Parking near intersections remains dangerous
There’s a law against parking closer than 5 metres from an intersection, but it’s rarely enforced. It remains a dangerous practice because it blocks everyone’s view.
Item says an average of 17 pedestrians are killed each year on our streets, the majority of whom are elderly. I’ve only taken note of six this year (see tote board in the sidebar) so either we’re doing well, or they’re just not being reported much.
Ephraim 10:02 on 2022-10-24 Permalink
The city can’t really enforce it because they have put metered spots closer than the 5M rule. But the easiest way to make the streets and pedestrian crossings safer would be to move them IN from the corners and put them into that 5M zone. With the pedestrian lines draw, cars would stop before them and keep the intersection clear (and as a plus, the cyclists would be outside of the pedestrian crossings as well.)
Joey 10:10 on 2022-10-24 Permalink
First step would be to paint the 5M strip yellow, like some boroughs do. The Plateau solution (curb extensions with beautiful flowers that occasionally grow too large and obstruct views) is lovely but hard to scale up fast.
Kate 10:18 on 2022-10-24 Permalink
A couple of years ago I was nearly knocked down on an intersection near here – I told about it on the blog at the time. A big SUV was parked right up against the corner, so the driver of a car couldn’t see the crosswalk before he turned the corner. I’m lucky he had the reflexes to stop when he spotted me on the crosswalk as he turned.
I emailed my councillor and a yellow strip was painted there pretty fast. But that yellow paint doesn’t last long. One winter and it was pretty much gone.
DeWolf 10:51 on 2022-10-24 Permalink
This is why curb extensions are so important. They make it physically impossible to park in the no-stopping zone, they make pedestrians more visible when they are crossing the street, they reduce the distance pedestrians have to cross. And as a bonus they can add a lot more greenery to the street, which is not just beautiful, it improves drainage and reduces the urban heat island effect. They’re a pretty amazing tool.
Ephraim 11:04 on 2022-10-24 Permalink
You know what would improve drainage… porous asphalt. And before someone cites the myth… https://www.prestogeo.com/blog/porous-pavements-myth-buster-2-winter-durability/
In a city where we have had flash floods, we might want to think about letting the earth actually absorb some of the water 🙂
Tim S. 11:33 on 2022-10-24 Permalink
I’m glad La Presse is paying attention to the issue, for starters.
A couple of years ago I was really excited to see the city finally paint yellow strips along the route I walked my kids to school (my family is used to me being excited about odd things). A day later, I saw a guy trying to power wash one of the strips away because he wanted to park his car right in front of his house. Still not sure what they made of me when I called the SPVM non-emergency line.
Ian 19:05 on 2022-10-24 Permalink
I’ve always found it unnerving that so many intersections in Montreal require you to somehow actually be partially in the intersection before you can actually see what’s coming. Curb extensions are great but not placing parking so close to intersections would be grand along with the cops actually ticketing trouble spots, like all along St. Viateur. Something also needs to be done about the delivery truck immunity to double parking and corner parking rules, I see delivery trucks just stopping wherever, all the time, all over the city center and they are truly impossible to see around.Mostly idling the whole time, too. That they usually stop in bike paths right at the nearest corner doesn’t help.
Ephraim 22:02 on 2022-10-24 Permalink
@Ian – Policing actually doing their work? Wow… quite the optimist
As I pointed out, many cities have set up the first 2 and last 2 parking spots on a street as delivery only with permit. All the delivery companies have to have a permit (which makes up for the loss of revenue) and there is a multiplier for double parking within a certain distance of a delivery zone. So basically they pay for the privilege of using these delivery zones. Anyone parking without a permit in the delivery zone, even for a second, pays HEAVILY for parking in those reserved zones and anyone double parking pays dearly for double parking when there is a delivery zone.
Joey 11:30 on 2022-10-25 Permalink
I agree with Ian in principle. In practice, I’m a hypocrite – like everybody else these days, I order a bunch of junk for home delivery. Those vans gotta stop somewhere…