$444m going to Montreal road repairs
Quebec’s planning to pour $444 million into Montreal road repairs this year, part of the $4 billion being allotted to roads all over the province. Fifty separate sites are being planned on the island. Repairs on bridges and autoroute exchanges are included, as well as the refit of roads around the MUHC construction. In some places, stress is put on the inevitable traffic hassles, but you can’t complain about potholes and road erosion on the one hand, but then complain about repairs on the other. Here’s a time-lapse of work being done on the Champlain bridge.
Chris 22:50 on 2011/02/28 Permalink
That $4b is just for repairs, it doesn’t even count the $3b for the new Turcot! How much are they spending on sidewalks and bike paths I wonder?
Carlos 00:35 on 2011/03/01 Permalink
I remember two reports made about a decade ago on how much money was spent on roads that wasn’t offset by fees and taxes in Quebec: one by the Ministere des transports said about 500M$ a year was “overspent” and the other by a Universite de Montreal professor put it at 1B$ a year (I suppose he included all level of governments and municipal administrations). But drivers still complain that their tax money is not spent on road repairs and construction…
Stefan 08:54 on 2011/03/01 Permalink
Quebec’s extensive road network seems to become unsustainable, given the high cost of repairs and the resulting bad level of maintenance. when will the first roads be closed instead of further expanding the network?
Chris 09:55 on 2011/03/01 Permalink
Carlos, it’s a couple of years old, but this CAA article says that the gov spends more on road infrastructure than it collects from motorists:
http://www.caaquebec.com/Nouvelles/Nouvelles/Nouvelles-Detail.htm?lang=en&Title=Taxes%20vers%E9es%20par%20les%20automobilistes%20au%20gouvernement%20du%20Qu%E9bec%20(ann%E9e%20financi%E8re%202008-2009)&ID=12766773-f96b-4a57-aefb-ad64c312b063
It drives me nuts when motorists complain that they pay too much in taxes. In fact, they don’t pay enough. Pedestrian, cyclists, and public transit users are subsidizing their mode of travel by way of income and other taxes. :( And of course the CAA’s math does not account for the costs to the health care system caused by air pollution, inactivity/obesity, etc. To say nothing of climate change.
Stefan 10:17 on 2011/03/01 Permalink
cyclists’ subsidies are actually enormous. an austrian study notes that while motorists subsidize their transport with 5c/km, for cyclists this is 1 euro/km! i’m cycling ~3000km/year – that’d make for a nice sum.
note that this is not directly comparable to quebec, since in austria motorists pay already much, much more (300% more gas taxes, motor-efficiency dependent taxes, highway tax, parking taxes, luxury tax and more) while immaterial effects are not considered, or else there’d be no subsidy from motorists. in quebec, motorists deficit must be quite high.
conclusion: we need cost transparency to lift awareness and a follow-up in taxing/credits to discourage the self-destructive behavior that we’re all more or less trapped in.
to the people who say that they arrive much faster with their car than with other transports: sure, but you’re spending that gained time and more working off its costs.