to make the roads inhospitable to drivers. Even TVA here rounds off the story by noting the constantly rising number of cars in Quebec, and how many of them are driving around Montreal.
qatzelok 13:41 on 2019-09-17 Permalink
There was a huge line-up in front of the Diperie (designer ice cream) in the Village all summer. This was obviously a plot by local fruit and vegetable vendors to get us to eat more fiber and vitamins.
YUL514 16:07 on 2019-09-17 Permalink
It is indirectly deliberate, there are a lot of new lights where cars don’t have an opportunity to turn left or right on busy streets because there’s no flashing green and no stationary hand to stop pedestrians from crossing. What occurs is more congestion, call it deliberate, conspiracy, bad planning, all I know is it’s real. This will lead to frustrated drivers and an increase in accidents. It doesn’t make sense that only one car can turn left/right per light sequence.
The irony for PM is that this causes more congestion and pollution from idling cars, something they want to alleviate.
Faiz Imam 16:30 on 2019-09-17 Permalink
We are just short of half way through PM and plante’s 4 year mandate, and Perez has done absolutely nothing of substance in opposition. It’s all manufactured controversy and minor annoyances.
I guess its the best we can hope for. This lack of any credible opposition leadership means there is actual hope that PM can win again and have a lasting impact of the city.
Spi 18:02 on 2019-09-17 Permalink
Well even when Coderre was the mayor, the most credible opposition were the borough Mayors, not the opposition party, but now that the central neighborhoods are all under one party who’s left to raise their voice? The mayors of Saint-Laurent, Anjou, Lachine?
Perez is stretching it by saying it’s a deliberate ploy, but I don’t think it would be unfair to say that there aren’t a lot of measures to mitigate the situation.
Kate 19:18 on 2019-09-17 Permalink
Spi, actually there are. The city has a mobility squad working on keeping traffic flowing and if that report is correct it’s doing good work.
And don’t forget, a lot of the blockages are not created by the city. Between the whole Turcot thing, the Pie‑IX bus lane and the REM construction sites, which are Quebec’s babies, sites like Bishop Street and the excavations around Jean-Talon metro, which are the STM’s, and countless private construction sites, I’d hazard a guess that the majority of the construction blocking city streets is not municipal in origin.
DavidH 23:35 on 2019-09-17 Permalink
Regarding the construction zones that actually are municipal projects, a lot of them like the Plaza St-Hubert, etc. were Ensemble Mtl initiatives to begin with. Projet Mtl’s actual initiatives are barely starting. Big construction projects require planning, voting budgets, announcing public tenders, etc. It takes years for them to be launched. Except for the Camilien-Houde pilot project, there isn’t much an honest person could really pin on Projet per se.