It seems Montreal West is still trying to make the case that a barrier along the border with Ville Saint-Pierre is for traffic control and not segregation. Since I’m still convinced that this traffic problem is a figment of their imaginations, it makes quotes like this all the more ludicrous:

Residents of the southwest sector of Montreal West have been subjected to an increase in high-speed, dangerously aggressive traffic as more cars, trucks and semis use these residential streets as a shortcut.

Semis? Really? OK, then. I’ll give anyone $20 who can take a picture of a semi or other large, non-local truck barrelling down Broughton St. at high speed recently. These trucks couldn’t even navigate these streets, much less race through them at high speed.

The opinion piece makes a very valid point that it’s hypocrtical for the city to argue that fire trucks will take longer to get there when they’re closing the closest fire station. Of course, the solution to that is not to close the fire station.

Finally, the one question that’s been nagging me and that MoWest’s apologists haven’t answered: if this is all about traffic flow, why was the barrier exactly on the border? Why not cut off Ainslie and Easton streets from Westminster, like they did Broughton? Why not get VSP to cut off its access to Highway 20 through Norman St.?