Mercier‑Hochelaga‑Maisonneuve borough has changed to picking up garbage every two weeks and some are unhappy with the flies and the smell. Clearly it’s an attempt to encourage the reduction of waste, incidentally saving money, but it may not be a smart policy in summertime.
Updates from August, 2024 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Kate
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Kate
Quebec startled a lot of people this week when it suddenly banned scooters and mopeds that don’t meet federal safety standards. Regular reader Nicholas sent me an excerpt from the Quebec official Gazette that lays down the law.
Meezly
I was wondering when/if this topic was going to be posted. This has been a long time coming, but I’m torn. I’m happy to finally see uncertified scooters and mopeds banned from bike paths, but there should be a way for them to coexist with regular vehicles on urban roads since they can reach speeds up to 70km/h.
Blork
Yeah it seems weird to ban them outright. Also, there is a lot of confusion and misinformation around this. For example, one idiot in a FB group I follow immediately started a change.org petition based on the idea that CANADA HAS BANNED ALL EBIKES! FFS, if you want to lose your will to live, just follow some of those conversations.
If you ask me (and I know you’re asking me) it’s a matter of creating guidelines and standards for those vehicles, and licensing them the way we license gas-powered motorcycles and mopeds/scooters.
And of course this shouldn’t apply to low-powered pedal-assist e-bikes.
What’s not clear to me is how does this affect things like those electric unicycles and motorized skateboards and whatnot.
Blork
This will also be hard on those poor saps who do delivery gig work, like for Uber Eats. Electric scooters are the go-to vehicles for those jobs.
Ian
Similar thing happened in NY almost a decade ago. I waa waiting for that shoe to drop.
ottawaowl
Safely sharing the Ottawa-Gatineau NCC-CCN paths: speed limit of 20 km/h + rules for electric power-assisted vehicles https://ncc-ccn.gc.ca/places/share-the-path
Permitted: Electric power-assisted bicycles (“e-bikes”), with operable pedals, that resemble conventional bicycles * Electric power-assisted cargo bicycles (“cargo e-bikes”), with operable pedals, for personal use * Motorized mobility aids, including but not limited to powered wheelchairs and scooters with three to five wheels
Prohibited: Electric power-assisted cargo bicycles for commercial use * Electric kick-style scooters * All devices that are exclusively powered by a throttle * All other electric-powered vehicles that are not specified above
Nicholas
I encourage everyone to read the regulation, specifically article 1, which is very short and most of what matters. As you can see, twice it mentions appearance similar to mopeds (similar in French), so they really don’t know how to specifically define the different things, and this was likely a last minute “We have to do something, and quickly” thing. The regulation expires in 6 months, and you can read between the lines in the La Presse article that something more permanent will happen. I’m guessing we’ll get the Class 1/2/3 e-bike system, plus a separate one for things that are clearly mopeds, and that the stakeholders will get together with the governments and come up with a solution (licence? plates? lanes/paths vs streets? helmets?).
I agree these vehicles should be allowed in some way, especially as they’re key for food delivery. This was clearly coming to a head, and reminds me of Amsterdam, where there was a much bigger problem than the other Dutch cities, and eventually the national government made an exception for the city to allow them to ban the smaller mopeds on bike paths. I hope we can find a way to safely allow all these micro mobility options in a way that keeps people safe (and safer than cars).
Blork, the regulations specify that this applies only to two- and three-wheeled vehicles, among other things, so skateboards and unicycles aren’t affected, nor are foot scooters (for other reasons).
Ian
I think the cargo bike for commercial use part is what will affect the Ubereats guys most. I ownder if the cops will bother to enforce it.
Andrew
The thing I love about my e-bike is how easy it is to replace a lot of driving. When it’s too hot, too cold, or I’m just too lazy, I can still commute in a similar amount of time on few cents of electricity. People want to constrain personal electric vehicles to fit our existing rules and infrastructure, but we might miss out on a really easy way to drastically reduce car usage.
Ian
If your commute is that short you could just take public transit, no?
Andrew
20 minutes by car, 25 by ebike, 35 to 40 by bike and at least 45 by transit to go 10 km. To be fair the lachine canal path is the most direct route for me, but biking in your work clothes and not needing a shower also saves a few minutes every day.
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Kate
Following from a La Presse piece about a CNESST report a month ago, it seems the STM can’t defuse the tense climate in its bus garages. In June, an ambulance was called after a fight between two workers, against a background where workers are divided “par origine culturelle, par poste ou séniorité au sein du milieu de travail.”
Anyway, the CNESST wants the STM to do something, although they haven’t found a solution yet.
(La Presse keeps calling the Legendre garage “l’atelier Villeray” – maybe people call it that, but it’s actually north of the Met, in Ahuntsic.)
bob
Technically, it’s the Atelier de la voie Youville.
Kate
On Google Maps it’s Centre de transport STM Legendre. I think the Atelier de la voie is the metro train maintenance centre, which I’m guessing is a different crew from the bus garage.
Ian
TBH it kind of sounds like the investigation is making matters worse by drawing it out, a quick response of some kind was in order – it is very frustrating to file a grievance of any kind and see it go on for ages without any concrete results let alone the kind of “tensions” being described here. Sounds like the shop floor has formed informal gangs. Management probably has their hands tied by various levels of bureaucracy but there need to be some immediate formal disciplinary measures. Even the buses have posters up saying “aucun violence de tout sort” and all that. If there are ambulances involved this is a failure not only of tehe workers but of management. Offering to show the workers a video as a solution is comical.
Maybe this is something we can solve with clowns?
Kate
Reading the articles, I have to wonder what the union is doing about it.
Ian
I wonder that, too. There was a lot of angry discussion in my local union when our sectoral union allowed a motion to pass in support of Bill 96, in effect endangering the jobs of teachers at English CEGEPs. We weren’t wrong, in some cases entire departments have been essentially eliminated, like Language Studies. It’s not a good time to be a CEGEP level Chinese, Spanish, or German teacher as those elective slots are now filled with mandatory French classes.
That said, to have open racial/ethnic violence … that’s a dramatic failing that suggests tacit approval or at least internal dissent at the senior union levels.
Ian
Addendum for clarity:
The elimination of language studies is only happening at English CEGEPS. You can still study German or Chinese or Spanish if you go to a French CEGEP.
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Kate
The tennis tournament that starts Saturday has already lost Novak Djokovic and is now losing Carlos Alcaraz – but the organizers must have foreseen that the Olympics would mean losing some participants from this year’s event.
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Kate
Some notes for the first weekend of August from the Journal, La Presse, mtl.org, CityCrunch, Sarah’s Weekend List, CultMTL.
The big event is Osheaga but a free hip‑hop block party is also planned on both days in Little Burgundy, featuring Ghostface Killah of the Wu‑Tang Clan.
The heat wave is expected to persist through Friday and last all weekend.
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Kate
François Dumontier, who’s been in charge of Formula One here for years, is leaving the post. He’s being replaced by Jean‑Philippe Paradis, a vice‑president at Bell Media.
Ian 22:24 on 2024-08-02 Permalink
I bet the rats will be happy.
EmilyG 13:57 on 2024-08-03 Permalink
The other day on the CBC news, there was a news story about the same thing happening in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6466230
Kate 14:25 on 2024-08-03 Permalink
I don’t see why it can’t be set up to be weekly in the warm months, less often from October to April. We adjust things like street cleaning schedules by the seasons, this would be much the same.
Nicholas 15:06 on 2024-08-03 Permalink
I’ve never noticed animals in or around my garbage, because there’s no organic material in it. My upstairs neighbours, otoh, have had holes in their garbage, and I’ve noticed they never set their compost bins out. Maybe if people composted, which they’re legally required to do (I know it’s not rolled out to large apartment buildings yet), then they wouldn’t have problems with their garbage, and every other week would be fine. In fact I have so little garbage I usually only set out a small kitchen bag every 2-4 weeks.
And I do understand some things, like diapers, can’t be composted, so it’s not perfect, but I know a lot of people don’t compost, and last I saw it was like half of households with compost pickup.
Ian 16:51 on 2024-08-03 Permalink
That’s very nice, Nicholas, but as you pointed out, not everyone does it. Rats don’t care how special and virtuous you individually are.
EmilyG 18:47 on 2024-08-03 Permalink
At more than one place on the island that I’ve lived, squirrels chewed a hole in the compost bin.
CE 19:17 on 2024-08-03 Permalink
I have a cat so can imagine my garbage getting pretty stinky after two weeks.
Janet 20:18 on 2024-08-03 Permalink
In certain boroughs, condo and apartment buildings with 9 or more units are legally required to provide facilities for collecting compost. I live in a condo building in the quartier du Multimédia. The administration of my building has put out ONE small brown compost bin for 81 units. And it is never more than a quarter full. The young downtown population does not seem to have much sense of civic responsibility.
jeather 21:16 on 2024-08-03 Permalink
All this will lead to is people putting out smelly garbage without anything with their name/address on it whenever needed. As I have said here, I have bug issues with compost, which I don’t with regular trash.
TBH my cat related garbage is in sealed things and doesn’t realy cause issues.