Fluid traffic trumps safety in Ville-Marie
La Presse’s Nicolas Bérubé finds that the policy to keep traffic fluid in Ville‑Marie leaves dead and injured pedestrians in its wake.
I was just posting this when I glanced up and noticed La Presse has a news tab for “circulation” because traffic belongs alongside justice, environment, health and education as a topic.
I also noticed a piece from Sunday about pedestrian safety which summarizes many recent transit and pedestrian issues and stories.
DeWolf 12:41 on 2023-01-16 Permalink
Ville-Marie is the orphan child of Montreal boroughs. Not only does it not have its own mayor (thanks Tremblay!), only one of its councillors (Serge Sasseville) actually lives in the borough, and the other two (Robert Beaudry and Sophie Mauzerolle) occupy such high positions in the administration that they probably don’t have any time to focus on borough issues.
Very disappointing that the Plante administration doesn’t seem interested in reforming the borough, especially since it’s where Plante got her political start.
DeWolf 12:46 on 2023-01-16 Permalink
This story also demonstrates that political leadership is only one half of the equation. If a city councillor wants traffic calming, but the bureaucrats insist on traffic flow, it’s usually the bureaucrats who win, at least until they can be replaced (which is what happened on the Plateau).
Kate 12:58 on 2023-01-16 Permalink
I wonder when the damage to Ville-Marie’s administration will be fixed. Or is it, like a microcosm of first‑past‑the‑post, a situation that will stick around because it’s in the interest of the ruling party to maintain the status quo?
A lot of people in the central borough of the city don’t have the same level of civic representation as the rest of us, which is flagrantly unfair, but there it is.
shawn 14:32 on 2023-01-16 Permalink
On a hyperlocal note, while I don’t think it’s ever resulted in a serious accident (?) I find the intersection of the bike path at Clark and Saint-Joseph to be ridiculously skewed in favour of cars. No stop sign or even a crosswalk painted.