Worst traffic congestion on the continent?
According to a study by a Dutch GPS manufacturer, Montreal has the worst rush hour traffic congestion on the continent – yes, beating out L.A., New York and Toronto. Even off-peak we’re not doing so great.
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Clément 09:39 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
They use the weirdest methodology to measure congestion. They look at the difference between “normal” hours and rush hour and the greater the difference, the worst the congestion. As François Cardinal points out, cities that are constantly jammed up will have a smaller ratio and therefore, be considered less congested.
Christian 09:43 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
@Clement :) Must be just like the felt air temperature. Today congestion index: normal. Feels like the worst congestion ever!
dcmontreal 09:59 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
A couple of things that would help ease downtown traffic: enforce a “Don’t block the box” law and restrict routine maintenance such as window cleaning to non-rush hours.
http://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/montreal-needs-to-enforce-a-dont-block-the-box-law/
http://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/2012/06/01/non-essential-work-a-rush-hour-part-two/
http://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/2012/05/30/hate-to-be-a-pane-but-window-cleaning-at-rush-hour/
Susana Machado 11:12 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
Also, some people could take the metro, sometimes. I am not a rabbit anti-car person but, both my parents and they my cousin like about 2 minutes walking from cote-vertu metro. When needing to to downtown (and not having huge things to carry) my dad takes the metro because he can’t be bothered looking for parking.his cousin though, he says he is too old to take the metro. (58 yo). At he likes to driving himself and not be driven around. Then he spends ages driving around looking for parking and he gets all cranky because of that. It is people like that that annoy me. Or my old coworker who lived in the building on top of longueil metro and we worked at KPMG on top of promenades de la cathedral… But he “didn’t go 5 years to university to take public transportation”. These people need to change their mentalities. I don’t wanna ban cars from downtown, there are reasons and situations where it makes since. But some reasons are better than others…
Matt 11:21 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
Isn’t TomTom largely responsible for the Apple Maps App fiasco? Not the most reliable company then, eh?
John B 11:34 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
@Matt: I don’t think TomTom’s involved in the Apple Maps fiasco at all.
mare 12:48 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
@John B @Matt: Apple sources a lot of their data from TomTom, and reports traffic reports back to them. Meaning that their data will become immensely better since more people have and use iPhones that TomTom GPS devices. In a while Apple’s Maps App will become very good. It’s not that bad now actually, I use it often and apart from the pronunciation of our French street names (Rene-Leveque E, was pronounced as “Rene-Leveque Estate”!) it was never wrong.
@dcmontreal Often the cranes are not for window cleaning but for building inspection and repair, especially after the Concrete-block-falling-on-Peel incident.
Stefan 13:16 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
Maybe we should just make sure that people who are not contributing to that problem of taking up too much of a share of the streets (or alleviating it) by taking public transport, don’t get affected by congestion caused by individual motor vehicles.
There is no other real (long-term) solution to congestion, except maybe pricing out enough people of it, as in the city of london, but that’s not democratic.
Or simply put: Congestion = Too many people moving in the same direction at the same time. Solution: Compress them together in less vehicles along that way :-)
It’s not rocket science, just needs proper managing and political will to do it.
Chris 17:56 on 2012/10/12 Permalink
Stefan, I think pricing people out *is* democratic, at least relative to the status quo.
Is it democratic that everyone’s atmosphere is being polluted by the few with automobiles? Is it democratic that limited public space is being given away for free as parking for privately owned cars? Is it democratic that our planet’s limited oil (which we need for plastic, etc.) is being wasted by those inefficiently burning it while stuck in traffic?
Kate 02:35 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
Chris, I could wish it were the “few” with automobiles. Something like 80% of Quebec’s voters have cars and drive. It skews the decisions made by our politicians besides everything else you list.
DCMontreal 07:07 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
We’ve just arrived at the three-day work week before any other city!
http://dcmontreal.wordpress.com/2012/10/13/montreals-traffic-congestion-pattern-indicates-three-day-work-week-may-have-arrived/
Chris 08:46 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
Kate, yeah, it’s certainly not few in Quebec– 80% as you say. Though only 66% in Montreal. But globally, it is the few, and there’s only one atmosphere and one Earth of oil.
Kate 11:20 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
DCMontreal, it’s not hard to sense a feeling here that many people don’t work much on Fridays if they can manage it. Getting hold of people on Friday afternoons is particularly difficult. I haven’t seen as strong a trend for a slow work week startup on Mondays although I’ve heard it mentioned here and there.