chicken nest

quebec roads. they are quickly becoming my nemesis. not because of the drivers (which i'm saving for another post) but for their actual quality.

pot holes, in most other places, are a nuisance. in montreal (possibly all of quebec), they are damned well life threatening. there are pot holes the size of dinosaur footprints scattered all about the roads, with no specific pattern and absolutely no warning until you are essentially on top of one (or more accurately, in one). some are deep, some are wide, most are both.

i read recently in the local paper that there are some 20 000 potholes that get fixed every year in montreal. fixed! and they are still behind. how that is possible, i don't know. how a city can have over 20000 death-defying potholes to fix every year is beyond me. it's almost as though the government is in cahoots with the car repair shops- "if you don't fix the roads, i make more money mr. prime minister sir". they're so bad that even the buses have stopped driving down certain roads (with no warning, much to commuters chagrin) because it was giving the drivers back pain and other such problems. if a city bus can't brave these potholes, then what chance does my poor little car have? (correction- my dad's car. which makes me even more cautious, really).  and i can't even imagine how you would get through one on your bike *shudder* - mental note: get bigger tire.

i find it hard to believe that this is to be blamed on the weather, which is what most government publications and newpaper articles  (suppose they're essentially the same thing nowadays) suggest. there are other cities in canada that have similar weather patterns but no similar pothole problem. is the government cheaping out? probably a more likely story.

i've had a few quebecers tell me that in fact, the state of their roads is pretty similar throughout the province. and that the easiest way to tell that you've left quebec is that there are lines on the road (again, saving that for another post) and flat smooth roads for miles on end. there are a disturbing amount of websites dedicated to potholes in montreal - how to avoid them, how to drive over them if you have to, how to complain about them, etc etc. the fact that people google how to avoid them is astounding.(disturbing?)

as a side note- i want to point out that potholes are called nids-de-poule in french, which (literally) translates to chickens' nests. how a chicken's nest can mean a pothole is beyond me. first, chicken's nests are made of hay, twigs and other such items, not pavement and gravel. second, chicken's nests are usually elevated or in a coop, not dug into the ground. third, not many chickens run around cities (in canada. australia...whole different story!) and fourth, if there is ever a chicken big enough to warrant a nest the size of a small car, so help me god...

xo