Traffic slows firefighter response
The Gazette feels here like it’s trying to make a clickbaity news story out of nothing much: Firefighters are losing precious time because of Montreal traffic says the headline. The report? “It takes about 15 seconds longer on average for firefighters to arrive at the scene of a fire”, comparing 2018 to 2023.
But it also feels like someone’s reading the more kvetchy Montreal groups on Facebook, where crotchety people (many of whom may not even live in Montreal) complain endlessly about cones, cones, cones. This story panders perfectly to their sensibilities. “Too much construction right now… the city is to blame for adding too many bicycle paths…” Yes. Bingo achieved. Nice bit of outrage over breakfast.
azrhey 09:26 on 2024-07-29 Permalink
although I 100% agree with your take on Montreal Bashing and am entirely done with it, I have also noticed that in Montreal ( Or Quebec? Canada? I don’t know my experience is mostly Montreal and Laval once in a blue moon… ) drivers don’t seem to get out of way, or do anything possible to get out of the way of firetrucks and ambulances as quickly as I’ve noticed in Europe (sample size of france, spain portugal, uk, YMMV ). I live not far from a fire station and often see firetrucks stuck behind a car stuck at an intersection whereas I would have expected the car to half turn right to liberate the truck but they don’t because they want to go straight ahead, and other things like that. I’ve mentioned it to couple of other european friends over the years and they seem to agree that get out of the way of emergency vehicles is a more quick thing over there…
su 09:36 on 2024-07-29 Permalink
“It’s really the time on the road that has increased over the years,” Lapointe said. “The biggest reason for this is the sheer density of traffic congestion.”
I wonder how many More Cars there are on the streets of Montreal compared to, say, 20 years ago.
carswell 09:53 on 2024-07-29 Permalink
@su Can’t cite chapter and verse (heard it in a CBC Montreal interview with a transportation specialist) but in the multi-decade interval during which the on-island population increased 22%, the number of registered cars on island rose 60%.
walkerp 10:06 on 2024-07-29 Permalink
azrhey, it’s an east coast thing and particularly acute in Montreal. It’s really gross. When you drive in Vancouver, everybody pulls over at the sound of a siren.
jeather 12:23 on 2024-07-29 Permalink
I was driving down Rose-de-Lima when it was down to one lane because of construction, and an ambulance was driving down — people moved out of the way as best they could given traffic, but one car just was on the ambulance’s ass and the ambulance driver actually stopped it, got out of the cab, and yelled at the guy, then got back in the ambulance and just made the red light. It was remarkable — I get the urge but surely that wasn’t the best use of time if they needed a siren?
Uatu 16:50 on 2024-07-29 Permalink
It’s the same mentality in this city that makes people stand in front of the doors of the metro instead of to the side to let passengers off first. I don’t really understand. Are Montrealers that self absorbed? Or just straight up inconsiderate.
MarcG 17:38 on 2024-07-29 Permalink
I’ve always attributed this behavior to a scarcity mindset (“The world has treated me unfairly so I will do the same”) but it’s just my feeling.
SMD 21:46 on 2024-07-29 Permalink
Related headline from today: Bike lanes and narrowed streets don’t slow emergency vehicles. From a multi-year study in Iowa.