Montreal’s traffic: not as bad as you think
Montreal’s traffic problems are not as bad as we tend to think according to this traffic congestion study by TomTom, a company that makes GPS devices. Vancouver drivers fend with the worst traffic in Canada, but Montreal is also better off than Toronto or Ottawa, at least in the results of this particular study.
Josh 10:47 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
Things that I read about this study in other cities’ media suggest that the big penalties were for places that have shorter but intense rush hours. The baseline info to which the congestion was compared was from non-peak times. So if a city is often congested even outside peak hours, it winds up with a good score because rush hour doesn’t come off looking that bad compared to other times of the day when the roads are busy.
Kate 11:16 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
Sure, there are all kinds of ways of assessing the phenomenon. Montreal’s slightly more relaxed lifestyle (who works Friday afternoons?) kind of distributes some of our rush hours over a long period, from 3 till 6:30 some afternoons.
Kevin 13:01 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
It’s not a relaxed lifestyle, it’s time-shifted. Rush hour starts at 5:30 a.m. in Laval.
The drive home? Chock-a-block from 2:30 p.m. on Decarie/Met/15 north.
William 13:41 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
The study showed that the average commute in Vancouver was 30 minutes, and that Vancouver had the second worst traffic in North American (after Los Angeles) because travel time was increased by 30% during peak hours. That’s 9 minutes. I’ve waited in line ups in South Shore Tim Horton’s drive-throughs that took longer…
qatzelok 13:56 on 2012/07/12 Permalink
Montreal’s doing relatively well. Only 76 hours per year wasted in traffic congestion.
That’s two weeks full-time work spent listening to traffic reports.