Road safety in Sherbrooke | When the “everything by car” no longer works

A pedestrian was killed and three others, including a 5-month-old girl, were seriously injured in Sherbrooke in four months at the end of 2022. A black series which is not surprising, according to many citizens who deplore the dangers active transportation in the city of 167,000 inhabitants.

(Sherbrooke) She remembers the force of the impact. Then everything goes black.

Sarah (fictitious first name) was crossing Chemin Dion at the intersection of Rue des Alouettes in Sherbrooke, shortly before 7 a.m. on December 16, to get to her bus stop.

In order to be seen by motorists, the 47-year-old mother had with her a tube illuminated with LED lights. “There are no sidewalks here, and motorists often drive very fast, so I always have my red light tube with me for my safety,” she says.

Sarah had almost finished crossing Dion Road when she saw out of the corner of her eye a motorist coming to the intersection. The driver did not come to a stop and made a big turn directly on her.

Sarah is one of four pedestrians hit by motor vehicle drivers in Sherbrooke in four months at the end of 2022. One of them, a 69-year-old man, died of his injuries after being hit by a street minibus. McManamy.

The youngest victim, Byaunda Atewelemba, was 5 months old when the pushchair she was in was hit head-on by the driver of a motor vehicle who did not stop at the pedestrian crossing where her father was crossing on the Boulevard de Portland, a sloping axis comprising four to six traffic lanes entirely intended for motorized traffic, and which is located in a school corridor.

A lively and playful baby before the collision, Byaunda is now unable to hold his head up, and his body is weak. The child has stopped laughing and smiling, and is undergoing specialized treatment, according to what Radio-Canada has learned. The driver, a 37-year-old man, will be charged with dangerous driving.

Ariane Lafontaine, who last year organized a demonstration for the pedestrianization of Wellington Street during the summer in downtown Sherbrooke, says she is saddened, but not surprised, by the succession of collisions.

M^me Lafontaine, who is also responsible for the sustainable mobility project at the General Council for the Environment of Estrie, notes that his organization is leading several campaigns to promote active transportation in schools.

“There is a desire to do active transportation, and people are doing it more and more, but more infrastructure is needed,” she says.

“Spokes in the wheels” of active transportation

Jolyane Arsenault, a citizen who walks to work, notes that Sherbrooke still has few road improvements that force motor vehicle drivers to respect the priority of pedestrians, such as sidewalk overhangs, speed bumps or even a network of cycle paths which reduce the width of streets and arteries, and lower the speed adopted naturally by motorists.

She cites the Saint-François bridge, which spans the river of the same name near the Cégep de Sherbrooke. Temporarily closed for work, the bridge is ill-suited to the many people who walk there.

“To be grazed at high speed by car mirrors, to be splashed, to walk on a badly cleared sidewalk when you cross a bridge, it’s not pleasant,” says Ms.^me Arsenault.

Result: many citizens of the largest city in the Eastern Townships take the car, even for short distances. “It’s common to see people taking their cars to get to the bike path,” she says.

A member of the Vélo Urbain Sherbrooke group and long-time cyclist, Fabien Burnotte notes that the bike paths in Sherbrooke have so far been designed mainly for recreational cycling.

Mr. Burnotte notes that elected officials are listening, but that the changes seem to be blocking the level of the municipal apparatus, which insists, for example, on closing cycle paths in winter and removing the bollards that protect cyclists. “More and more people are actively commuting, but we are being blocked at every turn. »

fractured knee

After regaining consciousness on the asphalt, Sarah, the mother who was caught on the morning of December 16, was taken to hospital by ambulance. She learned that she suffered from a bruise on her face and a broken right knee.

“I was lucky in my misfortune because the man was driving a car. If it had been an SUV, I don’t know what state I would be in,” says Sarah, who wishes to remain anonymous so as not to associate her name with this sad episode in her life.

Operated on the knee, she spent five days in the hospital before returning home. In her recovery, she walks with a walker and needs medical help to get out of her house, which she finds difficult.

“I am an active person. Now I can’t even go grocery shopping. »

For years, Sarah and her neighbors have been asking the City for better lighting in their neighborhood, as well as sidewalks. But nothing has been done so far.

“There are a lot of children walking to school, and it’s really unsafe,” she said.

A global strategy to better share space

Elected in 2021, the new municipal administration of Sherbrooke says it is concerned about the issue of active transportation safety. Évelyne Beaudin, the young mayor, has promised to improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists.

Engineer Caroline Gravel, director of Sherbrooke’s urban infrastructure department, notes that citizens are right to note that public roads are not suitable for walking or cycling.

“In Sherbrooke, as elsewhere in North America, the streets were designed for ‘everything by car’,” she says. Any other user using our streets was completely excluded. »

For example, a 12-year-old child who would like to cycle two kilometers to get to the Éva-Senécal municipal library, in the center of Sherbrooke, “would put his life in danger”, concedes the civil engineer.

Last year, elected officials adopted a comprehensive traffic calming strategy, which targets school zones, residences for the elderly (RPA) and childcare centers (CPE), park entrances and local streets.

“Essentially, the strategy will take space that was once given to vehicles, and give it back to other users,” said Ms.^me Gravel, adding that during a street repair, traffic lanes are reduced, and the recovered space is used for active transportation or greenery.

One of the problems often raised in Sherbrooke is the speed limit, which is 50 km/h in residential areas. The City has not so far wanted to reduce the limit in the absence of physical changes to the street, but instead launched an awareness campaign last summer where residents can install 40 km/h signs on their property. .

Multiply measures

Marie-Soleil Cloutier, professor at the National Institute for Scientific Research (INRS) and director of the Pedestrians and Urban Space Laboratory, says she understands Sherbrooke’s hesitation to reduce speed if it is not accompanied by a change in configuration.

“Only changing the speed limit signs is not always effective without further intervention, but we have nevertheless observed speed reductions practiced in our work on MTQ roads [ministère des Transports du Québec] who had only changed signs. On the other hand, the average speed sometimes remained above the posted limit, so it is certainly not enough as an intervention, but it is not a reason not to do it while waiting to do more,” she says. .

Caroline Gravel notes that the City of Sherbrooke and the Union of Quebec Municipalities are asking the Ministry of Transport to modify the Highway Safety Code so that the maximum speed on residential streets goes from 50 km/h to 40 km/h.

“So all the cities in Quebec could benefit from this effect, at zero cost,” she said.

To citizens who would like to see more concrete changes in the streets of Sherbrooke, Ms.^me Gravel replies that the urban infrastructure department is taking initiatives and proposing solutions adapted to the regulatory framework imposed by the MTQ.

“You need budgets too,” she says. We may put all the policies in place, all the strategies in place, if the budgets do not come, the services will not be able to do anything. »