MIRANDA LIGHTSTONE
The 1510 West
Driving in the West Island is becoming increasingly a traffic-choked nightmare. The region’s major north-south arteries are clogged during rush hours with bumper-to-bumper traffic. And with each passing year, there are more cars on the roads.
And while the occasional headline focuses on an isolated case of road rage, collectively, West Islanders are suffering from a growing sense of what can more accurately be referred to as road frustration.
“It’s a daily battle,” said David Robert DeMoss of Pierrefonds. “The roads are a mess, and the traffic is unbearable. It feels like we’re constantly being rerouted and delayed.”
That burgeoning frustration stems from a variety of sources that has had a cumulative effect on traffic in the West Island: A growing population, roadwork and the detours it causes, and the lack of synchronization of traffic lights. And then there is the feeling that it is only going to get worse as more multi-storey residential buildings continue to be planned.
“St. Charles Boulevard is now worse off after the reconfiguration of the lights at the 40,” said Sarah Barron, who lives in Pierrefonds West. “What were they thinking?”
Residents across the West Island – from Pointe Claire to Dollard des Ormeaux, and from Pierrefonds to Kirkland – are growing weary of the daily commute.
“Traffic has become much worse,” lamented DeMoss. “That can be attributed to the amount of drivers on the road, the amount of careless drivers. It’s a lose-lose for anyone trying to get anywhere with ease.”
The population of the West Island is growing. And that means there are more cars on the road.
In 2023, The 1510 West compiled a list of residential developments planned for the West Island. It included 36 major projects that comprised just over 7,200 units that will become home to more than 17,000 new residents who will be adding an estimated 10,000 vehicles to local roads. That was in addition to the residential construction that has already been added in the last few years. And there is more in the pipeline at various stages of the municipal approval process in almost all 10 municipalities and boroughs in the region.
One of the fastest growing municipalities in the region is Pointe Claire, where the population in the five-year period between 2016 and 2021 grew by 6.7 per cent, hitting 33,488, according to the 2021 Census, up from 31,380 in the 2016 Census.
And Pointe Claire’s population is projected to continue to grow.
For example, in September council removed a plot of land at the corner of St. Jean Blvd. and Labrosse Avenue, just north of Highway 40, from its development freeze and gave the green light to plans for two 13-storey apartment complexes on the site. The project will add 367 new housing units in one of the heaviest congested stretches of the region’s road network.
Adding to the frustration over traffic is road construction that is creating detours and lane closures in some areas, such as Sources Boulevard, south of the Highway 40 overpass in Pointe Claire that has lanes blocked in both directions. Not to mention the closure of one of three lanes in both directions on St. Charles Boulevard in Kirkland, between Ste. Marie Road and Brunswick Boulevard, that will remain in effect until the end of December – or until work is completed.
“The construction is so poorly planned,” said Laura Wulf of Dollard, who took to social media to vent her frustration. “They close lanes randomly, causing massive backups and frustration.”
Social media is rife with complaints about the West Island’s traffic woes.
“Oh man, I get frustrated every time at how poorly planned Highway 20 is going through Lachine toward downtown,” said Geoffrey Wright of Dollard. “Worse is going back west on the 20 with the bus- and taxi-only lanes. The highway planning in this city is just full of chokepoint, single lanes, not enough lanes, sharp turns, etc.”
When asked about her commute frustrations, Barron recalled a recent journey trying to turn north on St. Charles from Hymus.
“It was impossible,” Barron recalled. “Cars were taking up the intersection, basically getting caught there when the light turned red, completely blocking anyone from Hymus turning north.”
And it is not just the casual observer who has experienced an increase in the frustration with congestion on West Island roads. Even those whose job has been focused on traffic, like retired Montreal police officer Dominique Gourdon, has seen a steady increase in anger behind the wheel.
Gourdon, who now lives in Île Perrot, worked for 20 years exclusively focused on controlling and monitoring traffic issues in and around the West Island.
“We have family in Pointe Claire and DdO,” explained Gourdon. “We’ve sometimes avoided getting together because of the traffic.”