Montreal's Construction Scene Is Insane

I've been helping out a friend doing some courier work and let me tell you my suspicion of Montreal being an urban planning backwater have been confirmed.

If you're from out of town be forewarned: the entire city is under construction. No matter where you turn you're screwed. What used to be a 20 minute drive into and out of the city from and to my house is now a 45 minute journey. It's so scary I have to carry a map of the city and wear army gear.

Now before you go off and say that I'm just another one of those citizens who demands better services on our roads but not willing to put up with the inconvenience of getting that perk there's something that needs to be said.

It's not that the decision of Transport Quebec to fix our roads is a bad one. Rather, it's the way they handled the whole thing. Instead of doing things slowly and strategically, TQ decides they will cover the entire city in orange signs in one gigantic swoop. This has translated into a nightmare on the roads.

To be a courier you need to be resourceful. If one street is blocked off you look for alternatives. The problem is that the alternatives and the alternatives to the alternatives have been cut off. So what you get is grid lock and one frustrated bunch of drivers.

It amazes me at how many streets have been closed, detour signs without warning and exits blocked.

It's abnormal really.

Clearly they did this without the citizen in mind.

TQ is now appealing to drivers to have patience. I think we've been more than patient. Canada as a whole is a nation of patience. However, according to people in construction the reality is that we now use inferior materials to build our roads and that's why our roads are in perpetual decadence. There should be a public outcry for the way this has been handled.

Another thing they've been asking is for people to leave early in the morning. Even that is not a guarantee of getting to work on time. One friend of mine gets up at 5:30 just to get to work at 8am and even then it's tight.

We're getting up with the roosters now. What more does TQ want from us?

Add to this that the police have decided in their infinite wisdom to lynch people by nailing them on all sorts of infractions. All designed, of course, to meet new quotas to make more money off our backs. And they're doing this in jeans because - surprise - they're in a dispute with the government.

Sit in traffic for one hour, cross on a solid line because you have to go pick up the kids on time from the daycare and get a ticket.

Nice.

The people are caught in a web at this time. We have to put up both with a government apparatus with no vision and with a police force with extreme vigilance.

Something has to give. In the streets of Montreal I see the face of our society and our government - and it's not a pretty one.