Voters around Quebec City say transit is top priority for them this municipal election
CBC
Vincent Mutia moved from Montreal to Quebec City a few years ago. Then last year, he moved to the town of St-Agapit on Quebec City's south shore.
"It's wonderful. I was able to buy property, which I would never have been able to do in Montreal on my salary. The tradeoff is it's a very long commute," Mutia said.
With transportation rating high in surveys of voters' priorities in this municipal election, CBC Quebec's Community Reporter Susan Campbell asked people in Quebec City and Lévis about how they get around.
Mutia leaves his house at 6 a.m. to begin the 45 km trip to work. He drives to Lévis, then boards the bus. One evening on a recent trip home, he came to a standstill on the bridge.
"The bus driver had to be like, 'I'm sorry, we're skipping a bunch of stops.' It ended up taking me almost two and a half hours to get home."
Commute aside, Mutia says his quality of life has improved with his move. But he thinks the time has come for another option for traffic between the north and south shores.
"I see the 'We don't want the third link' on my way to work. I think, 'Have you been across the river lately?' It's nightmarish!"
LISTEN | CBC Quebec reporter Susan Campbell rides to work with Vincent Mutia as part of her series on Quebec City transit, "Traffic, tramways and tunnels."
When Christian Landry started teaching at Université Laval, he decided to bike the few kilometres between his home and campus daily. But he quickly realized his feeling of safety depended on where he was in the city.
"There are some bike paths that are protected and there you feel safe, but there are many other parts where you're biking with cars," he said.
Landry would like to see Quebec City invest in more protected bike paths, and better connect the existing network.
He said if people feel secure, they'll start using their bikes to get around, pointing to the Promenade Samuel de Champlain, a popular path that runs along the St. Lawrence River.
"When we moved here, that infrastructure didn't exist. Now there are so many people biking there — including some who obviously haven't biked for a long time," Landry said.
Landry believes it will take political will to make change for cyclists.
A Brampton lawyer allegedly connected to fugitive Ryan Wedding was granted bail Tuesday morning by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.
Rankin Inlet hamlet councillors recently passed a motion that has had them avoid drinking alcohol for the 12 days leading up to Christmas, with the goal of setting a positive example for the community.
Jason Jacques says he learned a lot about the importance of choosing his words carefully in his first few months as the interim parliamentary budget officer (PBO).
Durham police say a man is dead after suffering multiple stab wounds in Oshawa Tuesday morning.
An internal review of technical outages that caused significant delays at airports and international land borders this fall has exposed critical flaws with the Canada Border Services Agency's IT services.
Two people are in life-threatening condition after being pulled from a house fire in Scarborough Tuesday morning, according to Toronto Fire Services.
Whenever the door opens at the British Grenadier Bookshop, proprietor Steve Douglas doesn’t know who is going to walk through.
A northeastern Ontario potato farmer says he’s shipping more bags of potatoes to southern Ontario to make up for waning demand.
Halifax’s registry of rental properties is now available to the public online, showing what HRM staff believe are the “bulk” of rentals in the city.
A New Brunswick tenant says he’s being pushed out of his rented bungalow as retribution for complaining about his landlord, but his landlord says she’s the victim of an unfair tenancy tribunal ruling that is preventing her from using the unit to house family.
Snow and freezing rain could affect morning commutes on Tuesday, according to a special weather statement issued by Environment Canada.
Daniel Jolivet, 68, had his first taste of freedom this weekend after spending the last 33 years behind bars.
Peguis First Nation is suing former chief Glenn Hudson over allegations he failed to act in the best interest of the band and financially benefitted from breaches of duty — including claims that he enriched himself, his family and supporters.