Take this as a humble contribution to the public debate: I suggest organizing the very first day without a metro.
I say metro, but I include public buses, commuter trains, the REM. Transport company vehicles are left in the garage for 24 hours and the drivers are given time off.
After all, there is such a thing as a car-free day. Why not a day without public transport?
Just kidding – but only half-joking. I sometimes actually dream of such a day. I would sit down with a popcorn and watch the disorganization spread to the big cities of Quebec.
Bridges blocked. Half-empty classes. Surgeries canceled due to lack of nurses able to come to work. Nothing to be happy about, we agree. But perhaps we need this proof by the absurd for our provincial politicians to realize, to the sound of horns, that public transportation is not just a big, expensive business, but also an essential service.
Catherine Morency, holder of the Mobility Chair at Polytechnique Montréal, helped me imagine what such a day could look like without public transportation in the greater Montreal region. I swear to you that we learn some interesting lessons from it.
PHOTO CAROLINE PERRON, PROVIDED BY CATHERINE MORENCY
Professor in the department of civil, geological and mining engineering at Polytechnique Montréal, Catherine Morency
During the week, journeys traveled by all public transport users in the metropolitan region represent the equivalent of nearly 15 million kilometers 1, 2. That’s 39 times the Earth-Moon distance!
What would happen if we eliminated these journeys?
Approximately 28.5% of public transportation users in the metropolitan region are “captive,” meaning they do not have a car. A proportion of these could travel by bike or on foot.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
On a day without the metro, a proportion of Montrealers could opt for cycling.
Some could telework. But this is not the case for factory workers, orderlies, teachers, nurses, daycare workers. We must add pupils and students, who account for 36% of public transport users and not all of whom can study from home.
Tens of thousands of people would therefore be taken from their homes.
Generally speaking, those who have the lowest incomes or who do not have the luxury or privilege of driving – children, the elderly, people with limitations – would be penalized the most. We too often forget that the issue of public transportation involves major equity issues.
Catherine Morency, holder of the Mobility Chair at Polytechnique Montréal
The domino effect would affect everyone. Because a daycare teacher who doesn’t come to work can seriously complicate the day of a lawyer or doctor.
Figures show that 38.4% of public transport users live in households where there are as many cars as there are driving license holders. If all these people jumped in their vehicles, the total distance traveled by these new cars on the roads would reach nearly 5 million kilometers (at a rate of 1.2 people per car, the current ratio).
“It would be a complete gridlock almost everywhere,” comments Professor Morency.
The further you go from the center of Montreal, the more the proportion of trips made by public transportation decreases. At first glance, we might think that suburbanites would therefore be less affected by the cessation of public transportation than Montrealers since they use it less.
But the expert predicts exactly the opposite.
The most penalized will be people in the suburbs. Because the available road capacity will be used by Montrealers – the streets, the arteries, the highways, the parking lots. They will use all the capacity available at the center, with a tsunami effect towards less central territories.
Catherine Morency, holder of the Mobility Chair at Polytechnique Montréal
I find this last observation particularly enlightening. A resident of Beloeil or Blainville who uses his car to get to Montreal may have the impression that the metro brings him nothing – and we would understand this reasoning. But we see that this perception could not be more wrong.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
A day without a metro would cause a domino effect that would affect all of Greater Montreal.
In addition to causing congestion and economic impacts along the way, a day without the metro would generate an increase in pollution, noise, accident risks and stress (studies show that people find driving more stressful than to take the train or bus, particularly in traffic congestion).
There are obviously less radical ways to become aware of the positive impacts of public transport than to paralyze them for 24 hours. One is to read the enlightening 141-page report updated this month by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute3.
It lists the very real costs of public transport networks, but also their benefits.
“Conventional transportation planning tends to neglect or undervalue many of these benefits, which results in underinvestment in public transportation services,” write the authors in a sentence that one would like to print on a fortune cookie and deliver to the Minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Geneviève Guilbault.
These neglected benefits affect aspects as diverse as the household budget, the protection of agricultural land, the reduction of accidents or the cohesion of communities.
The report shows in black and white that even if public transport is very expensive, the benefits exceed the costs (ratio of 1.3 to 2.9 depending on various scenarios studied).
Like the road network, the public transportation network represents the veins and arteries of our cities. The workers, students, families, consumers it displaces are the oxygen of our communities.
Currently, public discussions focus almost exclusively on the costs of public transportation networks. It might be time to consider profits in the equation. Otherwise, it’s like complaining that a donkey costs a lot of hay. Forgetting the goods he carries on his back.
1. This estimate and those that follow come from the survey Origin-Destination 2018the most recent.
2. View the survey Origin-destination 2018
3. Read the Victoria Transport Policy Institute report Evaluating Public Transit Benefits and Costs (in English)
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reference: www.lapresse.ca