Getting Around

If you're going to be living in Laval, chances are you're not going to be living within walking distance of everything you're going to need, i.e. grocery store, work, gym, shops, parks, etc. You'll probably have to cross the city to buy tickets for Car Raffle 2010 or attend a concert. You'll end up retrieving friends from the airport and obscure DVDs from small shops downtown. It's just a fact of life. So in the interests of you not getting completely lost every time you leave the house, we recommend that you a) invest in a decent map and b) read this article on transportation options in Laval, Quebec.

Roads

The first thing that you should know about driving in Laval is that Quebec drivers are notoriously discourteous and their signage seems designed specifically to get you to take the wrong exits. And, by law, it's all in French, so if you're an Anglophone this may be a drawback. To avoid ending up with your sternum trying to occupy the same physical space as somebody else's front auto plate, we recommend you try to be as accommodating as possible and to learn to recognize a few key highway phrases like 'exit' and 'merge' in French.

There are a number of major highways serving the city that you will use on a regular basis as you travel to and from your office in Montreal to trade platinum bullion. National highways consist of: the A-13 or Chomedey Highway to Montreal and Boisbriand, the A-15 or Laurentian Highway to New York State and Sainte-Agathe-des-Mounts, the A-19 or Papineau Highway to Montreal, the A-25 or Boucherville Highway to Saint-Espirit and the A-440 Laval Freeway. There are also four provincial highways: Routes 117, 125, 148, and 335 which go to Ontario, Saint-Donat, Pembroke, and Lanaudiere respectively.

Public Transit

The alternative to dealing with this mess is to take public transit. The stops are still labeled in French, but at least you won't be rear-ended by a line of vacuum trucks while you try to read them. There are two commuter trains with service to Montreal. The Montreal Metro also has three stops in Laval: Cartier, De La Concorde, and Montmorency. The metro is the fastest and easiest way to get around and it is used by many people on their morning commute, so expect it to be crowded between 7:30am to 9:30am and 4pm to 6pm. Trips are $2.75 apiece or $109 per month.

Within Laval, most public transit service is in the form of busses. Anyone traveling from Chomedey to a waste water grit removal job on the river will most likely find themselves using one of STL's 25 regular routes. There are also two rush hour lines, two train busses, three expresses and a community circuit. Buses are allotted special lanes on all of the major boulevards and bridges so that often taking one is quicker than driving your personal vehicle. Most Laval bus routes begin and end at terminals adjacent to metro stations so that transferring between the two modes of transport is very easy.