The city is planning to extend its cycling network over the next five years, adding 200 km in the same style as the REV on St‑Denis.
Updates from November, 2022 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
The Speaker of the National Assembly has ruled: no oath, no seat.
Just what we wanted, a little constitutional crisis to liven things up.
Leagle
Those who refuse the oath are attempting to create a constitutional crisis. Paradis is simply upholding the constitution.
Canada Act, 1867, s. 128:
Oath of Allegiance, etc.
128 Every Member of the Senate or House of Commons of Canada shall before taking his Seat therein take and subscribe before the Governor General or some Person authorized by him, and every Member of a Legislative Council or Legislative Assembly of any Province shall before taking his Seat therein take and subscribe before the Lieutenant Governor of the Province or some Person authorized by him, the Oath of Allegiance contained in the Fifth Schedule to this Act; and every Member of the Senate of Canada and every Member of the Legislative Council of Quebec shall also, before taking his Seat therein, take and subscribe before the Governor General, or some Person authorized by him, the Declaration of Qualification contained in the same Schedule.
H. John
Change is unlikely.
Prof. Philppe Lagassé, Carleton University, is an expert and frequent writer on Canada and its Crown. Here are his thoughts:
It seems like a debate we need to have.
I don’t think we’re ready for the second part of the debate. How do we choose our Head of State?
The Aussie’s didn’t so much vote to keep the Monarchy when they had a referendum on the issue in 1999, as they rejected the method of selecting a replacement proposed by the government and politicians at the time.
Chris
Change is even less likely without it being pushed for, which is what those folks are doing.
SMD
Agreed, Chris. Also, the National Assembly can change its own rules without touching the Constitution.
Uatu
It’s distractions like this which keeps QC from dealing with problems like overcrowded ERs or the closing of lanes in the la Fontaine tunnel. Just get it over with and get to work. I agree with them, but this is backburner bullsht for another time
denpanosekai
Uatu with the truth
Chris
Analogous to what Kate said the other day, these MLAs are “able to juggle a number of dossiers”, they can work on health care and against the monarchy at the same time.
Kevin
Pledging allegiance to all citizens in the symbolic form of the monarch is not something that can be eliminated by a simple changing of the rules of the National Assembly. It requires the unanimous consent of all governments in the country.
All the politicians know this too — they’re just counting on the people who vote for them not knowing it.
Kate
As Kevin says. The National Assembly cannot change this rule as a separate deal from the Constitution. It’s fundamental and probably cannot be changed without a profound adjustment in the basic structure of the entire country.
Uatu
Today the Children‘s announced a hospital wide level 3 code surge. Just about every day a code surge is announced for both Glen adults and the Children ER. If they’re multi tasking they’re doing a shit job. Just say that they oppose the oath on principle but will take it because there’s work that their constituents need done and the idea of a republic will be revisited later. And they’ll be joining Levesque, Bouchard, Duceppe etc who all took it before them without making a big deal about it.
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Kate
La Presse has an interesting interview with Yip Chee Sing, the onetime refugee who established the Kim Phat chain of Asian grocery stores, although now the majority is owned by Sobey’s.
I’ve shopped at the one on Jarry, a bus ride from here. One aspect that wasn’t mentioned here is that they don’t have only Asian products, but also a selection of Latino foods, in response to neighbourhood needs – a smart decision.
DeWolf
The new location in VSL also caters to the large West African population nearby. There’s a bit of overlap in terms of fresh ingredients.
Interesting to see this PR push just as T&T is about to open. Montreal will suddenly have an abundance of large Asian supermarkets…
Meezly
The new T&T is opening in the St-Laurent borough, which is harder to access for me by bike, bus or metro, compared to if it was in a more downtown location. I hope T&T will expand in Montreal, like Adonis has.
Kate
Does anyone know what “Kim Phat” means?
DeWolf
@Meezly, I’d also like to see a Kim Phat in the downtown area. At least there’s Newon. That said, the new T&T is only a ten minute walk from Du Collège metro. Not ideal if you’re getting a ton of groceries but perfectly doable with a backpack or a trolley.
@Kate, my wife says it means “Gold Prosperity.” Not sure what kind of romanization Kim Phat is, but it’s pronounced more like Gum Fat in Cantonese or Jin Fa in Mandarin.
Kate
Thank you, DeWolf (and please thank Madame).
Ian
I forget who was asking about potato starch but on the subject of Asian groceries I went to Marché Newon, on Jean Talon near Décarie a couple of days ago. They had it. Same strip mall as the Village des Valuers.
Ephraim
@Ian – It was me… trying to make karaage and potato latkes. I found it at Anatol. There is a G&D in Chinatown, downstairs from where LanZhou is located https://goo.gl/maps/yoqAkFP1pLax78wr9
But we find ourselves going over to C&T and Lian Tai in St-Laurent from time to time, not just because of selection and price, but also they have these prepared food sections that are really inexpensive. C&T even has an enormous Cantonese chow mein that they will prepare for you in store that you can take home. Lian Tai has more vegetables, which I hardly thought would even be possible. You have to be very careful with dates on the really “super” specials. Like this week C&T has Cracker Barrel Mexiqueso on sale for just $1.68… I would be checking the BB date on that like a hawk.
Ian
I do most of my Asian grocery at G&D but just happened to be out at Village des Valeurs looking for Hallowe’en stuff 🙂
Ephraim
G&D has the best foreign Lay’s chip and foreign Kit Kat collection that I have seen in town. If you know someone, like me, that would delight in eating any new flavour of chips, they have hot squid, hot pot, ghost pepper and more! Need some green tea Kit Kit… that’s your store.
Ian
Agreed 100%, they even get in limited edition KitKats. I too obsessively buy chip flavours I haven’t had before. They also have a superior variety of instant ramen, even some harder to find kinds like the Marutai regional style 2-serving packs…
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Kate
A young man lying in the street in St‑Henri was, not surprisingly, seriously injured when a motorist drove over him. “The 53-year-old driver was not injured.”
CBC radio news at 3:30 said the young man has died, but there’s no explanation why he was lying in the street.
A man in his seventies died in a house fire in DDO Monday evening.
A trailer was set on fire in St‑Léonard overnight. It’s not specified, but given the location this would be a truck trailer, not someone’s camping trailer. CTV notes that several vehicles have been torched around town recently.
bumper carz
When commercial news sources inform viewers that “the driver was not injured,,” are they promoting the idea that you should always be behind the wheel of a car where you will be safe?
Spi
It’s just the staff writer ticking off the boxes when writing their blurb. Location and date, age and gender of victim and driver, suv or not? Speeding/alcohol? Driver treated for shock?
Publish. The media isn’t always pushing a narrative.
Kate
qatzelok, I think the assumption is their readers drive, so would be concerned about the effect the incident had on a fellow driver – were they hurt, were they in shock and so on.
Kate
Or as Spi says.
dwgs
Holy crap, what a tragic development, https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/caq-mna-mourning-loss-of-stepson-who-died-in-montreal-collision-1.6136818
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Kate
John McGale, longtime guitarist in the old Quebec rock band Offenbach, was killed in a car crash on Sunday night in Lacolle.
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Kate
La Presse tested several ways of getting from Boucherville to Maisonneuve‑Rosemont hospital, which it takes to be a typical distance travelled by someone crossing the river in that part of town, and a typical destination.
Despite recent cries of anguish in the media, a car still clocks the fastest time via the tunnel, and a second car came close by taking the Jacques‑Cartier. The boat (plus a bus trip) takes longest but is noted to be the least stressful way of making the trip.
Blork
Interesting test. No surprise that the car was still the quickest, even with the tunnel “nightmare.” Apparently the traffic hasn’t been as bad as predicted so far, but that might partly be because there SO MUCH was said about the coming commuter apocalypse that nothing could have lived up to the anticipation.
It’s also no surprise that the public transportation options take so long. Public transport needs a total overhaul and re-think, not just a few added express lanes and swapping one Byzantine fare system for another. But I do not expect that overhaul to come anytime soon, as it would cost billions and would mean a major do-over of road infrastructure, and no one has the tolerance to do that after we’ve been doing that non-stop for the past six or seven years.
The primary killers of the desire to use public transport are (a) proximity and (b) all that standing around waiting. By proximity I mean how close is the nearest bus or Metro station? In most parts of the city there’s a stop pretty close, but in many cases you might have to wait 20-30 minutes between buses, and the bus might not go anywhere near your destination. Out in the more thinly-populated areas it’s much worse, and when you do get a bus it’s set to feed you into a more central area when maybe you need to go across the system not with the system.
Look at the route taken by the person in the article who took the navette from Boucherville. What are the odds that there’s a bus near her place that takes her directly to the boat? (Probably nil.) So she probably has too walk quite a bit, and if she misses the bus she’s basically f*cked, as that means she’ll miss the boat. STESS! And if she does make the boat, what are the odds of there being a bus on the other side that takes her from the dock directly to her place of work?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again… standing around waiting for a bus is the public transport killer. Especially if you have to take two or even three different buses to get you to your destination.
I think what we’ll see over the next three years is basically that the car commute will be as bad as ever and sometimes worse, as opposed to the ALWAYS THE WORST that has been hyped. The part that bothers me (as someone who does NOT commute to the city daily but likes to occasionally pop in on the weekends) is the extent to which weekend traffic into the city (and out again) has gotten bad. We never used to have lineups for a bridge at 10:00PM on a Saturday or at noon on Sunday, but I’ve been seeing it.
BTW, none of the above should be seen as a “pro car” stance. Just calling it as I see it.
Kate
As a bus user, I’d say any wait under 15 minutes is tolerable. More than that, especially in wintertime, begins to be a burden. My worst experiences with buses in recent years have been unexpected detours and cancellations of stops. I haven’t had to get anywhere by bus late at night since the pandemic, though.
Blork
I’d say “tolerable but barely” and some people have no patience at all. But the real problem comes with the accumulation of waits if you have to take two or even three buses. Imagine a 45 minute bus commute where only 15 minutes is spent on the bus but 30 minutes is spent waiting (15 minutes x 2). Ouch!
Blork
Also: the occasional 15 minute wait is tolerable, especially if you’re just going from A to B to do some random thing, as opposed to your daily commute. Waiting 20, 30, or more minutes outside EVERY DAY, maybe TWICE A DAY on your daily commute can make you lose the will to live.
Joey
Sadly, I suspect a lot of the tunnel commuters would sooner quit their jobs or move house before being caught dead on a bus every day. And I say this as a lifelong bus fan.
thomas
I believe that studies have shown that the key metrics for public transport are predictability (i.e. when the bus will be at the start and stop of their trip to allow people to plan their day) and comfort. If these are reliably satisfied people will accept a reduced frequency and longer trip.
mare
Since a hospital has a helicopter pad, I was going to comment that taking a helicopter from the south shore would certainly be the fastest solution. But I checked on Google Maps and Maisonneuve‑Rosemont hospital doesn’t *have* a helicopter pad, although there are some possible landing spots nearby.
Of course I had to look up other Montreal hospitals and found out that only Sacré-Coeur Hospital has a helipad, not even the Heart Institute. As far as I can tell the province has no trauma helicopter service (it had a pilot project 4 years ago) despite having large swats of very sparsely populated areas. Well I guess it’s cheaper not to have one.
mare
The most relaxing way would be an electric bike. I don’t commute but have ridden on mine to off-island places and it’s *much* less stressful than taking the car and often does take less time than using public transport.
From regular commuters I hear that one big advantage is the predictability: they don’t have to account for possible delays caused by traffic jams or missed bus connections, their travel time is almost always the same. It saves a lot of time that you don’t have to spent in the gym too, because despite it being electric you do get a workout. Our winters are an issue though, especially when bikes paths are closed or not maintained. And if many people are changing to a commute by bike we need more infrastructure, especially on the Jacques-Cartier, where it’s already too busy and sometimes a dangerous situation with pedestrians and ebikes sharing the same, narrow and bi-directional path.(The bike network on the south shore and in Laval is surprisingly good btw, and of very smooth road surfaces.)
Blork
Mare, as you know, I’m a big fan of electric bikes. But that’s just not a realistic or desirable option for many people for a variety of reasons. In the article above it took the cyclist 1h 21 min. Not everyone wants to spend almost three hours a day on a bicycle just to get to and from work, especially given the volatile climate we have. Also, some people simply don’t feel safe cycling in the city, or they have health or mobility issues that makes it not very feasible (especially in the rain or a snowstorm). Plus, people often have to pick up their kids from daycare on the way home.
That said, if it’s doable then do it! 🙂 I used to love riding my bike to work from Longueuil to downtown back before the plague. It took about 40 minutes or so, and was good exercise. But not without its inconveniences, such as WHERE DO YOU LEAVE YOUR BIKE? (I was lucky; my office had a locked “bike room” just for that purpose.) Plus the whole changing of clothes thing, and sometimes a shower, which is always a bit awkward at work. And I wouldn’t ride my bike if there was any threat of rain because I cannot stand biking in the rain (and not all electric bikes are weatherproof). I also wouldn’t take it if I were going out after work for drinks or other entertainment, as I didn’t want to be riding at night with a belly full of beers (I would take the Metro on those days).
carswell 23:04 on 2022-11-01 Permalink
Hard to say based on that captionless map that doesn’t show geographic features or major arteries but one of the most glaring gaps in the city’s bike infrastructure, the lack of even a single safe crossing of the Décarie expressway/side roads north of Monkland appears to remain. Look at the huge north-south band of white in the general area. There are regularly used bike paths on either side of the Décarie canyon but apparently it is beyond city planners to link them up.
In the last decade, I’ve come within inches of being hit by cars twice, once while crossing the northbound Décarie service road at Édouard-Montpetit and once while biking down the southbound Décarie service road between Édouard-Montpetit and Isabella. (Oddly, the two near accidents were only two weeks apart.) Both times, I was fully compliant with the highway code while the reckless drivers weren’t.
What a failure on the city’s part. No one was talking about the unsafe Parc/Mont Royal intersection until Andrea Rovere got hit by a truck; now it’s a focus of attention. Guess someone’s going to have to die before officials get serious about Décarie. I hope it’s not me.
Mitchell 07:25 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
@carswell I agree. I hesitate to criticize the cycling network because it has improved since I moved here in 2011. Yet as you point out, there are holes, sometimes dangerous ones.
It also seems like drivers are even more callous with the 2022 retree: I’ve lost count of how many times in just the past few months when cyclists and pedestrians have had right of way (that is, automobiles had red lights) but drivers ignored the red light and turned onto the cross street — across the oncoming lane — almost hitting myself and whoever else was crossing.
I was so so pleased, however, to discover the lane down Cote Ste. Catherine had been resurfaced while I was out of town earlier this fall! Although they’ve already started digging it up again . . .
DeWolf 08:01 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
The city’s press release has a link to a PDF with a more comprehensive list of streets being targeted:
https://www.newswire.ca/fr/news-releases/vision-velo-2023-2027-la-ville-de-montreal-se-dote-d-une-planification-elaboree-pour-le-developpement-d-un-reseau-cyclable-securitaire-et-efficace-partout-sur-l-ile-809000152.html
Among them is a path across Bourret Avenue on Decarie, so that’s one more protected crossing across the expressway (along with de Maisonneuve), but it’s a shame none of the main streets are being targeted.
Some other observations:
Jean-Talon will be as much of a game-changer as St-Denis, but I expect tough opposition, because it’s an even more car-oriented street.
Some of the non-REV “inter-arrondissement” projects have the potential to be very transformative. There are paths planned for Wellington across the canal, Darlington/Wilderton in CDN (connects with Canora REM station), Bleury (a natural north-south route through downtown), and Christophe-Colomb (bringing back the very popular VAS from 2020?), all of which are natural cycling routes that are currently hostile to cyclists. St-Urbain is also listed as being slated for an upgrade and I wonder what that means, because it’s currently a very unsafe path that puts cyclists in the dooring zone next to speeding traffic.
The Lacordaire and Henri-Bourassa REVs will hopefully push the most anti-bike boroughs (Montreal North, St-Leo and Anjou) to finally build some proper infrastructure.
The devil is in the details, of course. I’ll be very eager to see exactly which of these projects the city will launch first and what they’ll look like.
walkerp 08:56 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
Already they added a path heading east on Villeneuve between St-Laurent and St-Denis which is a huge improvement. And they did it in a few weeks!
I haven’t looked at the details but just being able to push this as a major plan, and even getting a provincial thumbs-up is a huge advance compared to Montreal under previous administrations.
DeWolf 09:32 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
@walkerp Along with the Villeneuve counter flow path, the borough did the same thing on Clark from Rachel to Milton. Both are a huge improvement since they open up routes that were previously illegal (on account of being one-way).
It may seem like they were done quickly but they have both been in the works for years. Clark in particular was meant to be done in 2019 but it was postponed due to St-Urbain construction and then the pandemic lockdown.
Blork 09:38 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
If anyone wants the PDF that DeWolf mentioned, the link is near the bottom of the page. It brings you to a new tab where you have to accept cookies and agree to the terms of service. That brings you to another page that has the download link. The link downloads a ZIP file that has to be un-zipped. You end up with two PDFs.
FFS. Convoluted much?
Joey 10:02 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
I hate those counter-flow paths, especially on narrow streets. As a driver, if you’re parked on lefthand side with bikes headed in your direction along that same side (imagine Clark between Villeneuve and St.-Joseph, if you’re familiar with it), there is basically no way to see oncoming bike traffic until they are a few feet away – the driver’s field of vision is such that you can’t see past the car in front of you. If you’re pulling out of a space, you need to keep an eye behind you for cars/bikes coming up the block plus bikes headed in your direction. Terrible design that implies a level of safety for cyclists that is completely unwarranted.
I notice Clark is on the list. I wonder if they are referring to the portion south of Mile-End or whether they plan to dig up the recently installed (and then quickly re-installed) portion north of Laurier,
walkerp 12:18 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
@joey there are no more parking spaces on the left hand side of Villeneuve. That’s where the bike lane is. Not sure if that changes anything as I can’t visualize the driver’s lack of vision that you explained, but from a biker’s perspective, as DeWolf mentioned, it is ways safer than going illegally against traffic, the way it was before.
Joey 12:50 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
Thanks @walkerp… haven’t seen it yet beyond Alex Norris’s facebook photo. That stretch has been an informal counterflow path for a while, since the bike lane west of Clark leads you north to Laurier before cotinuing east.
Jonathan 15:51 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
I love how grumpy pants you are, @blork
Blork 16:17 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
Thanks! it’s a lot of work but it pays off!
jeleventybillionandone 17:10 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
@Joey maybe they’re referring to the Clark street bike lanes that are in the process of being installed between Rachel and Milton, alongside the construction on St Urbain? Hard to tell because I can’t find in any of the links a list that includes Clark. “Installing” in the vaguest sense of the words, since it’s just a painted lane in one direction, then a sharrow in the other.
DeWolf 21:01 on 2022-11-02 Permalink
The list is for inter-borough projects, so I imagine it refers to extending the Clark counterflow lane south of Sherbrooke into Ville-Marie so that it connects with the path on Ontario. Which will require doing something to improve the intersection of Sherbrooke/Clark, which is pretty terrible for pedestrians and cyclists alike.