Less than a month after the re-election of Valérie Plante at the head of the metropolis, her administration says it is staying on course for its Vision zero objective, which places the safety of vulnerable users in front of the fluidity of automobile traffic. Among the priorities: the regulations surrounding heavy trucks in the streets of Montreal.
The danger of these behemoths on wheels remains current as accidents involving them continue to make headlines, as reported The duty this week. Even if they only account for 4% of vehicles circulating in Montreal, they are involved in 47% of cyclist deaths and 32% of pedestrian deaths between 2011 and 2019, according to Vélo Québec.
“We will not be able to settle everything in four years”, admits from the outset Sophie Mauzerolle, new head of town planning and mobility on the executive committee. She nevertheless considers that Montreal has become a real leader among other levels of government on this issue.
The City intends to eventually follow the example of London and establish classification standards for vehicles according to the degree of direct vision that the driver has in order to prohibit the bottom of the class.
“We are already working with the Quebec Ministry of Transport to categorize the various heavy trucks and possibly review the trucking routes,” says the Ville-Marie borough councilor. Our ultimate desire is to reduce their number. »A desire that echoes the repeated requests of Vélo Québec in recent years.
The Plante administration also set up in 2019 a pilot project called Colibri, which allows the delivery of parcels with electric bikes or smaller vehicles for their last mile. “We would like to be able to deliver 500,000 packages annually via this urban logistics center, which will require that we set up other small hubs distribution to increase service and cover more territory, ”explains Sophie Mauzerolle.
Effective side guards
The Canadian government has a more limited capacity for action; it has the power to legislate on the construction of trucks, imposing standards across the country.
In 2011, the New Democratic Party proposed Bill C-344 to force the installation of side guards on trucks. This measure, introduced more than 35 years ago in Great Britain, resulted in a 61% decrease in the number of cyclist deaths, said MP Olivia Chow when introducing the bill at the time.
Then Minister of Transport in the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, Steven Fletcher retorted that the provinces which considered these sidebars necessary had “the competence to impose them by law”. The document did not make it to a second reading.
Today, the member for Rosemont – La Petite-Patrie, Alexandre Boulerice, intends to reintroduce a similar bill. “These are easy and clear rules that could be passed quickly and which would increase the safety of pedestrians and cyclists,” said the New Democrat.
The idea of sweeping the problem to the provinces seemed foolish to him, given the number of interprovincial trips made by truckers. “It would be too complicated for the companies to say, when we return to Quebec, for example, we have to put a safety bar, and our other truck that does not have one we are going to send it to Winnipeg or Regina. “
He believes that the few hundred dollars to invest represents little compared to a human life. “I understand that it may represent costs for the industry, but as the member for Rosemont-Petite-Patrie, I have participated in too many white bike installations in the neighborhood and I would like that to stop . “
The mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, has already started adding side bars to snow removal trucks. She wrote on Twitter last January that 52% of all snow removal trucks had these protections.
Quebec’s responsibility, according to the Minister for Transport and Minister responsible for the Metropolis and the Montreal region, Chantale Rouleau, is to improve the safety of vulnerable users by attacking infrastructure. “One of the first actions I took as Minister was to confirm our sustainable development policy and support the City of Montreal’s Vision Zero. I work a lot on the integration of the different modes of transport, in particular the public transport offer, such as the Metropolitan Express Network (REM), the rapid bus service (SRB) and the blue line. “