Under pressure to ease congestion on L’Île-Bizard, in the middle of a golf tournament, Montreal is suspending the monitoring of access stickers outside of Presidents Cup operating hours. It will also authorize school buses on the third lane of the bridge and will implement dynamic traffic management.
“We’re going to do our utmost. And already, since this morning, some of the measures we’ve taken are working. Access is much easier,” said the city’s administrative spokesperson, Philippe Sabourin, on Thursday, on the sidelines of a press scrum with Montreal police commander Maxime Saint-Pierre.
In recent days, Montreal has distributed three stickers per house – approximately 35,000 – in order to limit traffic during the tournament. Without this sticker on their windshield, motorists cannot access the bridge leading to L’Île-Bizard, and this, for the entire duration of the competition at the Royal Montreal Golf Club.
However, several problems remain. Delivery trucks have been turned away at the entrance without a sticker. Earlier, La Presse reported the case of the Jean Coutu pharmacy, which was prevented from bringing medication onto the island on Tuesday, including medications that patients undergoing chemotherapy must take. The City has since issued a warning to patrol officers.
This will therefore suspend the validation of stickers at the entrance to the island as soon as the tournament operations are finished, at the end of the day. “The hours change every day, so we can’t commit to a specific schedule, but it’s something we’re going to do as soon as possible. We’re going to stop immediately, and pause until the next day,” explains the spokesperson.
We do this to preserve the tranquility of the place, but at the same time, we understand that it is difficult to manage and that it slows down traffic.
Philippe Sabourin
School buses will be allowed to operate
In addition, the third lane of the bridge – which was previously reserved for chartered buses and emergency vehicles – will be opened to school buses to facilitate the transportation of schoolchildren. Many of them have been arriving late to schools in Dollard-des-Ormeaux and Pierrefonds in recent days.
Starting Thursday, dynamic traffic management will also be carried out on this third lane of the bridge. In other words, it “will be able to be used in the peak direction when the tournament is not in operating hours.”
The city will finally review access to the “sorting station” on the Montreal side, which is where motorists must go to access the island, sticker in hand. Until now, motorists had to go on Pierrefonds Boulevard, between Hamel and Jacques-Bizard Streets, but had to be there heading east.
“From now on, we will also allow a sorting queue in the westbound direction. We think that this will make for less imposing queues,” notes Philippe Sabourin on this subject.
Meanwhile, work on the new four-lane bridge, which was originally scheduled to be completed this summer, continues to progress. However, work has been delayed in recent months and will not be completed until spring, well after the tournament.
Merci pour vos sacrifices, dit Plante
La mairesse Valérie Plante a de son côté appelé à la « collaboration » en remerciant les résidents « pour leur sacrifice ». « Je sais que c’est plus difficile. Et vraiment je les remercie de s’adapter. C’est une petite période, mais elle est intense, je le comprends. […] “We’re going to adjust, we’re going to continue to find solutions, but I want us to be proud, because we want to continue to be a sports island,” she said Thursday. Earlier, in August, the Montreal agglomeration council had granted $1 million in support for services to the Presidents Cup, which includes police services and private agents. The Quebec government contributed $6.5 million, while the federal government gave $2.5 million.
With Louise Leduc, The Press