It is the linked towns of Mount Royal and Hampstead that best clear snow from their bus stops during snowfall in the metropolis. At least this is what data from the Transit organization shows, which hopes to encourage districts to do better in terms of comfort and accessibility for users.
At the beginning of last December, when the first major storm left more than 30 centimeters on the ground in the greater Montreal area, Transit asked its thousands of users which stops had been cleared of snow, through its application mobile, which has existed since 2012.
We could then classify each stop: either it was “not at all” cleared, for a score of 1, or it was “more or less” cleared, for a score of 3, or it was very “well cleared of snow”. which gave 5. The results were then calculated on an average and this was distributed over all the stops in the given district or sector to arrive at an overall mark.
Our goal was really to show the importance of universal accessibility for bus systems. When it snows and a stop is completely covered in snow, it becomes impossible for disabled people or seniors to use the bus. And it’s difficult for everyone too.
Stephen Miller, head of communications for Transit in interview with The Press
If Montreal “has a rigorous snow removal system,” it still remains “crucial to know where we can continually improve,” adds Mr. Miller. “It’s also a way of encouraging everyone to surpass themselves,” he says on this subject.
One stop on the island in four
No less than 6,500 stops were the subject of criticism in real time over a period of approximately four days, between December 4 and 8, 2023. This represents one stop in seven in Greater Montreal, and one stop in four in the island – in other words, only on the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) network.
Result: the town of Mount Royal comes first with an average ranking of 3.9. It is closely followed by Hampstead, with 3.74, and by the Montreal borough of Ahuntsic-Cartierville, which obtains 3.69. The boroughs of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles and Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension bring up the rear of the first five positions, with 3.68 and 3.62 respectively.
Surprising fact: the central district of Ville-Marie, where bus stops are numerous, obtains a much lower score of 3.19, in the lower reaches of the ranking. “What’s interesting is that in the middle, we really have a big mix. These are both the most affluent and less affluent neighborhoods. There is no clear trend emerging at this level, in any case,” underlines Mr. Miller.
According to Transit, the average score for all stops on the island of Montreal was 3.41 out of 5. “The stops were therefore more or less cleared of snow, but more than less. Only one region leaned towards the least snow-cleared: Montreal-East, industrial, which ranked in last position with 2.81, the only data below the symbolic threshold of 3, we read in a report.
Outside the island, we add, “the bus stops in Laval and the South Shore could also have been better cleared of snow.” The Réseau de transport de Longueuil (RTL) and the Société de transport de Laval (STL) indeed present performances of 3.22 and 3.17, again at the bottom of the ranking.
However, there is still good news from the suburbs. The main one is that the most distant exo bus stops – in the northern and southern crowns – “received scores almost as good as the average of stops on the island” with 3.36, specifies the ‘body.
A rather rapid improvement
Transit users were also asked about the progress of snow removal from stops after a storm, in the days that follow. And, generally speaking, “the comments were positive,” says the organization. In fact, “the day the snow stopped falling, one in three users indicated that their stop was not cleared of snow at all”, but at the end of the week, “it was one in ten people “. In short, everything indicates that the situation is improving quite quickly, even if the speed of intervention is not necessarily the same from one stop to another.