Highway to hell

>> A look at the most well-worn way out of town

By PHILIP PREVILLE

On Highway 40 heading west, just before reaching the Two Mountains Bridge that takes you off the island, stands a most bizarre highway sign: to get to Montreal, it instructs, do a full 180. It always seems funny because it's the only sign around that actually encourages people to do a U-turn. But when you move out of town, it suddenly becomes foreboding. "Are you sure you want to move to Toronto?" it asks. "This is your last chance to turn back."

The drive: From downtown to downtown, the drive from Montreal to Toronto is approximately 550 kilometres. Given that about 500 of those kilometres are on the open highway, law-abiding citizens who stop to gas up their tank and empty their bladder can manage the trip in about 5.5 hours minimum. Still, 401 frequent flyers insist they can do it in as little as 4 hours. In order to do so, they'd have to average about 140 kilometres an hour on the highway.

The cops: Not surprisingly, speeding is the most common infraction on the 401. The Ontario Provincial Police do not keep tabs on exactly how many tickets they issue per year, but suffice it to say that OPP highway patrol have trained their eye to find Quebec drivers. Says one OPP constable: "Quebecers have earned a reputation. If you spot an aggressive driver, chances are they probably have Quebec plates." In addition to regular highway patrols in each district, the OPP has three special highway-only units stationed in Cornwall, Perth and Quinte. One third of their highway patrol vehicles are unmarked, and most of the marked cars don't have a roof rack. Thankfully, the highway-only units don't work nights.

The move: In the year ending June 30, 2000, over 16,200 people moved from Ontario to Quebec. Almost twice that number, 30,300, moved the other way, most of them giving in to the magnetic pull of the Toronto lodestone. If you ever travel down the 401 on the first weekend of any month, play this game: count the number of U-Hauls on the road. According to U-Haul, Toronto is always one of the top two cities (the other being Quebec City) that Montrealers move to when they pull up stakes. And business is booming: the number of people renting U-Hauls to move to Toronto has gone up by 50 per cent in the past year alone.

Final factoid: Count this reporter among the stampeding Toronto-bound herd. Given this column's long-standing preoccupation with economic indicators and aggregated factual arcana, it seems only fitting that its writer should disappear into the anonymous statistical ether of exodus-joiners and U-Haul customers. For what it's worth, my inner bureau of statistics calculates that Montreal maintains a firm grip on 51 per cent of my heart.

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