Montreal City Weblog

Kate 09:12 on 2023-09-19 Permalink Reply  

• steph 09:15 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  I thought they fixed this with the new on/off ramps (to bypass the Dorval circle). Does this confirm that more roads only makes MORE traffic?

• Kevin 10:38 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  It’s a multi-part problem.
  One factor is the province’s decision to abolish the Montreal Taxi Bureau, so now everyone with a car payment is hassling arriving passengers under a Lyft/Uber/whatever banner.
  (I’ll contrast with my recent trip to Halifax, where I arrived at the airport to a nice orderly line of taxis and limos with a fixed rate for travel to and from the city).

  A second is the STM’s complete and utter inability to make it easy for tourists to take the 747 bus.

  But a third issue, and probably the most problematic, is that the new ramp from the 20 west to the Airport is *only one lane*, and partway through drivers from the Dorval Circle (ie taking the 20 east) have to merge into that one lane. I00 metres later drivers from Cote de Liesse join that road, and 200 metres after that there’s a fork with bad signage splitting the passenger-bound airport traffic from cargo traffic.

  Quebec highway designers don’t seem to understand that forcing drivers to merge while on a bridge is a recipe for congestion, and they definitely don’t understand what a normal traffic volume is in Montreal.

• DeWolf 10:47 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  @steph The problem isn’t highway congestion, it’s congestion at the terminal itself. Too many cars going to drop people off and pick them up.

• Nicholas 10:48 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  The issue is not the circle, but that passenger numbers are up and the parking garage is under reconstruction (partially for the REM station, partially due to natural replacement). So people don’t park for 30 minutes, but instead go up the ramps to departures or arrivals, creating more traffic. (It’s a common metric that something like a third of traffic in downtowns is just people circling for parking.) I do think the REM will reduce the traffic a bit, probably reducing taxi travel and taking nearly all the 747 riders (the 747 will apparently only run overnight). It’ll also get some drivers from Brossard and nearby, who will bus to REM or park at Brossard, and a decent number in the TMR/VSL area. But I would guess most of the people driving are coming from areas that aren’t directly served by the REM, and won’t take luggage on a bus to metro to REM trip. Hopefully I’m wrong.

• Mark 11:59 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  Yeah if you look at the configuration of the airport, there is only about 300-400 meters of road where cars can drop off people in front of the terminal. This is comparable to Halifax and Ottawa, which handles 2-3 million passengers a year, not 20+ million. Trudeau is still essentially configured in the same way as it was when it was built in the 40s. Terminal space, hotels, and parking have been added, but the approach and road around the airport is the same.

  If you look at any airport that handles equivalent amount of traffic, there are usually several terminals with their own road access, and of course, train/bus/subway services that reach the terminal. Look at the approach roads of Zurich, Sydney, Paris-Orly (that handle similar numbers to YUL)….there all have rail connections of course, but notice that the road that interfaces with the terminal where passengers can be dropped off is very long, usually 1-2-3 kilometres, not 300 meters.

  Entirely predictable outcome that will hopefully improve with the REM. I think they need to create a new drop off zone maybe with a shuttle bus that has right of way until transit gets sorted and the parking garage is finished.

• Ephraim 12:32 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  Did someone forget to mention the new “ghost taxis” at the airport?

  The ADM has made a number of mistakes. Mostly created by the “Law of Unexpected Consequences”. You change a pattern, you try to profit, but in the end you make everyone miserable.

  Parking at the airport has become so expensive that more and more people are getting people to “drop them off” at the airport which has created a congestion of cars. It has also lost the Car2Go, which parked at the ParkNFly lots, which also meant they came in by bus. And with no special fast way to get from the 747 to the airport (like a special lane), it just means that people look at the 747 as a slower way in, rather than a way to save time and effort.

  My suggestion, making going up to the departures for taxis, limos, buses and such (Uber, eva, etc) only. Move the Eva/Uber waiting area to the CellParc and convert P6 into a drop off zone where you get a bus to the terminal. With the bus stop being on Arthur Fecteau (where the bus stop for the 204 currently is) or you could keep it where it’s also set on Therese-Hallé. Either way, you stop traffic from going through to the departures except for by bus. And if you need to, set up transponders that open the gates as you approach, so that cars can’t even try it. (It may also clear up the ghost taxi problem, if they can’t get easily in/out of the arrivals/departures area.)

  Conversely depending on traffic, you could also allow emergency drop offs at arrivals

  Long term, I think that even the economy parking lots will likely need to go multi-level,

  @Nicholas – The statistic is that 30% of traffic downtown at most times is people looking for parking.

• Aineko Marcx 14:39 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  Would it be possible to figure out any feasible betterment to expedite the construction of REM’s YUL branch
  and end this ordeal quicker? e.g. synergy to blow open blocks/red tapes/bottlenecks. After all, this twig is not crossing any rocky mountain or unsteady water.

• Tee Owe 15:25 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  As someone who regularly and recently used airports in Montreal Toronto Copenhagen and London I support Aineko Marcx that Montreal needs an airport train

• Ian 22:59 on 2023-09-19 Permalink

  We’ve known we need a direct train for decades, property rights and so forth have always been the stumbling block. I don’t understand why expropriation didn’t happen but I imagine brown envelopes played a role….

  In any case like everything else in Montreal I think we would do well by creating a grift office whose job it is to figure out how any new legislation can be manipulated by operators-in-bad-faith. Then again, that would mean end to brown envelopes.