Today is a day for Quebec motorcyclists to rejoice. Beginning on this day, riders can take their bikes for a spin legally, without the fear of being ticketed for just being on the road.
If you’re unfamiliar with Quebec’s winter tire law (read question 3), it was introduced two years ago to reduce the amount of snow-related automobile accidents by mandating use of winter tires on all passenger vehicles between December 15th and March 15th. That’s all passenger vehicles, including motorcycles.
No tire manufacturer produces DOT-approved winter tires for motorcycles, which means that regardless of weather or road conditions, motorcycles must stay off Quebec roads during the four months that these tire restrictions are in place or risk a $200-$300 fine.
However, Quebec motorcyclists shouldn’t celebrate by plugging those batteries back in just yet. Post-winter road conditions in the province are so poor, riders might want to reconsider leaving their bikes parked awhile longer.
Wheel-bashing potholes are so bad in the province, one driver reportedly got knocked out after her airbag deployed following an encounter with one of Montreal’s nefarious pavement wounds.
The City of Montreal announced on Monday that it will pour $2.5 million on top of what boroughs pitch in to repair the 35,000 to 50,000 potholes that appear annually. This is the city’s fourth pothole intervention this season.
According to Costa Mouzouris, who has lived in Montreal for more than four decades, this amount is trivial compared to what is really needed to cure the city of these springtime safety hazards. The potholes won’t go away unless the City takes an active plan to resurface the damaged roads, and not just fill in the potholes with tar and gravel, as is done several times each year.
Many road crews don’t even bother to pat down the asphalt mix, but rather ride in the back of trucks and shovel the concoction into the gaping holes, allowing passing cars to level it out. These patches last barely a couple of months and need constant refurbishing.
According to a report on the CBC, the average repair cost per pothole is $20. It’s quite obvious that a $20 fix is not meant to last.
After watching this revealing report from Global News,
Quebec riders might want to hold still—or invest in a dual-sport bike with lots of suspension travel.
I have to agree with Costa.
Before winter my street was pretty bad. Now it looks like the surface of the moon.
Although crews did ‘patch’ some of the worst holes on my street over the weekend, they ignored everything under 30 cm diameter!
The problem with patching is that it’s a temporary repair being used as a permanent fix, in Montreal at least. The same potholes keep appearing in my neighbourhood for as long as I can remember, though they just get bigger each year, and new ones are always popping up. Cars have to move into the oncoming lanes to avoid some of the bigger ones, and they are [i]deep[/i]. I’ve never seen it this bad in Montreal.
According to a friend who works in road construction, in order to have an asphalt patch work properly, the pothole has to be DRY, no water and no snow, so the hot asphalt can stick and cure properly. In winter, the streets and potholes are often wet or snow covered. It’s very difficult to get any standing water or snow cleaned out of the pothole before you patch it, so the patch often doesn’t cure properly. Sounds reasonable to me.
The same pot hole patching technique of dumping the hot mix in and letting passing traffic pack it down is used a lot here too.
Your tax $ hard at work.
Also, the patch material usually breaks up in a couple of days, leaving gravel strewn across the streets. Joined with all the sand and gravel from street salting in the winter and you have a recipe for a slide. Be careful until the street cleaning starts in April.
$20 per pot hole!!!!!!
How can it only cost $20 when the city of montreal send 3 trucks to fix one hole for the entire 12 hour shift with 3 people in each truck, I think the $20 must refer to the bill at Tim Hortons!!!! :cry
Thankfully no winter tire law here in Ontario. Been out a couple times already this winter. Today I even crossed paths with a few others making the trip.
We only care about potholes if they are on hockey rinks. 200 million for a new stadium.
Just grind all the potholed roads up and leave them as gavel!
…can you tell a ride a dualsport?
Nice pavement or dirt/gravel, one or the other, anything but a pot-holed paved road.
IN B.C the city workers dig up the pot-holes (not the drug dens) and turn them upside down and make bumps adda them.. same life expectancy, bout 30 days..
happy easter all..