City’s mobility squad Aims to alleviate traffic snafus

Six-person unit to focus on weekday traffic obstructions in downtown areas

Montreal’s new six-person mobility squad officially hit the road Wednesday, working to alleviate traffic congestion in the city’s downtown core by removing illegally parked cars and non-compliant construction sites that obstruct traffic.

Still in its infancy, the squad will only be patrolling five designated sectors in downtown Montreal, the Sud- Ouest borough and PlateauMont-Royal, where the city perceives traffic to be at its worst, from 5 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday to Friday.

Each of the sectors will be monitored by one inspector from the mobility squad between 5 a.m. and 1 p.m., after which another inspector will take over to patrol all five sectors until 11 p.m. Their focus is on mornings because that is when most construction sites are set up and therefore when most obstructions are created, the city said.

Despite the low number of mobility squad inspectors out on the roads, Mayor Valérie Plante said they “are confident that we can cover the territory.” She emphasized that the six mobility squad inspectors are working with those already employed by the city and the police department’s road-safety officers. The difference, she said, is the new inspectors are focusing solely on traffic.

“It’s really about being more agile,” Plante said.

The squad’s objective is to identify obstructions before they begin to cause congestion, such as a delivery truck parked in a bike lane or construction site set up without following permit regulations. One example Plante offered was that of a construction site set up without police supervision, which its permit required.

The inspectors have the authority to hand out fines for municipal infractions, ranging from $500 to $7,000 for repeat offenders, and are in direct contact with Montreal police, who can issue tickets for road-safety code violations. They also have immediate access to all construction permits issued by the city, which allows them to determine whether a site might be in violation, and a line to the city ’s Centre de gestion de mobilité urbaine, which monitors live traffic cameras.

During the mobility squad’s pilot test between June 1 and Aug. 15, inspectors intervened 1,438 times, with almost 40 per cent of those interventions occurring in the Ville-Marie borough, north of René-Lévesque Blvd. and east of St. Laurent Blvd. Just over 60 per cent of the interventions were related to obstructions that caused delays of up to 15 minutes, while about 35 per cent were preventive interventions, meaning they were not directly related to obstructions causing ongoing traffic.

“The mobility squad is not a miracle solution to eliminating traffic on the island of Montreal,” Plante said. “We must therefore come up with solutions for the short, medium and long term.”

The mobility squad is there for short-term fixes.

The city has a budget of $619,000 for the squad, while Quebec has contributed $500,000.

The mobility squads were a key campaign promise for Plante’s administration. The city would not confirm any timeline for increasing the number of inspectors or expanding their territory, though Plante said they will be flexible. The best way to communicate with the squad about obstructions on the road is still by dialing 311.

A report on the mobility squad’s findings is expected on Sept. 30.