Since a change of strategy made within the SPVM in 2019, the police officers of Montreal give significantly fewer tickets to motorists who exceed the speed limits in school zones. A 180 degree that particularly affects the most vulnerable road users, namely pedestrians, denounces an expert.
As of December 15, 2022, officers from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM) had issued 5,299 tickets for speeding offenses in school zones in the city, where the limit is 30 km/h. This is less than half of the approximately 12,000 fines issued four years earlier, the peak of the last ten years.
“It’s clear that it’s not because people behave better, I don’t believe in it,” reacts strongly the director of the Center Urbanization Culture Société at INRS, Marie-Soleil Cloutier. It is certain that there are plenty of drivers who have been over the speed and who have not had a ticket. So this decrease rather shows that there are fewer police officers to issue tickets. »
A hypothesis that seems to confirm the pivot made in 2019 by the SPVM in terms of road safety. The traffic squads were dismantled, then the agents were transferred to neighborhood stations to ensure road safety in a more local way, explains Marc-André Dorion, inspector and assistant to the head of the operational planning department.
However, these agents have a broader mandate, in a smaller territory. “Road safety is a priority for the SPVM, but we also had to take into account other priorities, such as armed violence. By decentralizing these agents, we were better able to carry out interventions based on local issues. »
Even if the SPVM uses a “range of strategies” in terms of road safety, repression remains important, according to the inspector. This is why “repressive” operations are carried out around schools at the start of the school year.
Statement of failure
This reduction of more than half of the fines is an acknowledgment of failure, according to Marie-Soleil Cloutier, especially since it was not combined with other punitive measures such as photo radar. Because even if there are several so-called “educational” radars, those which show the speed in real time, there are none which can issue tickets, even if it is a very effective measure, according to Marie-Soleil Cloutier.
“In itself, I don’t mind changing the role of the police, but we still have to ensure road safety. People have to be a little bit scared for them to have the right behavior. We are reducing the police force, and there is no plan B, we have the same number of school crossing guards as twenty years ago. »
In fact, there are just over 500 crossing guards in Montreal, a number that has not changed for two decades. Since the SPVM budget for these staff has been frozen, requests from citizens to add supervised pedestrian crossings are systematically refused, says the researcher.
The number of students attending a school of the Center de services scolaire de Montréal (CSSDM) has, on the contrary, jumped by 22% in ten years.
The reduction in the number of tickets issued by the police is also visible around schools located on major arteries, where the speed is always 40 or even 50 km/h.
Ton offenses
At the corner of Sherbrooke Street and De Lorimier Avenue, traffic is intense when leaving classes. Sherbrooke Street has six traffic lanes, and De Lorimier Avenue has four, with a steady stream of cars coming from the Jacques-Cartier Bridge and downtown.
A school crossing guard at this intersection for three years, Hugues sees all the colors every day. Vehicles turn when they shouldn’t. They enter the intersection when the traffic light is yellow and block traffic and the pedestrian crossing. “Being in a hurry is no excuse. There is a great lack of civility, ”he says.
Sometimes it’s really very chaotic. We have a lot of education and awareness work to do with parents.
One noon in November, the brigadier counted 62 offenses in 90 minutes. “And I didn’t count speeding, because I can’t measure it,” he says.
On De Lorimier, north of Sherbrooke Street, as it is a school zone, the speed limit is 30 km/h, but cars are speeding by. According to the brigadier, the police are not in a hurry to take action. “They tell me that if they make interceptions, it blocks traffic. »
Chaos near schools
For years, the parents of École Élan, located on this busy artery, have been mobilizing to make travel for children safer. Over the years, they have obtained the development of a cycle lane on rue de Bordeaux, the addition of pedestrian counts at traffic lights and two crossing guards. But vehicle speeds and heavy traffic remain problematic. “As soon as we talk about an arterial road, nothing moves,” laments Maude Landreville, member of the Élan school safety committee. “There are cultures to change. According to her, the police do not intervene enough.
In other sectors, it is the behavior of the parents themselves that poses a problem. Parents are more likely than before to drive their child by car, notes Kathleen Legault, president of the Montreal Association of School Principals (AMDES). Some are double-parking, others are preventing school buses from parking, forcing school staff to deal with road behavior issues. “The car is taking up more and more space, and people are walking to school less and less,” notes Ms.me Legault. “Sometimes it’s really very chaotic. We have a lot of education and awareness work to do with parents. »
We are reducing the police force, and there is no plan B, we have the same number of school crossing guards as twenty years ago
The question of crossing guards is also a major issue for many establishments. “You almost have to fight to have a crossing guard, even when a street corner has been determined to be dangerous,” says Ms.me Legault.
“In an ideal world, we should be able to close a quadrangle around schools as young people enter and leave so that children can walk freely without worrying about traffic. They might come to school more by walking,” she says.
In the office of the mayoress Valérie Plante, it is stressed that the monitoring on the part of the SPVM and the Sustainable Mobility Agency is necessary, but that it is also necessary to redevelop the streets. Since 2020, the City has also implemented traffic calming measures around more than 80 schools with the addition of speed bumps, sidewalk overhangs, school corridors, bike paths and a reduction speed limits, says Marikym Gaudreault, press officer.