Covid cases have surged by 50% over 24 hours in Quebec and hospitalizations are up.
Updates from August, 2021 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
STM buses have regained 50% of their pre-pandemic ridership.
EmilyG
I have recently started buying a monthly bus pass again.
Kate
Toward the end of doing census work I was buying weekly passes because we were being sent to a wider zone of addresses, and even though I was walking 10 km or more a day, I sometimes just wanted to take a bus home from wherever I finished up. I didn’t know when they would wrap it up for us so I didn’t want to plunge for a monthly pass.
But this week is the last week, so I’m glad I didn’t buy a pass for all of August.
EmilyG
I recently moved back to the suburbs, and I don’t drive, so I find buses useful out here. (There are actually places in the West Island where bus service is halfway decent, and I”m lucky to live in one of those places.) And I feel safer taking public transit nowadays, when I’m fully vaccinated and many others also are.
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Kate
TVA reports on the condition of Christophe-Colomb in Villeray, which has been patched and repatched but is still a cratered mess. The city needs to dig the street up and fix the infrastructure but that won’t be done for a couple of years.
And when they do, there will be complaints about orange cones.
mare
When there was a bike path on Christophe-Colomb last year they lowered the speed limit to 30 km/h. Because there was no passing lane everybody grudgingly had to comply to that limit, stuck behind someone like me. Driving on Christophe-Colomb was so much calmer and agreeable, and the bad road surface wasn’t much of a problem anymore, and probably got less damaged too.
I have friends who live on Christophe-Colomb and they told me the noise level also was down a lot, also helped by the decrease in car traffic, and they could even open the front windows sometimes and sit on the balcony.
Unfortunately they removed the bike lane and increased the speed limit to 40 km/h again. So now a lot of people drive 60 km/h, all the while complaining about the terrible road condition they make worse by barreling over the potholes.
My friends keep their windows closed 24/7 again.
Since spring my (subjective) impression is that there’s actually *more* traffic on North-South axis like Christophe-Colomb, St-Denis, Papineau, St-Michel and Pie-IX. People moving out of town, using the Metro less and being able to do leisure trips during the day because they work flexible hours from home increase volume.
Battling climate change by lowering greenhouse gas emissions by traffic? A pipe dream.CE
I lived on Christophe-Colomb near Bélanger for about a year and that apartment was awful because of the traffic. Never once did I open my window and we usually exited and entered the house through the alley because walking and biking on the street was so unpleasant. I can’t imagine why anyone who lives there would have been against the bike path and the reduction of traffic lanes, but I’m sure there were a few.
Ephraim 18:37 on 2021-08-11 Permalink
The fourth wave, sponsored by Darwin
qatzelok 20:02 on 2021-08-11 Permalink
Darwin is about “natural” selection.
This has nothing to do with medicine or technologies. He spoke about the way “Nature” chooses best.
Kate 20:21 on 2021-08-11 Permalink
Ephraim isn’t being stupid. If people opt out of human intervention, they’re casting themselves on the vagaries of evolution, Darwin for short. We can try to restrict ourselves to friends and places where masks are used and we know people are vaccinated, but in real life we’re bound to end up beside people who are taking their chances.
ant6n 22:30 on 2021-08-11 Permalink
More like a reference Darwin as a short hand how stupid people are self-selecting to die, c.f. Darwin awards.
H. John 01:54 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
I think we have to pay attention to how difficult it is for some people to be vaccinated.
I follow MUHC health professional Fatima Tokhmafshan (@DeNovo_Fatima) on twitter. She’s shared how people who work shifts don’t fit into what is currently available.
We’re all on twitter etc., so we think it’s the anti-vax guys at fault.
I think Quebec is not don’t a good job of making vaccinations easy for a lot of people.
Ephraim 03:24 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
Look up the Darwin awards, qatzelok.
MarcG 10:19 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
Any news about plans to improve ventilation in schools and the health care system now that weaknesses have been exposed?
Kate 10:38 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
MarcG: No, and people are worried about it.