Pedestrian knocked down in Rosemont
A pedestrian was knocked down in Rosemont Tuesday night and is in critical condition. I don’t know what it is about that central part of Montreal that makes some of its streets so hazardous, but the other day I was crossing Rosemont Blvd. perfectly legally, by daylight, and the turning traffic was so fast and furious that I jumped back on the sidewalk for fear of getting hit. Even up here in Villeray, with drivers either mentally revving up to get on the Met or frazzled from getting off it, it’s not that bad.
mare 08:49 on 2019-08-14 Permalink
Rosemont boulevard is the fastest way out of town to the east of the MET after you take Dr. Penfield and Park, connecting via Christophe-Coulomb and Papineau. Very few side roads on the overpass, and between Christophe-Coulomb and Papineau. But a bit chaotic on the stretch near St-Hubert where one lane turns into a bus lane. Drivers are in race track mode.
Average speed on Rosemont is over 60 km/h even in some 30 km/h zones. Montreal needs speed and red light cameras at many intersections (and in unmarked police cars) to temper the cowboy mentality of its drivers. But unfortunately they’re outlawed without big signs warning you of their existence, so cops have to stop drivers to give them a ticket. Which is not very efficient and not very fun for them so it’s done infrequently.
Kate 10:28 on 2019-08-14 Permalink
Yes, my moment was at St-Hubert. Absolutely nutso traffic right there, and good analysis why, mare.
Spi 11:27 on 2019-08-14 Permalink
One of the reasons why turning traffic can be aggressive is because Montreal doesn’t utilize right-turn-only lights. Meaning a car that wants to turn right is forcibly put into “competition” with pedestrians crossing.
It doesn’t even need to be a particularly busy street, all you need is 2-3 pedestrians crossing from opposite directions and you won’t make the turn on the green light.
Patrick 12:02 on 2019-08-14 Permalink
What’s the research like on the system of having time for pedestrians to cross in all directions in between green lights for car traffic only? I assume that arrangement only makes sense at busy four-way intersections, but I have seen it work in a number of places.
Kate 12:52 on 2019-08-14 Permalink
There might be some useful links from Pedestrian scramble. The corner of Sherbrooke and Victoria works like that, in Westmount.
Spi, some corners have all kinds of priority lights going on, so it can sometimes be confusing when you’re not sure what phase comes next.
Spi 14:05 on 2019-08-14 Permalink
Some corners are very poorly designed and when you add on bad driving habits it creates needless congestion and close calls. One example I’m sure you’re familiar with is de Castelnau and Saint-Laurent.
If you’re on de Castelneau and want to turn right (north) on Saint-Laurent, you should be pulling over to the far right lane (although not marked on the ground as a lane) where they’ve purposely left the intersection clear so cars turning right can go, but drivers stay in the “single” traffic lane going straight. That light goes straight only and pedestrian so no cars move because more often than not the first car wants to turn right and is in the single traffic lane instead of the turning one. Then the light cycles to allow right turns while still allowing pedestrians to cross and cycles back to yellow/red before the pedestrian crossing timer/light ends.
Practically it means that most of the time if there are pedestrians crossing at most 1-2 cars actually get to the turn right on the green (going through between waves of pedestrians crossing the intersection) and some that just go on the yellow/red. The fact that the McDonalds drive-through also dumps cars onto de Castelnau instead of Saint-Laurent only makes it worse.
The city is filled with examples of this, where no consideration is put into thinking about the actual interaction on the ground.
I can’t tell you how many times through the years I’ve seen that specific corner backed up with several cars because of this and it usually takes 3-4 light cycles before it clears up.
Kate 19:04 on 2019-08-14 Permalink
Spi, I know that intersection well, and have often sat for long minutes on the 55 bus southbound waiting for the mess to clear.
Chris 08:31 on 2019-08-15 Permalink
When an e-scooter eventually knocks down a pedestrian, it will be interesting to compare both the media coverage and comments here. Make a bookmark Kate. 🙂