Pedestrian deaths are rising. How can the Montreal area’s streets be made safer? | 24CA News

Eugenia Liautaud was a cheerful, energetic 85-year-old who cherished to learn and journey. She made associates simply and loved strolling the streets of the Pont-Viau space of Laval, Que., the place she lived. 

On Dec. 3, simply earlier than 5 p.m., a automobile hit her within the early winter darkness as she crossed De la Concorde Boulevard. She died on the scene. 

The highway is vast the place she was struck. Cars drive rapidly within the space and there’s no crosswalk. 

“It might have been set up better,” her son, Manes Liautaud, mentioned in an interview. “There’s a bus stop there, it’s kind of a busy place. There’s a big parking lot, there’s a store, a strip mall.”

The intersection was designed for automobiles to entry the close by companies, not pedestrians. Experts say few of the streets within the Montreal space had been constructed with pedestrian security in thoughts. 

Over two weeks in early December, no less than eight pedestrians died in Quebec, hit by automobiles, SUVs or vehicles. One of them, seven-year-old Mariia Lehenkovska, a Ukrainian refugee, was hit on her solution to faculty within the Centre-Sud neighbourhood simply east of Montreal’s downtown.

On Tuesday night, it occurred once more in Laval, the largely suburban municipality north of Montreal. Another 85-year-old died whereas crossing Laurentides Boulevard close to Proulx Street, only some blocks away from the place Liautaud died.

Ukrainian refugee in Montreal remembers her younger daughter’s love for all times

Galyna Legenkovska, talking via a translator, remembers her daughter Mariia as a cheerful youngster who cherished life throughout a Montreal memorial service for the seven-year-old. Mariia was fatally struck by a automobile on her solution to faculty on Dec. 13.

“We no longer want to treat pedestrian deaths as part of the rules of the game,” mentioned Sandrine Cabana-Degani, the director of Piétons Quebec, a gaggle that advocates for pedestrians. “All over Quebec, people are dying while walking.”

The frequency of pedestrian deaths has drawn consideration to driver behaviour and the design of Quebec’s city roads. Experts and advocates level to site visitors calming measures for instance of how streets might be made safer for pedestrians.

At the intersection the place Lehenkovska was killed, for instance, town has erected short-term bollards and bigger, extra apparent cease indicators. The plastic cylinders make the highway seem slim to drivers within the hope of slowing them down. 

This is site visitors calming principle in motion. 

The highway is sending the improper message

“Often, problems are related to how drivers read the road and the road is sending out the wrong message,” mentioned Paul Mackey, a avenue designer and president of Safestreet, a consulting agency that helps municipalities design safer roads.

“A street that is straight and wide you’ll have a tendency to drive more quickly on it. It’s not a conscious decision. There are psychological factors that enter into play and you tend to drive more quickly on a wide straight street.”

Mackey makes use of the instruments of site visitors calming to sluggish automobiles down and make drivers extra conscious of their surroundings. The core concept, he mentioned, is that avenue design impacts driver behaviour. 

If a neighbourhood is dense, residential and full of kids, the streets ought to mirror that — they might be slim, offering protected margins for youngsters to play close by, and embrace velocity bumps or different instruments that sluggish automobiles down. 

Mackey, who used to work on the Transport Ministry, was among the many first to carry site visitors calming to Quebec after a visit to the Netherlands within the Nineteen Eighties. Advocates of safer streets level to the Dutch as pioneers of infrastructure designed with pedestrians and cyclists in thoughts.

That’s for 2 causes, Mackey mentioned: the Dutch do not construct tall buildings due to the sandy soil of their area. So, they construct dense row housing that tends to soak up any public area. Streets, due to this fact, turn into an necessary a part of public life. 

The concept could appear outrageous in some Montreal neighbourhoods, however within the Netherlands, many streets are deliberately winding and slim — which retains site visitors sluggish and permits some streets to stay protected for teenagers. 

Another consequence of their sandy soil is their have to redo their streets as typically as each 5 years, which permits them to pursue bold redesigns and experiments to tame site visitors. 

Montreal has, in recent times, been updating its streets to include traffic-calming infrastructure. The work tends to overlap with infrastructure upkeep, Mackey mentioned. When town tears up an intersection to put in new pipes, staff construct curb extensions, protected bike lanes or velocity bumps. 

But advocates nonetheless describe the method as fatally sluggish — too typically addressing drawback areas solely after somebody has died. 

That’s partially as a result of site visitors calming measures are costly. The infrastructure, like curb extensions, can value between $30,000 to $100,000 per intersection. 

The measures additionally aren’t widespread with everybody. Sometimes neighbours oppose them as a result of site visitors calming typically means making more room for pedestrians on the expense of parking areas for locals. 

But there’s one other elephant within the room, mentioned Mackey. The variety of massive automobiles on our streets is rising. Pickup vehicles and SUVs are among the many hottest fashions in Quebec. 

SUVs and vehicles are greater off the bottom, which reduces the visibility of close by pedestrians, and, when they’re concerned in accidents with pedestrians, these accidents are extra typically deadly, Mackey mentioned.

No easy options

Pierro Hirsch, a former driving teacher in Montreal with a doctorate in public well being, mentioned there isn’t any easy resolution to stop all pedestrian accidents.

“You want to solve the problem? At no time should anybody be driving at a speed that could kill an unprotected pedestrian when there’s a high risk of pedestrians being present. That’s your answer,” he mentioned.

“But that’s not an answer that’s going to have any traction in any community.”

Liautaud, whose mom was killed after she was hit by a automobile in Laval, mentioned he has questions concerning the culpability of the motive force — an 80-year-old lady. Police mentioned the motive force didn’t see his mom and mentioned the incident was not being investigated criminally. 

“It’s their responsibility to check,” Liautaud mentioned of the motive force. 

Laval police mentioned they might provide no touch upon the case because it was nonetheless underneath investigation. The metropolis of Laval mentioned it was analyzing the accident and, if vital, would implement measures to stop future pedestrian accidents within the space. 

But even the place roads are thought of well-designed, pedestrian fatalities nonetheless happen. There had been 43 pedestrian deaths within the Netherlands in 2021. 

“The best-trained driver will make a mistake,” mentioned Hirsch. “The best designed roadway will still find somebody who will mistake a sign.… These things happen but they’re relatively rare. And if they happen with greater frequency, then there’s a design flaw and that has to be fixed.

“Loads of our roads weren’t constructed for security and positively weren’t constructed for pedestrian or cycle security.”