Montreal City Weblog

Kate 13:33 on 2019-12-06 Permalink Reply  

• Ian 15:17 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

  It’s odd that they should show this building (that coincidentally I rented in for a couple of years) on the northwest corner, as north of Saint Joseph the west side of Hutchison is Outremont, not Mile end. South of Saint Joey both sides of the Hutch are Mile End, so presumably any corner EXCEPT the one shown would be where this kid got hit by a car.

• Blork 15:27 on 2019-12-06 Permalink

  CBC reports the boy is now in “Serious” condition instead of critical. Weird how a kid can fall out of a stroller. CBC says it was one of those “jogging” strollers that parents put their kids in when they go for a run. You’d think that type would be even harder to fall out of. The CBC story says the circumstances are still unknown but hinted that the boy might have fallen out when the parent moved the stroller quickly to avoid the vehicle.

• Kate 09:54 on 2019-12-07 Permalink

  Ian, I knew this was close to the border, but not quite how close.

• Orr 10:03 on 2019-12-07 Permalink

  This new configuration’s stop signs are not very visible (and no “warning: new stop sign” signs at all!).
  Direction Est is much worse: the new stop sign is way off to the side, partly hidden by a tree branch, which is multiplied by cars coming downhill so sight line from above hides the new stop sign even more.
  Add to that the fact that this is a downhill street where cars routinely go 50-60 (30 km/h zone) and don’t see the new stop until the last second and then it’s like well fuck it and roll through the stop with only a bit of slowing down.
  New stop signs need to be more visible from farther way, and excessive speed of vehicles need to be controlled. I would suggest some of those rubber/plastic bollards with 30 km’h signs in middle of street. They “visually narrow” the street but do not slow down the emergency vehicles or impede traffic flow like stops signs or speed bumps.
  Also, they reconfigured the intersection but did not do any sidewalk extension bumps to make pedestrians more visible as they begin to cross the street. With cars parked right up to the corner, pedestrians are not visible to car rivers a they start to cross the street.
  TL;dr: new stop signs not visible, cars still go too fast on St-Joseph, pedestrian crossing not improved in any meaningful way for improved pedestrian safety.

• Joey 10:08 on 2019-12-07 Permalink

  @Orr agreed 100%. Who installs a stop sign that’s partially I obscured by a tree? I would add that the lane reduction (they painted those yellow diagonal lines) has led to a bottleneck that probably subconsciously encourages drivers to aggressively drive when they see some space opening up. I’m not sure what would be better, but the recent solution doesn’t seem to be it.

• Kate 12:52 on 2019-12-07 Permalink

  Ian, Orr, Joey, it’s odd how this makes me realize I have a mental map of Montreal, very clearly coloured in terms of things like “streets I know and where it’s comfortable and worthwhile to walk” and “streets which aren’t welcoming and where I tend not to walk unless I have to.”

  Nothing to do with danger from other pedestrians, it’s largely based on motor traffic. In this case, St-Joseph between Park and St-Laurent is OK (although a little dull – Laurier’s more interesting) but west of Park has always felt less so, largely because drivers do seem to pick up speed coming down from upper Outremont (beyond Côte Ste-Catherine), along there, maybe simply because it’s less “encumbered” by pedestrians than Laurier.