A new report from the Montreal Chamber of Commerce indicates that approximately one in five orange cones, omnipresent in the city’s downtown core, appear to be of no use.
The Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal found that 22% of construction cones in the city center have been abandoned or are “useless”, a drop from 27% in the fall of 2022. An investigation into a quadrant of the downtown, covering five out of three blocks, recorded 501 cones, including 111 which were useless, a situation which “seems consistent with the reality observed throughout Montreal”.
Montreal’s seemingly endless lines of traffic cones have long been a running joke, to the point that miniature versions are sold in souvenir shops as an emblem of the city.
However, the chamber of commerce warned that the presence of cones – many of which signal nothing – can desensitize drivers. In April, The Press reported that a row of orange cones had stood along the city’s downtown tunnel on-ramp for at least 16 years.
“Orange cones initially signal danger and call for caution: they should only be used for short-term work or on highways,” says the chamber report, published Friday.
The administration and province have committed to making the cones less visible downtown, including by reducing their size and requiring businesses to remove them more quickly once work is completed. The report says some of these efforts are starting to bear fruit, noting that “we are seeing the gradual replacement of ‘large cones’ and the addition of speed limits better suited to construction zones.”
And even though there are slightly fewer cones, the Montreal Chamber of Commerce says reducing the number of construction sites blocking access to the city center has not been a success. The report said 93 percent of downtown streets were completely or partially blocked at some point in the past year, a percentage virtually identical to the year before.
A major street, Saint-Urbain, has been under construction for 10 years, according to the report.
The authors noted that the City and the province have made efforts to improve the situation. Examples include the mobility summit held in Montreal earlier this year, and the province’s promises to modernize the construction industry.
On a positive note, the report indicates that Montreal’s “mobility squad”, made up of a team of workers who inspect construction sites and blocked lanes, has received more funding and personnel, and that the number of construction sites ” non-compliant” has decreased.
However, the report also notes that public perception of the situation has not improved. A survey of members of the business community earlier this month found that 85% of respondents believe that travel downtown is not smooth, and 55% believe that the number of blocked roads has increased.