I have potentially devastating news.
The provincial government of Québec announced in April that the “third link”, a tunnel to cross the river between Québec City and it’s suburbs, would either be car-free, or it would not be built. At the time, a lot of people across the province celebrated. Some car brains were unhappy, but that’s fine. They’re never happy anyway, whatever is done. Studies showed that current traffic did not require a new automobile bridge, and that it would invite traffic that the city couldn’t handle.
Yesterday, there were provincial elections in that region, and the party in power lost a seat. They immediately started playing defense and said “maybe we should consult the local population on whether we should make it automotive after all”.
We all know where this is going. They’ll make that dumbass bridge for cars. The prime Minister can’t walk back on his word a third time and still win his elections in 3 years.
I may not live in the region, but I truly believe these people should have access to rapid transit to Quebec. My taxes shouldn’t go towards building an automobile bridge to our beautiful city of Québec. I believe strongly that an automotive bridge would create enough induced demand to gridlock Québec City. This is so wrong and I’m sitting here, powerless.
I don’t know what I can do. I don’t even live there. It just makes me sad that we can make the REM in Montreal, but then put doubt in the Third link in Québec. We can’t have nice things.
I think it’s just a way to distract from the fact that it’s the first time since 2018 that they have to deal with a loss and people seem to be getting tired of Legault. The bridge probably won’t happen, especially if they don’t win next election. Worst case of the two existing bridges, one is becoming more and more unsafe to use and repairs are always way too much trouble to deal with (because of the CN ownership) so if there was a third bridge, one of the two existing ones might eventually get closed.
I forgot about that worn out bridge. Our province is so bad at bridges. I could tell you about 4 bridge projects that are stuck in the mud. The dumbest being the Honoré Mercier bike path. What idiot decided to let the federals build half a bike section and not finish the Montreal side of it?
We’re approaching 1B$ in repairs necessary to keep it usable… Honestly, I don’t know how much we should spend on a 100 years old bridge that’s owned by a private corporation… A bridge further east and transforming that one into a bridge for public/active transport only might be a better plan in the long run… But the tunnel under the Saint Lawrence is completely idiotic.