Redesign roads to improve safety: Montreal coalition

Municipalities must redesign roads and sidewalks to help protect young pedestrians and cyclists, said a coalition of groups during an event to mark National School Safety Week Wednesday in Montreal.

Over the past decade, at least 4,000 people under the age of 17 have been hit by cars in Montreal, according to members of a coalition that includes the Quebec Coalition on Weight-Related Problems, the Montreal Urban Ecology Centre and local health professionals.

The city of Montreal has announced it will gradually reduce the speed limit on residential streets from 50 to 40 km/h starting this month.

But that plan alone won’t change drivers' behaviour, the coalition said.

The number of collisions involving children on bicycles or on foot is highest in boroughs such as Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Villeray-Park-Extension and Rosemont Petite-Patrie, said Dr. Patrick Morency, director of injury prevention at the Montreal Public Health Department.

"There’s many children in those areas. There’s a lot of cars, a lot of traffic, a lot [of] major roads. And, there is a lack of infrastructure … safe [intersections]," said Morency.

However the number of accidents is much lower in other areas, including Hampstead, Outemont and Wesmount, Morency said.

In these areas, officials have put in place other types of traffic-calming measures such as potted plants or poles at intersections, or widened medians, said architect Owen Rose, president of the Urban Ecology Centre.

"It’s the actual design of the street that slows the car down because psychologically we go ‘oh, this is like a narrow alleyway. I have to go slowly,’" said Rose.

By narrowing intersections, children also need less time to cross the street, which also reduces the chance of an accident, Rose said.