Caught pedestrians | Victims of fluidity

Regularly ignored by elected officials and mobility managers, citizens who denounce road developments that encourage excessive speed by motorists often have the impression that no one takes them seriously. Even when the worst happens.

It was Monday December 12th. Ville-Marie borough officials presented on Teams their local travel plan (PLD) to groups of municipal employees and stakeholders in Montreal.

Asked about the increase in motorized transit trips in the neighborhood since the start of work on the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, Annie Lambert, Head of Division, Mobility and Land Occupancy, replied that no additional security measures was considered.

” Things are going well. The measures in place are working,” she said, according to two people present at the meeting, adding that the borough did not intend to count the number of vehicles on the roads in its territory.

Less than 24 hours later, 7-year-old schoolgirl Mariia Legenkovska was struck to death by a South Shore driver piloting her SUV down a narrow residential street in Ville-Marie, causing consternation in Quebec.

The Press requested an interview with Mr.^me Lambert, but our request was refused, and we were directed to the press secretary of the city’s executive committee.

“The December meeting that you mention served to fuel discussions with the partners for concerted planning; there is no final document to share,” points out Hugo Bourgoin, media relations officer for the City of Montreal.

Last Thursday, the Collective groups: Appeasing for Sainte-Marie (CAP Sainte-Marie) and the Association for active mobility of Ville-Marie (AMA-VM) were able to meet Sophie Mauzerolle, city councilor for the district of Sainte -Marie, in the borough of Ville-Marie, and responsible for transportation and mobility on the executive committee.

“M^me Mauzerolle as well as those responsible for urban planning and mobility have demonstrated their desire to act quickly with a systemic approach at the scale of the district”, they said at the end of the meeting.

“100% as dangerous”

For years, citizen groups have been calling for improvements that force drivers of motor vehicles to slow down. If their requests receive a polite reception, in fact, they come up against the desire to promote the “fluidity” of motorized transport in Ville-Marie, they deplore. Even after a tragedy.

On July 28, 2019, Roger Proulx was walking near his home at the corner of D’Iberville and Hochelaga streets when he was hit by the driver of a Honda pickup truck that was making a left turn on Hochelaga.

Arriving in a rush at the hospital after being informed of the collision by the police, his wife, Nathalie Cronier, expected to find her husband in the process of having a plaster cast or a bandage put on his head.

Instead, she saw an intubated person so badly injured that she initially did not realize it was her husband. The doctors informed M.^me Cronier that he had only an hour to live.

The death of her husband “demolished” her, she says. One of the couple’s children developed post-traumatic shock that caused him to lose consciousness unexpectedly.

“The weather was nice, in the middle of summer, my husband was six foot two, but the driver said she never saw him. Judging by Roger’s condition, I think she was going fast, but we’ll never know because there was no camera. »

After the death of the pedestrian, the City of Montreal built sidewalk projections at this location, and placed crosswalks in red material.

However, the red material resists badly to the wear of the wheels of the vehicles and is already erased in places.

In the wake of the fatal collision, citizens also asked that the speed limit on D’Iberville Street be increased from 50 km/h to 30 km/h; the axis crosses a dense residential environment. But the City refused, and set the speed limit at 40 km/h.

Every week, M.^me Cronier sees motorists reaching 70 km/h on this sloping street. “It’s 100% as dangerous as before,” she said. My boy passes by there every day to go to school. »

Roselyne Escarras, who has lived in the neighborhood for years, remembers being shocked by Councilor Sophie Mauzerolle’s refusal to lower the limit to 30 km/h on rue D’Iberville.

“I told M.^me Mauzerolle that I would hold her personally responsible for the loss of future lives among the residents. She let me know that she didn’t appreciate my comment. But look where we are today. »

François Dandurand, of the Ville-Marie Pedestrian Cyclists Association, notes that there is a “huge catch-up” to be done in Ville-Marie, a densely populated neighborhood that is seen as a gateway for motorists to Montreal. because of its proximity to the Jacques-Cartier bridge, used by 90,000 motorists every day.

“Compared to the Plateau and Rosemont, we are behind in pedestrian protection and active mobility in general in Ville-Marie. We are often told that there is no money for that. However, there is money for several major projects in Montreal. In addition, the police make few interventions on traffic crime here. »

Bans on left turns at certain times were installed in the wake of major work at the Louis-Hippolyte-La Fontaine tunnel, but this is too little, he says.

“It’s not strong enough as a gesture. We must change the direction of residential streets and put head to tail to block transit. Otherwise, we contribute to increasing traffic and the danger for citizens. »