Montreal is far, FAR from good public transit. As soon as you’re outside of the core central area of the city, a 20 minute drive turns to a 1 or 1.5 hour trip. It takes me 8 minutes to drive to work, 12 to bike, and 30 to take the bus.
Even if you’re in the city, certain routes take 45 minutes via the subway instead of just 20 by car (parking is still a nightmare though.)
I’ve only ever taken public transit in Montreal, Toronto, New York City, and Paris. Paris is pretty damn decent, and I didn’t have any incidents in Toronto. NYC was pretty confusing sometimes. Montreal is absolutely abysmal though compared to the other 3.
Of course, that’s just my opinion, you’d much rather hear from people who live these other cities.
This is a really good point, thank you!