Critics urge action to ease Montreal's traffic congestion

With the return of school, most Montrealers are settling back into their regular routines, which means more cars on the road and worse traffic.

"The frustrating thing is that we are all being taken as hostages because of the traffic and there are things that can be done," said former traffic reporter Rick Leckner.

Leckner and Alan Desousa, the Ensemble Montreal critic for road infrastructure, propose several quick solutions they say would help ease congestion.

"Traffic lights must be better synchronized using today's advanced technology. It is not a hugely expensive thing and we're not doing it properly," Leckner added.

However, according to Leckner and Desousa, the biggest issue motorists face is a lack of coordination by city hall.

"As we know, communication is essential, yet we find out in 2023 through an access to information request that there were really no meetings for mobility Montreal," explained Desousa.

The City of Montreal acknowledged that directors did not meet in 2023 but said the team's technical staff meets on a regular basis.

"We're in contact once a week for the road closure during the weekend," said city spokesperson Philippe Sabourin.

"Once a month for the general construction works. last time the director community met. It was in April with the mayor and Genevieve Guilbault."

Sabourin said the city has developed a new platform to keep track of all the work being done.

"Sharing the information. It's, game changer. And we now, since two years, got the platform AGIR, and it's quite efficient."

The platform keeps track of all the construction sites around the city, including when they started and when they're due to be completed. It also has information about recent road closures in a given area and what's being planned in the future.

But for Mayor Valérie Plante's administration's critics, more can be done.

"The city has got to be exemplary. If the city can lead by example, it sends a message out to others to do that, for example, in city projects, can we make sure that if we said we're going to use smaller signs or smaller orange cones, that we have them?" Desousa said.

The city said about 75 per cent of the ongoing road work is scheduled to be finished before the end of this year.