Montreal promotes road safety with new ad campaign
Campaign includes radio advertisements, billboards in bus shelters and video
Mayor Denis Coderre has unveiled a new advertising campaign aimed at encouraging improved awareness amongst drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.
The $100,000 campaign includes radio advertisements, billboards in bus shelters and a video designed to be shared on social media.
"The more you raise awareness, the more you understand that you're not alone on the street," Coderre said at a news conference Monday.
The campaign plays off the city's "Vision Zero" policy — which aims to reduce the number of deadly road accidents through a series of measures announced last fall.
It is expected to roll out in densely populated boroughs, such as Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, Plateau-Mont-Royal and Ville-Marie in mid-September.
The plan borrows from proposals put forward earlier by the opposition Projet Montréal, which has been pushing for the Coderre administration to make cycling safer.
A spokesperson for the Montreal Bike Coalition said the organization took issue with the word "accident" in the advertisements.
"We maintain there are no accidents," Geoffrey Bush said. "It's really collisions. And because there's normally someone at fault, either faulty infrastructure that would be on the shoulders of the city."
But groups that tend to disagree on how to share the road are all on board with the campaign.
"We're all there to share the solutions and the reality of sharing the streets of Montreal," said Marc Cadieux of the Quebec Trucking Association.
The City of Montreal has yet to say how it will deal with big trucks on the island.
Denis Coderre said that would happen at the next council meeting.
With files from Sean Henry