Roads in Montreal
Montréal is a city located in Quebec, Canada and is one of the transportation hubs for eastern Canada and most of Quebec, with well-developed air, road, rail, and maritime links to the rest of Canada, as well as the United States and the rest of the world.
Road network
Like many major cities, Montréal has a problem with vehicular traffic congestion, especially from off-island suburbs such as Laval on Île Jésus, and Longueuil on the south shore. The width of the Saint Lawrence River has made the construction of fixed links to the south shore expensive and difficult. There are only four road bridges along with one road tunnel, two railway bridges, and a Metro line. The far narrower Rivière des Prairies, separating Montréal from Laval, is spanned by eight road bridges (six to Laval and two directly to the north shore).
On the Island of Montréal motorists are forbidden from turning right while facing a red traffic signal, a move permitted elsewhere in the Province of Quebec.
Limited-access highways (autoroutes)
The island of Montréal is a hub for the Québec autoroute system, and is served by Québec autoroutes A-10 (known as the Bonaventure Expressway on the island of Montréal), A-15 (aka the Decarie Expressway south of the A-40 and the Laurentian autoroute to the north of it), A-13 (aka autoroute Chomedey), A-20, A-25, A-40 (part of the Trans-Canada Highway system, and known as "The Metropolitan" or simply "The Met" in its elevated mid-town section), A-520, and R-136 (aka the Ville-Marie autoroute). Many of these autoroutes are frequently congested at rush hour. However, in recent years, the government has acknowledged this problem and is working on long-term solutions to alleviate the congestion. One such example is the extension of Quebec Autoroute 30 on Montréal's south shore, which will serve as a bypass.[1] Today's existing highways have been planned in the 1960s as part of a grid like transport system.
Street grid system
Since Montréal is on an island, the directions used in the city plan do not precisely correspond with compass directions, as they are oriented to the geography of the island. North and south are defined on an axis roughly perpendicular to the St. Lawrence River and the Rivière des Prairies: North is towards the Rivière des Prairies, and south is towards the St. Lawrence. East (downstream) and west (upstream) directions are defined as roughly parallel to the St. Lawrence River and the Rivière des Prairies, despite the fact that both rivers flow from the southwest to the northeast.
Saint Lawrence Boulevard, also known as "The Main," divides Montréal into east and west sectors. Streets that cut across Saint Laurent Boulevard undergo a name change, in that Est or Ouest are appended to their names. Streets that do not cross the Main do not generally contain a cardinal direction at the end of their names.[2] Address numbering begins at one at Saint Lawrence Boulevard. The numbers increase as you move away from the boulevard. On north–south streets, house numbers begin at the Saint Lawrence River and the Lachine Canal and increase to the north. Odd numbers are on the east or north sides of the street, with even numbers on the west or south sides. Numbered streets generally run north and south, and the street numbers increase to the east.
Moreover, the addresses are on a grid-axis system, as in many North American cities. Streets generally retain their grid position throughout their course, even if they are slightly diagonal. For example:
- Sherbrooke Street, which runs "east–west" is 3400 (north of the Saint Lawrence), so a house on the northeast corner of Sherbrooke St. would theoretically be numbered 3401, and on the northwest 3400.
- Saint Hubert Street, which runs "north–south" is 800 East, so a house on the northeast corner of St-Hubert St, would be 801 (or 801 East if the street crosses Saint Lawrence Boulevard), and a house on the southeast corner would be 800 East.
- Peel Street, which runs "north–south" is 1100 West, so a house on the northwest corner of Peel St, would be 1101 (or 1101 West if the street crosses Saint Lawrence Boulevard), and a house on the southwest corner would be 1100 West.
An anomaly is that zero is the Saint Lawrence River and the Lachine Canal, so address numbers south of the canal begin at zero at the river, then increase toward the canal, and the canal resets the address grid back to zero. Charlevoix Street crosses the canal, and Atwater Avenue formerly also did (the portion to the south has now been renamed Thomas Keefer Street); as a result, addresses south of the canal on these two streets have a leading 0 (zero) before the number to avoid repeating the same addresses that are used to the north. Therefore, 01000 Charlevoix Street is south of the canal, one block over from 1000 Hibernia; and 400 Charlevoix is north of it, one block over from 400 Lévis.
Other grid axes:
- North-south streets, east side: St-Denis 400, Atateken/Christophe-Colomb 1100, Papineau 1800, De Lorimier 2100, Pie-IX Blvd 4100, Honoré-Beaugrand 8000, St-Jean-Baptiste Blvd 12000, Rousselière 14000.
- North-south streets, west side: St-Urbain 100, Park Avenue 300, Peel 1100, Atwater 3000, Décarie 5300, Cavendish 6500, Dollard 8800, Des Sources 11800, St-Charles 17000.
- East-west streets: Notre-Dame 500, René-Lévesque Blvd 1150, Sainte-Catherine 1400, De Maisonneuve 2000, Sherbrooke 3400, Mont-Royal Avenue 4500, St-Joseph Blvd 5000, Beaubien 6500, Jean-Talon 7200, Jarry 8100, Henri-Bourassa 10700, De Salaberry 12000. Gouin Blvd, which follows the shore of Rivière des Prairies, is too crooked to have a constant grid reference.
The grid-axis system was introduced by the City of Montréal in the mid-1920s, but was not generally adopted by neighboring towns. Most on-island suburbs or boroughs merged recently on the west side of the island still have separate numbering systems, though most streets that start in the 9 original boroughs continue the Montréal numbering beyond its old borders. The highest address in Montréal is 23000 Gouin Boulevard West in the borough of Pierrefonds, beyond which begins the separate system of Senneville.
Street naming
Most streets in Montréal do not change name throughout their course, respecting their grid axis. Streets such as Saint Laurent Boulevard, Papineau Ave., De Lorimier Ave. and Pie-IX Blvd. have a foot in both rivers, and some streets re-commence despite gaps or interruptions.
There are a few notable exceptions which continue for historical reasons. A few north–south streets which begin in Old Montréal change name at Saint Antoine Street (formerly Craig Street), site of the former city wall (Saint-Pierre → Bleury → Park Avenue, Bonsecours → Saint-Denis). Only one street changes name many times: McGill Street → Square-Victoria Street → Beaver Hall Hill → Frère-André Place → Phillips Place → Phillips Square → Aylmer St.
According to the rules of the Commission de toponymie du Québec, the French-language form of street names is the only official one, and is to be used in all languages: e.g. chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges; rue Sainte-Catherine; côte du Beaver Hall. Most English speakers, however, use English generic equivalents such as "street" or "road", as do English-language media such as the Montréal Gazette. Officially bilingual boroughs have the right to use such names in official contexts, such as on street signs. In the past, a number of streets had both English and French names, such as "avenue du Parc" or "Park Avenue", "rue de la Montagne" or "Mountain Street", "rue Saint-Jacques" or "Saint James Street". Some of these names are still in common colloquial use in English, and perpetuated by the tourism industry. Many streets incorporate an English specific name into French, such as "chemin Queen Mary", "rue University", "avenue McGill College". There are also a few cases where two names are official, such as "chemin du Bord-du-Lac/Lakeshore Road".
In English, the pre-Francization names are still commonly used, thus, although only the French is 'official', in English one often hears names such as Park Avenue, Mountain Street, Saint Lawrence Boulevard, Pine Avenue, Saint John's Boulevard etc. Canada Post accepts the French specific with English generic, as in "de la Montagne Street" or "du Parc Avenue", although many such forms are never used in speaking. Another anomaly that typifies this kind of mixed heritage and history is René Lévesque Boulevard. Once called "Dorchester Boulevard" in its entirety, this long east–west street was renamed for Quebec former nationalist Prime Minister René Lévesque, except for sections that run through the very Anglophone city of Westmount and the separate independent city of Montréal East. However, the entire street is still sometimes referred to as "Dorchester."
It is useful to note that, in Montréal as in other cities, the generic is usually omitted in either language, so one would simply talk of Park (or Du Parc), Mountain (or De la Montagne), Saint Lawrence (or Saint Laurent), University, McGill College, Doctor Penfield, or Fairmount. This is mainly because a specific is almost never given to two streets. If duplication exists, they are always in different boroughs or towns and are retained for historical reasons. For example, Montréal's present 19 boroughs have 6 streets named "Victoria" (2 streets, 2 avenues, one court, and one square), and 9 more in on- or off-island suburbs.
In recent years Montréal and most of its suburbs have dispensed entirely with such generic and linguistically fraught terms on their street signage. In some heavily Anglophone suburbs, including Westmount and Beaconsfield, the street signs now list the specific alone, e.g., "Claremont" instead of "Avenue Claremont" or "Claremont Avenue". Hampstead is an unusual case: its signs are bilingual, and most streets in the town are designated as "rue" (street) in French but also "Road" in English.[3]
References
- ^ "The completion of Autoroute 30". Objectives. Transports Québec. August 1, 2008. Archived from the original on March 16, 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ "Montréal: Getting to Know : Orientation". Frommers. Retrieved 2008-08-03.
- ^ "Squeaky Wheels: In Hampstead, all roads lead to rues". Montréal Gazette. Retrieved 30 August 2022.
External links
- MontréalRoads.com by Steve Anderson (English)