On the roads of Montreal, the last week has been marked by debates on the safety of pedestrians, at a time when collisions involving them are on the rise. Two demonstrations took place to demand more protective measures from the authorities and on Tuesday, a crossing guard was caught in the north of the island. In the process, the Legault government launched a broad appeal for vigilance.
On Tuesday, dozens of parents and children, shocked by the death of 7-year-old Mariia Legenkovska, killed by a driver in a Montreal school zone last month, marched to ask elected officials to tackle the dangers caused by motorized travel.
In the hours that followed, Montreal announced that in 2023, the surroundings of about fifty establishments frequented by children, including schools and daycare centers as well as two parks, will be secured. About fifty schools had already been secured in the last three years, but the City wants to “accelerate” the pace.
In the afternoon of the same day, a crossing guard who was on her first day of work was hit by the driver of a vehicle. Transported to the hospital, the brigadier suffered minor injuries that are not life-threatening.
The following day, a coalition representing motorists, public transit users, cyclists and pedestrians formally asked the provincial government to establish a government road safety strategy. The Legault government had undertaken to implement this measure in 2018.
“Five years later, this commitment is still pending,” lamented the executive director of the organization Piétons Québec, Sandrine Cabana-Degani. A first meeting between the office of the Minister of Transport Geneviève Guilbault and Piétons Québec “is already planned” in the coming days, said the minister’s press attaché, Louis-Julien Dufresne, on Thursday, calling on everyone to of caution.
In the first nine months of 2022, 39 pedestrians were killed in Quebec, a figure that is up 15% from the previous year. In the same period, 140 pedestrians were seriously injured, which represents a jump of 27% compared to 2021.
Tough week for the STM
The week has not been easy either for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM), which first announced at the turn of last weekend that it had to readjust its offer and end its promise of a buses every 10 minutes maximum on the eight lines that still offered this service at rush hour. According to the company’s spokeswoman, Justine Lord-Dufour, the decision was made due to the upheaval in the transport habits of users since the start of the pandemic.
But according to the municipal affairs columnist of The PressMaxime Bergeron, this decision may seem trivial “yet testifies to a deep crisis in the financing of public transit and the risks that hover if a serious push is not given – and quickly – by Quebec to restore order in this quagmire.
In mid-December, Minister Guilbault had opened the door to a review of the mode of financing transport companies, without however making a formal commitment.
This Friday, The Press also reported that a good number of STM buses welcome passengers free of charge due to breakdowns in their payment terminal. A major problem with repairing new validation devices is causing this costly situation for the organization. Since September 22, bus drivers have reported to the STM 13,483 times that the vehicle in which they left the garage had a terminal problem, according to their union.
A broken down REM… for a good cause
As for the Réseau express métropolitain (REM), it suffered a breakdown during an episode of freezing rain in early January on the South Shore, as part of tests carried out in “extreme conditions”. It all happened on January 5. That day, an REM car was deployed on the route without first activating the protocol related to ice and winter weather. In other words, the wagons were put into service without scrapers, which allow the catenaries to be de-iced.
Result: the REM managed to cross the Samuel-De Champlain bridge, but stopped just after, not far from the Costco warehouse. The car had “lost contact” with the catenary, this set of wires which supplies the cars with electricity. A plan was then deployed to bring the cars back to Central Station.
Such an operation “is part of the good test practices aimed at pushing the system and the cars to their limit”, however assures the director of communications of CDPQ Infra, Jean-Vincent Lacroix.