Old Montreal Roads Are Closed For A Triathlon & The Traffic Is Absolutely Bonkers (VIDEO)
It's going to be a rough weekend for people living near the Old Port.
You may want to avoid driving in Old Montreal this weekend. Several roads are closed for the Groupe Copley World Triathlon Championship Series and, on day one, the traffic is already bananas.
John Soares, an Old Montreal resident, took a video of the chaos on Friday at around 11:30 a.m.
The video shows the streets jam-packed and traffic gridlocked on all four sides of the intersection at rue Saint-Paul O. & rue Saint-François-Xavier, as stagnant vehicles honk continuously.
Soares posted the video to Facebook with the caption, "Going to be a fun weekend."
"If that's what it was like in the middle of the day, imagine what it's going to be like at 6 p.m. when people are trying to get home," Soares told MTL Blog.
The World Triathlon Championship is set to take place in the Old Port of Montreal from August 13 to 15.
Much of rue de la Commune Ouest will be entirely closed to cars, as will parts of rue McGill, rue Saint-Maurice, rue Saint-Henri, and rue Saint-Paul, during different periods of the weekend.
Annette Woloshen, who lives on rue Saint-Paul, said she saw cars with U.S. license plates driving in the area. Canada's land border reopened to vaccinated Americans on August 9.
"It's [...] absolute madness! I saw several cars with American plates and thought [...] the borders opened, they all rushed to see la Belle Province and now are sitting in that jam, cursing not knowing what the heck is going on in this city," Woloshen wrote on Facebook.
"I guess grocery shopping isn't happening either. Uber Eats it is."