Figures are in for government-sponsored gambling in Canada, and it’s interesting to note that Quebecers spend least per capita than residents of any other province
Updates from August, 2010 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts
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Andy Riga posts an interesting email asking whether the needs of future tramlines have been taken into consideration with the digging up of parts of Park Avenue and Ste-Catherine.
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Google Maps shows that some parts of Laval island are still farmland. Here’s a piece about a family still raising a crop on their own fields despite the encroachment of suburban sprawl.
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naftee
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Kate
Not necessarily the same people. I don’t think anyone wants planes landing on their crops.
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Martin
Here’s a spot where I often bike and where you can see many little cabanes de jardin: http://goo.gl/maps/RGYi
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Louise Harel is catching derision from all sides because she’s buying a condo in a new development she has officially criticized.
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A bureaucratic logic loop is holding up the start of construction of the 2-22 Ste-Catherine E. building at the corner of the Main.
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Rosemont is to have a new law requiring all new buildings and those having their roofs redone be given white rooftops to cool the interior in the summertime.
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The STM has rejected the Projet Montréal idea of air conditioning metro cars and buses, saying it’s too expensive and also wasteful of greenhouse gases.
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Marc
Of course both those reasons are complete bunk. Such decisions from the MTC are being made people who’ve likely never set foot on a transit vehicle. See, THEY probably travel solo in their A/C’ed cars so THEY see no need for same in buses. The only other city I know of without A/C’ed buses is Whitehorse.
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Kate
I don’t agree. It’s a seasonal thing. Almost every summer, there’s some griping about the lack of transit AC, but it’s forgotten again as soon as autumn blows in. It’s like the late March panic about filthy streets after the retreat of winter: every year the same, but once it’s tidied up, people forget about it again for another year.
AC would be marginally more comfortable, yes. But I don’t think it’s a priority.
Actually, on the bus I’d be more comfy if people thought about a) not poking me in the ear with their trendy handbags and b) not jabbing me in the ankle with their strollers.
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Michael
I think the excessive heat on the metro in the winter is a far greater problem. After I’ve bundled myself up against -30 temps on my walk to the metro I don’t need it to be +35 inside. Perhaps STM can embrace that as a greener policy.
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qatzelok
The STM is correct. You can’t bribe drivers into sitting on buses by turning buses into huge cars. If buses/trams are to be improved, this has to be within the context of reducing consumption.
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JaneyB
We need to popularize hand fans. They’re 2$ in Chinatown. If 20% of riders were using one, it’d be plenty cool in the trains and buses. After all, the heat’s only unbearable for a couple of weeks in Mtl.
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Mike
I seem to remember articles about the future (who knows when they’ll actually get here) metro cars being equipped with AC, although I can’t quite find references about it… And this video doesn’t seem to mention it, unfortunately. http://www.stm.info/mc/metro_new_cars.htm
Ah, found this: http://transport514.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/developments-in-the-mr63-replacements/
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Transportjames
Thanks Mike for the link but a small correction is necessary. When I wrote the text that you linked to, I had not yet seen the STM’s specification.
Actually what the STM has asked for is an air-conditioned driver’s compartment and a priced option for air-conditioning for the passenger compartment. I don’t know if the price mentioned in the media includes air-conditioning or not – my guess is that it does not.
By the way, there were 3 other options that STM requested a price for:
- tire pressure detector for the main support tires
- tire pressure detector for the guiding tires (the ones that are horizontal)
- solid state hard drives (instead of magnetic) for the CCTV security system.
As for it air-conditioning should be installed – I still don’t think that it is necessary. I take the bus and metro every day and while there a few days a year that it would be nice to have. The rest of the year, it simply isn’t necessary. For the considerable expense in purchasing and maintaining the equipment, the added benefit is too small (that does for buses and metro).
James
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Kate
Transportjames, I tend to agree with you that the expense of air conditioning equipment is out of proportion with the number of days we get temperatures that require it. On the other hand, the climate is changing, so it would be nice to think that the STM could set things up so that, in the future, if AC equipment were needed it could be installed without completely demolishing everything and starting over.
Michael, I also agree with you. The metro’s far too hot and stuffy in wintertime. But I have heard (can anyone confirm?) that the system is not actually heated: heat comes in from the various buildings attached to the system, but instead of being vented, it’s kept inside, although (obviously) without much thermostat control. And then there’s the heat from metro operations, body heat inside the stations and cars. It gets pretty intolerable.
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TransportJames
Kate:
Things can certainly be done to the new trains to allow a future installation of an air-conditioning unit. But there is not a lot of room on the train to install these bulky units.
The STM is already working on the problem of overheating in the metro. For example, they are building a new ventilation tunnel near Jean-Talon metro:
http://www.stm.info/info/infostm/2010/100804.pdf
The best that can be achieved with this approach is to bring the temperature of the tunnels and stations to the outside air temperature.To my knowledge, the metro is not heated. There are heaters in the cars but I don’t think that they are turned on. The heat in the stations/trains can come from: the passengers themselves, the brake shoes after friction braking, the tires from the rolling resistance, and the inefficiency losses of the traction motors.
For trains that run outside, a major source of heat is solar radiation (just think how hot your car gets in the sun with the windows closed). Luckily Montreal’s metro does not have to deal with this problem.Adding an air-conditioner to the train would just add an extra source of heat to the tunnels and stations. People would then naturally call for installing air-conditioning in the stations. In order for air-conditioning in the stations to work, the STM would likely need to install platform screen doors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platform_screen_doors) so that the station area can be efficiently air-conditioned without having the cold air escape into the tunnels and then out the ventilation shafts.
Air-conditioning the trains would therefore likely result in a cascade of major retrofit costs to the entire network.
London has had this problem for many years and there is even a web site about it:
http://undergroundcooling.co.uk/ -
Kate
Thanks for the analysis, TransportJames.
just think how hot your car gets in the sun with the windows closed
I’ve never had a car, but I’m familiar with the phenomenon.
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I came across a field with a bunch of small planes when I was biking along the northeast shore of Île Jesus. I guess the guy had set up a landing strip on his field. Very nice.