Traffic, a man-made crisis
TVA has a piece Wednesday about a woman who spends far too much time in traffic. I read this after listening to the CBC morning radio news, which begins after a traffic report, and is followed by another traffic report, and there are always news pieces about traffic in one sense or another.
Isn’t it strange that we have traffic reports like weather reports, as if it’s just a fact of life and not something that we, as a society, create ourselves, and could find ways to ameliorate? (I realize this is taking a position that weather is a fact of life and not, to some extent, also due to human activity, but leave that aside for now.)
Sometimes I wonder what intelligent aliens would make of aspects of human society, and I can see them shaking their heads over how we all rush to work at the same time, get in each other’s way, waste time, wear down our vehicles and ourselves, and then all rush home at the same time with similar effects, and discuss “solutions” like building new highways rather than finding a way for us not to go rushing around at the same time every day.
Joey 09:29 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
It’s kind of surprising that traffic reports are still around, given that pretty much every car on the road can be guided by routing apps that have way more information beyond what you might hear in a 45-second report. I think traffic reports persist in part because the radio industry is sort of all in on trying to stop the passage of time but also it’s one of those things that has a ‘city’ feel to it – giving the impression that there’s lots of activity out there and you need to stay on top of things.
Uatu 10:59 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
I still listen to CBC morning transit reports usually while eating breakfast just so I know if there are any problems with the REM or the orange line..
Kevin 11:14 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
Maps apps are frequently wrong, especially on weekends. I think it’s because they cannot distinguish between construction workers roaming around a site and people heading to a destination.
EmilyG 11:35 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
I do like that they say the traffic reports are traffic and public transit reports, on CBC.
Nicholas 13:26 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
This is another one of those articles where it seems the journalist just accepts everything as a given, rather than looking at the choices made by the subject of this human interest story.
My first thought was why her kid is in a daycare in Verdun while she lives in Lachine. Unsurprisingly no daycare in Lachine has called her back. Surely she used to live in Verdun, but no, she lived in St Lazare. So why does she have a daycare in Verdun? Well she works downtown, so she chose a daycare closer to work than to her home. I know it’s hard to find a spot, but was there nothing in the West Island or off-island near her old place? Of course that means a Verdun family is out of luck, as they’re not going to drive to Vaudreuil to drop their kid off at daycare. So just like with family doctors, people who live outside of central Montreal are taking up local spots near where central Montrealers live, and the government surely thinks we don’t need more spots closer in because it counts number of spots per resident, even though non-residents are using them. I don’t think we need to completely ban outsiders from using these spots, but this is a choice this person made getting a daycare out of her area and then moving…still not to the area of the daycare!
Not to the area? Some people will say oh that’s close, Lachine to Verdun, two boroughs over. 15 km is close? Yes it is close compared to St Lazare to Verdun, or St Lazare to Repentigny, but it’s not that close. There are people who live in Amsterdam who are less than 15 km from Haarlem, a completely different city! To go between the two you have to pass by farmland! 15 km is McGill to Montmorency, or La Prairie to Place Ville Marie. To do 15 km to go one-way to daycare, and then do that round trip twice a day? That’s 15,000 km a year, the average driven by a Canadian, just for daycare. That’s very far!
The next thought was why is she taking the highway? Was her daycare right next to the 15? No, it’s in central Verdun. Yes it may be 15 minutes without traffic, but who thinks there’s no traffic? More importantly, the route along the river through LaSalle is about 30 minutes outside of rush hour, and not much longer during. I’m sure it’s a prettier drive too. How are you taking 1h45 round trip outside of peak times? Use the apps!
Do I be so bold as to suggest an e cargo bike? That route is almost entirely along the river, with no lights or stop signs, so an e-bike really gets you up to speed. You can probably do that in half an hour, and it’s a beautiful ride and the kids love it way more than being strapped into their seats (which adds way more to your trip time than jumping in the bucket and putting your helmet on). It won’t work for everyone, but it’s definitely an option for some, and she can continue into downtown on the bike once her parental leave ends or park it and take the green line in. I don’t want to live there but that would be the one reason I would do so, maybe the best commute in the city!
Lastly, she just says things that are lies:
It is true that the highway goes from four to two lanes at the Ville St Pierre interchange. Part of that is because traffic leaves the 20 to go towards the Mercier, but what she says is true and that narrowing is where the traffic is usually worst. But there is only one lane reserved for buses and taxis in each direction. There are two lanes if you include both directions, but then if you count it that way there are eight lanes for cars, which narrow to four. And the bus lanes merge into the car lanes before the VSP interchange. So the place where the traffic usually is has no bus lanes at all; the bus lanes are only where there are four car lanes each way, so the bus lanes aren’t causing the traffic even if they were for cars: then it’d be five lanes merging into two! (Also this is east of the interchange; to the west there is only a bus lane eastbound, and it is bus/taxi/HOV3, so she can use it driving her two kids in in peak direction in the morning, and in the afternoon she’d be alone going to Verdun but against traffic so less of a big deal.)
And there is no one in the lane? There are like 20-30 buses per hour per direction in that lane during midday and peak, respectively. If you were stopped in traffic you’d see a bus nearly every minute! And I take a bus there fairly often and there are also lots of taxis in there, plus emergency vehicles. As I write this midday there are five buses just in the lanes between Turcot and VSP, according to the apps, and more will pass soon. If she hasn’t seen anyone using the bus lanes either she is lying or the SAAQ should make her take a vision test again. There’s a saying that became popular in the Trump era: “Don’t print lies in the newspaper.” I know this is TVA, but even if you don’t question her life choices, this is all just false.
And this is not even getting to the idea Kate mentions, that all those bus riders would be in cars if buses were much slower, and that would create more traffic, just as it would if more people lived further out. As they say at Critical Mass, “We’re not blocking traffic, we are traffic.” Everyone else is in her way, but she’s not in anyone’s way. Her being in traffic, and causing traffic, is the fault of everyone — highway engineers, politicians, bus riders, other drivers, daycare availability — but herself. It’s definitely not the fault of all the different choices she made to get to here.
But as Kate says, we can’t reconsider how we design our society or our individual choices, it’s just a fact of life. As one of the section headers in the article says, “C’est inévitable”.
jeather 14:12 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
I don’t know how daycare spaces are allocated, but I do know how GPs are, and I do often wish you could be removed from a local GP if you were living off island. (This is obviously a bad plan, and I can think of better solutions, but it’s so maddening.)
Joey 14:53 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
I don’t think anyone in this city ever got a daycare spot before their kid was school-age by waiting for the local daycares to call back. It’s a hustle. Take your baby on a day when they are being extra cute to meet and charm the director, etc.
Also you don’t see there buses occupying the bus lane because you aren’t moving but the buses are.
Anyway, if the newspaper published the story of every Montreal commuter who spends ~two hours a day going to and from work they would have to cut down a forest.
Jaye 17:57 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
Nicholas: My (childless) guess about wanting daycare closer to work than to home is that:
1) Daycares charge extra (by the minute!) for late pickups (after 6pm) or early drop-offs, if they’re allowed at all. Trying to beat the clock to get your kid when you leave work after 5pm would be stressful.
and
2) Maybe she likes being with her kid for the extra two hours a day…and it gives her more flexibility.
I know someone who had his kids go to elementary school in DDO (where he works) while he lives in Anjou. It was easier for drop offs and after school activities. No rushing.
jeather 18:26 on 2026-07-15 Permalink
A lot of people in Laval have their kids in Montreal schools for similar reasons, oftne the grandparents will live near the school which is between their home and their work. Though for this officially you can only do it if there’s still space for all the local kids, so it would depend on the school.
DeWolf 11:03 on 2026-07-16 Permalink
Several years ago a contractor came by my place to do some bathroom repairs. He told me he lived in Mirabel and there were days when traffic was so bad, it would take him nearly two hours to get into central Montreal. But he wasn’t complaining. Mirabel is cheap and living out there meant he could afford a really nice house with lots of room for his Ford F‑150 and whatever other gadgets he has. It was a choice he made.
A lot of other people make similar choices but seem unable to accept the consequences.