AN EXERCISE IN FRUSTRATION: THE MORNING COMMUTE
As Montreal’s traffic annus horribilis chugs along, drivers grit their teeth as they watch the daily trudge get longer and more soul-destroying. Reporter Andy Riga sets out to see how bad it is, as five suburban commuters show where their pain points are.
As I start my trip just before 7 a.m., Highway 20 eastbound is bogged down in Lachine, the traffic backed up at least three kilometres.
But I’m westbound, heading to a West Island starting line for an unusual assignment: to get stuck in soul-sapping traffic.
Starting at Gouin and St-Jean Blvds. in Pierrefonds-Roxboro, I am to drive to Peel and Ste-Catherine Sts. I’m a transit commuter who has grown to hate driving the minivan I own, so I’m about to learn how the other half commutes.
From what I hear, I’ll have plenty of time to mull over Montreal’s traffic annus horribilis, caused by the historic amount of roadwork, the mega Turcot and new Champlain Bridge projects and the growing off-island suburbs. It’s a perfect storm that has led to painful commutes. Drivers from north, south, east and west of downtown have been telling me it takes them 30 minutes longer to get to work than it did a year ago.
Given their frustration, the Montreal Gazette decided it was time to document their pain. We asked five drivers to share their typical morning experience, which you can read in the accompanying story. And we decided I should experience the pain first-hand. So, in position at 7:33 a.m., I launch an app that will track my speed along my 30-kilometre route. I’m ready for the worst.
St-Jean Blvd. is my first challenge. I get four red lights and three greens within six minutes before traffic slows to a crawl before de Salaberry Blvd. and I stop counting.
West Islanders have long complained about the stop-and-go tango on St-Jean and St-Charles Blvd. The lights don’t seem it, but they are coordinated. They can be thrown off by pedestrian signals and by sensors in place to detect cars waiting on side streets.
As I inch toward Highway 40, Google Maps warns me I’m about to go into snail-pace mode for four minutes. Unfortunately, the prediction is accurate.
Average speed on St-Jean Blvd: 16 km/h. Speed limit: 50 km/h.
Why aren’t the drivers around me on trains, buses or the métro?
Someone who lives in this part of Montreal Island could take the Deux-Montagnes train downtown. The 7:31 a.m. departure gets you to Central Station in 27 minutes.
But by 7:30 a.m., the parking lot at the nearest station — PierrefondsRoxboro, five kilometres from my start point — is often full.
Transit users can drive to a station with a bigger lot (such as du Ruisseau, 16 kilometres away in St-Laurent) or try their luck with spotty West Island bus service. From my starting location, it would take bus/métro users 75 to 90 minutes to reach Peel and SteCatherine in morning rush hour, according to Google Maps.
Transit is touted as an alternative to driving but, despite efforts to attract more users, ridership on Montreal’s bus/métro network dropped last year, as did usage of the two busiest commuter train lines — Deux-Montagnes and Vaudreuil-Hudson.
A proposed $5.5-billion electric rapid transit network connecting the West Island, Trudeau Airport, downtown and the South Shore could help reverse the trend. But the network — due to open in 2020 — would be detrimental to some transit users. For example, Mascouche train users who now have a direct train to downtown would have to disembark and take a second train to reach the centre of the city. The new network will also eat into the Vaudreuil-Hudson train line’s ridership, which critics fear could lead to service cuts there.
As I found when interviewing five drivers for the accompanying story, in some cases transit may never be a feasible option: Trips take far too long from parts of the region and some people need their cars for work.
When I finally glimpse the 40 eastbound, it’s a sea of steel. It’s backed up as far as the eye can see — several kilometres.
As I’m merging into the wall of cars, a radio traffic report tells me I should have taken the 20. I had chosen the 40 because I wanted to experience the Décarie Expressway, and Google Maps had earlier told me the 40 would only take at most five minutes more than the 20, even with traffic.
I am occasionally able to do 78 km/h on the 40, but congestion brings me back to reality. It’s stop and go around Highway 13, Cavendish Blvd. and the Décarie.
Average speed on the 40: 38 km/h in a 100 km/h zone.
The sheer number of cars that swamps me should not be surprising.
Montrealers and Quebecers are buying more and more of them. In 2014, 925,000 passenger vehicles were registered on Montreal Island. That’s 8.4-per-cent more than in 2004. Across Quebec, the number increased by 17 per cent.
And that love affair with cars is now coupled with low gasoline prices. In August 2013, the average price per litre in Montreal was $1.40. Three years later, it has fallen 23 per cent, to $1.08.
As I leave the 40 behind and wait on a ramp toward the Décarie, I see that those continuing eastbound are about to hit gridlock.
It’s free and clear as I reach the Décarie southbound, but the northbound side is jammed and will stay that way to Côte-St-Luc Rd., a four-kilometre stretch.
My easy drive doesn’t last. By Paré St., I, too, am plodding along.
As we approach the Turcot Interchange, the road markings and signage are confusing. I realize I’m in the wrong lane to reach the Ville-Marie Expressway and end up blocking a lane of traffic as I try to get into position.
Décarie is being reconfigured to match the new Turcot layout around the St-Jacques overpass. Instead of two lanes, there’s only one to reach the Ville-Marie. Impatient drivers who can’t be bothered to wait end up crossing solid lines to squeeze in. Pretty sure people are yelling at each other up ahead.
Average speed on the Décarie: 24 km/h. Speed limit: 70 km/h
Who decided to simultaneously rebuild Montreal’s busiest bridge (the Champlain) and its busiest interchange (the Turcot)?
Construction trucks, orange cones and detour signs are causing havoc around those sprawling construction zones, and it’s bound to get worse as the multi-billiondollar projects progress.
Meanwhile, drivers are still contending with crews patching old bridges, highways and ramps. And a record amount — $531 million — is being spent on city road and water infrastructure improvements this year.
Some say the end result is a traffic mess that rivals what Montrealers faced during the construction blitz before Expo 67.
After the Décarie/Ville-Marie junction bottleneck, I get on the Ville-Marie and it’s open road. It’s the first clear sailing of the trip.
Average speed on the Ville Marie: 68 km/h (with gusts to 79 km/h). Speed limit: 70 km/h
Many of the drivers heading downtown this morning live in far-flung communities, where they get more house for their real-estate dollars.
Montreal is much more spread out than it used to be. The built-up area in the Montreal region grew by 816 square kilometres between 1971 and 2011, according to Statistics Canada.
Urban sprawl around Montreal continues to increase exponentially and is “out of control,” according to a recent study co-authored by Concordia University researchers. It is adding to pollution and threatening forests and agricultural lands. It’s also increasing the number of cars around you on the highway.
Due to rush-hour traffic, Montrealers spend an average 32 extra minutes behind the wheel per day — more than two and a half hours a week, according to TomTom, a maker of GPS devices.
That’s time that could have been spent more productively. Traffic is said to cost the Montreal economy $1.8 billion annually in time wasted, vehicle wear and fuel, among other things.
Getting off the Ville-Marie, I land in downtown traffic on St-Jacques and Peel Sts. as I snake my way to the office at Ste-Catherine St.
I count my blessings. I could be stuck in worse downtown quagmires — those caused by lane closings on Sherbrooke St. and Docteur-Penfield Ave., among others.
Average speed downtown: 14 km/h. Speed limit: 50 km/h
At the office, I sit down to write, still frazzled from the drive. The experiment has given me a renewed appreciation for the serenity of the train I take every morning.
By car, a trip that would take 30 minutes without traffic clocked in at 74 minutes. My average speed: 24 km/h. I’m glad I’ll be going back to my usual commute downtown from Notre-Dame-de- Grâce. I was lucky enough to buy a house close to downtown when it was still affordable. Work is eight kilometres away and my one-way commute takes a total of 34 minutes — 12 on a train and 22 on foot: 11 minutes walking from home to Montreal West train station; and another 11 from Lucien-L’Allier station downtown to Peel and Ste. Catherine.
I don’t normally need a car for my job. If I did, I’d be in trouble. The Turcot project has left no efficient way to reach the Ville-Marie from N.D.G. I’d face bottlenecks at Côte-St-Luc Rd./Décarie Blvd., Sherbrooke St., and around the MUHC superhospital.
On the way back to N.D.G. later, I’ll peer out the train window, sparing a thought for those sitting on the Décarie and the Turcot waiting to get home. They have my sympathy.