Bumper to bumper driving westbound on Sherbrook Street.Andrew Clark/The Globe and Mail
It’s Saturday morning and I’m driving along Montreal’s notorious Notre-Dame Street East (which Montreal’s mayor has called a “disaster”). It has not been pleasant. The turbulence caused by one deep pothole was so extreme that, if we were in an airplane, they would have cancelled the in-flight service.
My bumpy experience is hardly unique. They say the streets in Montreal are riddled by potholes. This is simply not true. The potholes in Montreal are riddled by streets.
“We’ve lost a hubcap [and] many friends have had flat tires,” a friend who’s a diehard Montrealer warned me before I arrived.
La Presse reported that CAA-Québec recorded a 75-per-cent increase in the number of flat tires in Montreal and Laval (from January 9 to 20) compared to the same time last year.
And the CBC reported that between January 1 and February 15, the city’s 311 service centre received 5,556 requests for pothole repair.
I came to Montreal, in part, to see if it was home to the country’s worst drivers.
For decades, at least back in the 20th century, Montrealers were notorious for their aggressive, reckless driving. I’m finding that this old stereotype is not holding true. Sure, there are speeders, honkers and yellers, but that kind of behaviour is now endemic across Canada.
The most signature “Montreal” bad driving move I see is a driver who uses the shoulder on a bridge to pass cars. Montreal drivers are bad, no question, but I can’t say that they are any worse than the ones I encounter in the Toronto area. But the city of Montreal – its roads and infrastructure – just may be the worst place to drive in the country. It plays a factor in people drive badly.
For instance, Notre-Dame Street East is one of the city’s worst roads and it lives down to its bad reputation. It’s a straight stretch lined by bleakness on both sides. It’s Montreal’s “Valley of Ashes.”
Notre-Dame acts as an overflow at the end of the A-720 and A-20 highways. It’s also the main surface route for freight trucks working the Port of Montreal.
Weekday commutes are a nightmare. I’m driving it on a Saturday morning and the traffic is light.
It has the feel of a gritty crime movie set and I imagine the other drivers are all there to do a drug deal or dispose of a body. I take it all the way to its end at Bout-de-l’Île and then loop up to Quebec Route 138, which turns into Sherbrooke Street East. Traffic is bad on Route 138.
Sherbrooke – another main street famous for bad traffic and poor road conditions – is just as pothole-ridden as Notre-Dame. I pass one sinkhole so large it has multiple orange caution bollards sprouting out of it.
Quite a few of the streets in Montreal don’t have lanes, at least none that are marked. Sure, lanes were once painted on them, but they have long since vanished.
Driving along Saint Laurent Boulevard with cars parked illegally on the right.Andrew Clark/The Globe and Mail
“Back in the day, Montreal drivers were known for speeding, rolling stops and aggression but I don’t think they’re the worst today. They are a distant third to what you see in the [Toronto area],” says Tim Danter, head driving instructor on Canada’s Worst Driver.
Danter, who now works as a driver rehabilitation specialist, says Montreal’s crumbling infrastructure may play a role in bad driving. “Road conditions can contribute to aggressive driving styles, since a driver may be used to speeding in congested traffic to avoid a pothole,” he says.
To an outsider, Montreal’s traffic signals can be a challenge. Most of us know that turning right on a red light is not permitted on the island of Montreal. However, drivers are also confronted by a green-light arrow pointing forward, which means cars can drive straight through the intersection but can’t turn right until the green arrow turns to a full green light.
Parking is an extreme sport. In residential neighbourhoods, the rules are so arcane they are impossible to understand – in French, English or any other language.
Montreal has a parking app system, Mobicité. Drivers create an account and identify their spot by the number attached to a short pole. You then log the number and how long you will stay in the app. Unlike apps in other cities (Toronto’s Green P, for instance), you can’t top up your time once you’ve paid.
One practice that seems popular in Montreal is turning on your hazard lights, abandoning your car and leaving it to block traffic. I see multiple examples of vehicles that have been parked illegally and left with lights flickering. Not even briefly.
I witnessed one guy do this and proceed to sit down in the restaurant and eat.
“Leaving your car empty in the middle of the street with the flashers on seems to be a God-given right,” my friend says. “A new way of shopping.”
Downtown Montreal is awash in orange. Construction is so bad and so disruptive that in 2013 a local artist named Tania Mignacca created a city mascot called “Ponto.”
Each Wednesday, online readers are treated to the exploits of this “little road barrel who decides to leave his hometown along Highway 30 to fulfill his dream to live in Montreal.” (I guess his dream is blocking traffic).
"Rue Baree" Street off Sherbrook closed for construction.Andrew Clark/The Globe and Mail
Every street, no matter how small, has been given an orange tint. If there was a drinking game where you took a shot every time you saw a ‘Rue Barrée’ sign, there wouldn’t be a single sober person in Montreal – they seem to spring up overnight.
All of which is why, when I normally drive to Montreal, I park my car and leave it parked until it’s time to retreat back to Ontario. The best way to drive in Montreal is to walk. The second-best way is the metro followed by taxi. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Montreal, do as the Romans would do if they were in Montreal and leave the driving frustration to the Montrealers.
They’re used to it.