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| In traffic, it's a dogfight to get into Decarie's left lane to hop on the 40 west, worse if you just got on at Pare. |
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| Guts required: you have only 500 metres to switch 2 lanes to exit at Sherbrooke when coming from the 20 east. |
Those going north have long been accustomed to taking the exit on the left side of the after doing those 1.5 klicks but the authorities figured that it wasn't really great to have an exit on the left when the North American standard is to have an exit on the right.
So when the $55-million, newly-rebuilt ramp was unveiled on the right side, some media mentioned that it would help with traffic.
But be ready to disappointed: the new ramp has no added vehicular capacity. It can't handle any more cars than the previous one.
So the net benefits of this new ramp appear to very limited: we no longer have a ramp on the left, but now we have the same thing on the right.
I rang up Transport Quebec to ask them if there was something I was missing and a low-level clerk told me that the authorities were preoccupied with the fact that drivers are forced to jump two lanes from the right to the left to continue on Highway 15.
Someone else in the Transport Ministry told me later that the structure was old and needed replacing. That rep couldn't tell me, however, whether the existing one could have simply been dolled up for a cheaper price or not.
The idea that 1.5 kilometers is too-short a distance to switch two lanes seemed quite strange, however. Even for a newbie driver, switching two lanes over the course of 1.5 kilometres is easy-peasy.
There are, however, a couple of places not far from there where switching two lanes is a much hairier undertaking.
If you're driving on Highway 20 eastbound and get on Decarie northbound with the intention of exiting at Sherbrooke, you've got about 500 metres to get 'er done, something that requires a steady hand and a firm resolve.
And those who get on the Decarie northbound at Pare with the intention of going west on the 40 have about 1 kilometrer to switch two lanes to the left but there's usually a long line of cars who don't take favourably to line-cutters, so hopping into that spot can be a vicious dogfight or a beg-a-thon requiring the old open window-wave.
So the idea that 1.5 kilometres to switch two lanes seems a bit farcical in comparison.
I have also noticed that there seem to be too many frivolous roadwork projects in the city itself.
ReplyDeleteThis is very curious as many streets which have gone begging for repairs for literally decades continue to be ignored while elsewhere new sidewalks and pavement are being installed where it was far from decrepit to begin with.
I also noticed old-model fire hydrants which are clearly labelled as being out of service. Shouldn't these be on a priority
list?
From this I can only assume that certain government individuals are having their "pet projects" approved ahead of other more necessary work where perhaps residents have probably given up complaining to the city about the poor condition of their local streets.
In particular, Westover Avenue between Robert Burns and Westminster Avenue has been in a truly pathetic condition since the
1980s. Exactly why this state of affairs has gone on for so long is truly incomprehensible. Stop-gap patchwork seems to be the
only "work" done around there--and elsewhere.
Anyone with a complaint about cracked and pothole-scarred roads can call 311 and they are supposed to give you a reference number
which is then placed on their work-order list when they presumably get around to doing the actual repairs.
With that number in hand, complainants can then keep in touch with the city and even try to obtain the actual work-order date.
Hi Kristian!
ReplyDeleteForgive me for playing devil's advocate for a moment. The way I see it is this:
1) I believe the overpass for the old left-sided exit for the 15 had to be replaced, so as long as you're rebuilding, you might as well wrong the right of having the exit on the "wrong" side.
2) Speaking of which, you're focusing on the driver's ease of switching lanes over medium or short distances. But I think the real point of making the exit in a way that limits lane changes by motorists is that lane changes are extremely disruptive from a traffic flow perspective. Hence, it is indeed possible that moving the exit over to the right might alleviate traffic (once everyone gets used to it being switched over).
3) On that note, I think the MTQ's done a piss-poor job with road signs leading up to the exit, which leads out-of-towners to switch over too late. I haven't driven by there in a bit, so maybe they've fixed up the signs, but still, bad planning if you ask me.
Now... how about that left-sided exit on the Décarie leading to the 40 West? Hopefully that will also disappear when the new Décarie/40 interchange is done.
Was this whole area of transit designed by one-legged monkeys back in the day? Sheesh.
For frivolous roadworks just look at western downtown where they've recently been flaring out sidewalks at the corners and adding grassy verges in the most dumb places.
ReplyDeleteTo UrbanLegend:
ReplyDeleteNot that I disagree with your take on the crazy number of projects going on in the city and the legitimacy of some of those works, but isn't Westover/Westminster in the Côte-St-Luc area?
And isn't Côte-St-Luc one of the boroughs that "demergered" and is actually a municipality, hence responsible for their own transit infrastructure?
There "is" the issue of jurisdiction, highways and secondary roads are maintained by the provincial government, while city roads are maintained by municipalities.
On that note, Montreal obviously suffers from a lack of long-term planning and chronic under-investment in most of its infrastructures. Shame shame shame.
To Sn86:
ReplyDeleteI believe the flared sidewalks are designed to increase pedestrian (and cyclist) safety so that motorists can't cut the corner quite so sharply. It's an urban design trend that aims to make cities safer for non-motorists.
As to whether that is frivolous roadwork is debatable of course. It all depends from who angle you look at it.
On Villeneuve West, the borough wanted to add stop signs to the corners of Jeanne-Mance and Esplanade, which makes sense given the relative speed of traffic on a busy, two-way Mile-End street connecting St.-Urbain and Parc, and the number of kids (daycares especially) in the immediate vicinity. Apparently safety engineers (city?) said that the stop signs at the existing corners wouldn't be visible enough to traffic. They insisted that the curbs be extended to ensure that drivers would see the stop signs. Not sure whether that was really necessary, but the borough does a great job keeping up the really beautiful flowers and greenery they've planted on the extended curbs, and it seems safer for pedestrians (especially kids). So, kudos.
ReplyDeleteAttention to details Kristian!
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that the 15 North continuation on the left-hand side resulted in a massive criss-cross that is part of the worst traffic on the continent.
You had literally tens of thousands of vehicles coming from Decarie and squeezing over 2 lanes to head left -- while everyone coming from the 40 East is going straight or (worse) trying to get into the right-hand lane to exit at Acadie/Rockland Centre. It was sheer madness.
Now the Met can actually be used as sensible people intended - the left lane is for fast and through traffic, and the right lane is for entering/exiting.
-Kevin
Regardless of whose "territory" the potholed and cracked roads exist, surely whoever is responsible for them has an obligation to maintain them on a regular basis and not simply use "cold-patch" over and over again.
ReplyDeleteAren't those "flared sidewalk" ends made to prevent vehicles from parking too close to the corner, thus allowing easier turning onto perpendicular streets?
ReplyDeleteI'll bet they are a pain for snowplow drivers.
If flaring of sidewalks means rounding them so cars can make a turn faster, I'm all for that.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the LH exit or entrance, I hate it. The left lane is supposed to be the fast one.
As a newbie driver, my biggest fear was getting on the 40 East from Laurentian Blvd. I often had to go to Park Ex or Mile End from my house in Cartierville, and even doing this route almost daily, I always feared it.
A very, very short merging lane on the left side of the Met, often clogged by tractor trailers at full speed, like an endless locomotive. It was an exercise in timing, and sometimes humility, knowing when to raise the white flag of surrender thereby coming to a complete spot to avoid a collision, waiting sometimes as long as a minute for an opening, and peeling into the lane from zero while on the lookout for morons coming your way from the centre lane with or without signal.
Some days I just chickened out and took Henri-Bourassa and L'Acadie.
UrbanLegend, if that's what flared sidewalks are, I hate em. I meant, the ones I like are just rounded corners for quicker turns.
ReplyDelete