Driving in Quebec - a motorist's survival guide to traveling in the ultimate nanny state

 
Every new year brings new restrictions and inconveniences on motor vehicle driving, which make Montreal and Quebec the most overgoverned place around when it comes to road traffic.
   Technology has seen accidents and injuries reduced by half over the last twenty years and yet Montreal is still piling on the unnecessary regulations.

 A list:

Montreal fails to configure roads to allow for roundabouts, preferring the more dangerous and machine-technology-maintenance-electricity dependent traffic light systems.

Right turns on red lights remain banned while legal everywhere else in North America (except Manhattan). Calls to repeal the ban date back to at least 1939. 

Quebec becomes Canada's first province to mandate seat belts (1976). 

Ten buck annual feed added to car registrations to fund accident victim hotline (c. 2001)

Winter tires made mandatory (2014). Premier Couillard now wants to extend the period (2017) No other jurisdiction in Canada requires winter tires.

No talking on cell phones or texting while driving (2008 - one year before Ontario).

Quebec becomes first province to force all drivers to use snow tires in winter.

Emissions checks for older vehicles deemed mandatory (c. 2013)

Proliferation of bike paths, bus lanes, extended accordion bus parking spaces, handicapped parking space, resident parking and pregnant women parking (at malls) all combine to deprive motorists of much-needed parking spaces and harm local commerce. 

Montreal pressures parking lot owners to shut down their lots and build condos on their properties (c. 2000)

Motorists are to face fines for failing to wipe snow off a car (c. 2012)

Montreal forces motorists to wait longer at red lights by adding pedestrian crossing to allow for diagonal crossings, even in cases of little demand. 

Massive numbers of superfluous traffic lights are added to new development areas, such the area  adjacent to the MUHC superhospital

Montreal mayor Denis Coderre vows to lower speed limits within the city within two years. (2017)

Quebec passes a law ordering drivers to stay one metre from bikes, and implements new fines for opening a car door while a bicycle is coming (dooring) (2016)

New drivers, who already cannot consume even a drop of alcohol, are forbidden from driving more than three passengers and are banned from driving after midnight. (2017)

   Drivers themselves can be blamed for some of these restrictions. Unlike cyclists, who have loudly fought any attempts to force them into helmets, motorists have complied meekly with every new rule.
   It's likely merely a matter of time before motorists are forced to wear helmets behind the wheel.