Strong congestion in sight | Leave the car to go to the Grand Prix, ask Montreal

With up to 120,000 people expected this weekend on the site of the Grand Prix du Canada, Montreal implores its residents to abandon the car and opt for public transit, or even telecommuting. Parking will be “very limited” on Île Sainte-Hélène, but Quebec will limit obstacles from Thursday to Sunday on several highways.

“We are really going to have significant slowdowns on the Jacques-Cartier bridge and the Samuel-De Champlain bridge, […] which are already practically saturated at the end of the day on Friday. This is why we are asking everyone to promote public transport, ”explained the spokesperson for the City, Philippe Sabourin, on Tuesday, at a press briefing in the Sainte-Marie district.

He says he wants to “discourage” the car, since there will be “practically no parking available on Île Sainte-Hélène”. In fact, barely 2% of users will be able to find a space, and leaving the Grand Prix site could take you up to two hours, says Mr. Sabourin.

Access to the Concorde bridge, passing through Parc Jean-Drapeau, will only be authorized for holders of accreditations for Grand Prix boxes or other special authorizations. Through traffic will be completely prohibited on Macdonald Road, connecting the Jacques-Cartier Bridge to the Concorde Bridge.

But the Grand Prix is ​​not alone. This weekend, the Francos de Montréal and the MURAL festival are also likely to create a lot of traffic. In short, if you have to come to Montreal or leave the island by car during the weekend, “plan your trips and, above all, favor trips early in the morning, before 10 a.m., and in the evening after 8 p.m. “, insisted Mr Sabourin.

For the rest, around 400 taxis and 120 special shuttles will run “continuously” throughout the weekend. Additional trains will also be added on the yellow line, to reach a frequency every four minutes at all times. Additional staff will also be deployed in the stations. In addition to these changes, however, no incentive is provided, the City simply recalling that a “three-day pass” in the metro could be wise.

For Catherine Morency, holder of the Mobility Chair at Polytechnique Montréal, “congestion and lack of parking should in themselves be an incentive for public transit, which is much less expensive”. “The challenge with the Grand Prix is ​​that we are not at all with a clientele for whom the brake is the price. We are rather precisely in the culture of the car, and it is in fact precisely what plays against the use of public transport, ”she judges.

“Congestion, there will be. But if we can show people that it takes less time to get out of these events when we are not in the car, it will already be a gain, ”continues M.^me Morency, who, like many others, contests the holding of such events which “remain far from the major current concerns about climate change”.

Exit the obstacles

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Transport will not authorize “any hindrance” on several strategic axes from Thursday to Sunday evening, confirmed its spokesperson Sarah Bensadoun.

Contractors will therefore be “not authorized” to limit traffic during this period on Autoroute 15 between Mirabel and Boulevard Gaétan-Laberge, as well as on Autoroute Bonaventure and the Autoroute 20 corridor between airport, route 136 and rue Notre-Dame to rue Dickson.

The same will apply for “all crossings between the South Shore and Montreal” and for the Metropolitan Autoroute, and for the entire sector of Décarie Boulevard and the Laurentides Autoroute. “We have been working on the Grand Prix since the end of March. The directive was sent to all partners to avoid hindrances,” explained Mr.^me Bensadoun.

On the municipal network, a construction site in progress will also be “demobilized” on rue De Champlain, to free up the intersection between rue Sherbrooke and avenue Papineau as much as possible, very close to the Jacques-Cartier bridge. Peel Street has already been closed on a major section, and as of Tuesday evening, it will be the turn of Crescent Street.

An “increased” police presence will be present in the borough of Ville-Marie all weekend, but also around the Concorde bridge, in order to coordinate traffic. The Grand Prix race is scheduled for Sunday, but several celebratory activities are planned from Thursday to Saturday. Free practice and qualifying rounds will also take place on Friday and Saturday.