Inaugurated 10 years ago today, the extension of Autoroute 30 between Châteauguay and Vaudreuil-Dorion was supposed to help relieve congestion on Montreal’s highway network, by offering an “alternative route” for vehicles and trucks. But after a decade, the impacts are still very limited, as evidenced by the persistent congestion on the roads of the metropolis.
Awaited for more than 40 years, the extension of Autoroute 30 had been presented as a solution to “reduce the pressure” on Montreal’s road network, which was reaching saturation point. Quebec hoped in particular that many truckers would avoid crossing the island, relieving highways 20, 15 and 40, well known for their traffic jams.
Ten years after its inauguration, traffic volumes show an increase in the axis of Highway 30, but stability on the island of Montreal.
On Highway 40, there were an average of 88,000 vehicles per day on the Île-aux-Tourtes bridge in 2012. Just before the pandemic, which led to a drop on the entire road network, there were numbered 87,000. Trucking’s share remained stable at 10% of trips.
The scenario is similar on the Galipeau bridge, which allows Autoroute 20 to span the water: from 53,000 vehicles in 2012, the annual average daily traffic (ADD) was 54,000 in 2019. On the other hand , the number of trucks transiting through this sector increased from 6% to 11% of recorded trips.
The same is true at the heart of the island, in the portion crossing the Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension borough. While there were 159,000 vehicles per day on average in 2012, there were 154,000 in 2019. The flow however fell to 146,000 in 2021, with the impacts of confinements and teleworking.
Impact concentrated on the South Shore
The effect of the extension was concentrated on the South Shore of Montreal. In the Saint-Isidore sector, in Montérégie, the average annual daily traffic (ADD) went from 20,600 vehicles, including 8% trucks, in 2012 to 38,000 vehicles, with 13% trucks in 2013. has continued to increase since, reaching 50,000 vehicles per day in 2019, 14% of which were trucks.
In Beauharnois, on route 132 – one of the axes that Quebec wanted to decongest at the time – the average daily automobile traffic for its part fell from 14,500 vehicles, including 15% trucks, to 5,000 with 6% trucks between 2011 and 2013. Traffic flow has remained similar since.
No study… but concerns
The holder of the Mobility Chair at Polytechnique Montréal, Catherine Morency, says that these data show above all that increasing road capacity is never a long-term solution. “If it had worked, increasing the capacity of the highways, there would be no more congestion in Montreal. We did just that in the last decades, ”she says.
“We are proposing a lot of solutions for next year and the next 5 to 10 years, without ever really making major changes that allow us to make real gains,” persists M.me Morency.
It takes us a real target of reducing dependence on the car, that’s the main issue.
Catherine Morency, holder of the Mobility Chair at Polytechnique Montréal
At the Ministère des Transports du Québec, spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun affirms that these data make it possible to “find that there was a transfer of trucks from route 132 and from the A20 to the A30″, which was ” the desired effect in the highways of the South Shore”.
However, she says, “it is not possible to comment on the repercussions of the A-30 on the reduction of congestion at the metropolitan scale, since this would require in-depth analyzes and the Ministry does not have such analyses. Note: the A30 is currently managed by the private sector, but its management should be entrusted to the government in 2043.
Overpriced truckers?
At the Quebec Trucking Association (ACQ), President and CEO Marc Cadieux has regularly opposed in recent years the high toll price for truckers. Currently, its members pay an average of $1.80 per axle for a category A or C truck, and $1.20 for category B. ‘we would have gone to look for more customers. It is obvious to us. But that was not the case here,” says Mr. Cadieux.
The complexity for the industry, according to the CEO, lies in the fact that truckers must pass on the bill for tolls to their customers. And the latter “very often refuse to pay for the toll”, he says. “They tell us to take another route, that we don’t have to go that way. It is reality. »
“We tried to sell the use of Highway 30 to our members, repeating that it’s safer, that there is less braking and therefore less fuel used, but several big players told us that basically, it doesn’t change much for them,” concludes Mr. Cadieux.