Road pastilles tried out in Verdun
Following the acceptance of bulb‑outs at some intersections, Verdun borough is experimenting with pastilles to slow drivers down at corners and make crossing the street safer for pedestrians.
I first spotted this article on X where someone was deriding the quote from Robert Poëti, described here as “ex-ministre des Transports et porte-parole des concessionnaires automobiles,” who says the pastilles would “contaminate traffic space.” I take that as a positive.
Ian 09:38 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
Probably a lot less expensive to install than bulb-outs, too. Anything that slows down turns is a good idea.
MarcG 09:53 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
The pastilles themselves work well, but what’s the deal with not being able to stick poles in things and have them stay there? You can see in the photo that at least 2 of them are missing and this photo was taken on a good day. They did another rework one block over and it’s the same deal but one of the critical ones has a big orange cone as a semi-permanent placeholder. Imagine you bought something this shoddy for your home, you would send that shit back ASAP. Also the funky paint on the sidewalk: We have standards for a reason, this is not a place to get creative. It reminds me of this unusual sign, is it a pedestrian crossing or not? Where are the hatched yellow lines on the road and the “priorité au pietons” sign? People need to be able to read the streets quickly and easily, any second given to “what the fuck does that mean?” is dangerous.
DavidH 11:15 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
@MarcG, it looks a bit like the PlazaSt-Hubert’s voie partagée sign (which almost no motorist respects). Except I doubt that was the intent in the example you posted.
DavidH 11:17 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chic+B%C3%A9b%C3%A9/@45.5378061,-73.6067659,3a,54.3y,269.8h,94.67t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sGFx7QF0uZIAg2EZtRxCf3A!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m6!3m5!1s0x4cc9196bb67c0995:0xdca43be03c8c5c8e!8m2!3d45.5377906!4d-73.607088!16s%2Fg%2F1vyn3gy4?authuser=0&entry=ttu
DeWolf 11:39 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
@MarcG, you’re absolutely right that signage and road markings are weirdly inconsistent. But in this case, there’s a four-way stop, so the priorité aux piétons sign would be redundant. And I believe that decorative crossings are allowed at stop signs. Sometimes they’re made of bricks or paving stones, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen painted ones like this, if not here than in other cities.
Also, drivers instinctively slow down in visually complex environments. Here’s an example of the research into that:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10412523/
It’s one reason why many European cities tend to strip their streets of all but the necessary signage and instead focus on textured paving, bulb-outs, etc. – physical interventions that make the landscape busy in a general way that slows drivers down. Signage does the opposite: it overwhelms drivers by demanding their specific attention, which has the paradoxical effect of leading them to ignore or overlook things.
Unfortunately, we’ve taken a lot of half-measures in terms of redesigning streets to make them safer, and accompanied them with an overabundance of signage to compensate, which isn’t the best way forward.
MarcG 11:58 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
@DeWolf: For the “priorité aux piétons” comment I was referring to the odd yield/crossing I linked to, not the intersection. Thanks for the research.
Kevin 13:13 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
I saw pastilles last year somewhere I was walking around and i liked them. (Although I cannot remember where it was. Maybe Gananoque?)
As for the bollards, they are made out of cheap plastic and rip easily so as to minimize damage if hit.
Ephraim 14:34 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
Seriously, why can’t we just have raised crosswalks? Elevated, like a speed bump. Is that so hard to do? It makes everyone slow down at the intersection and has TWO bonuses… first of all, the cyclists keep out of the crosswalk because it’s not at street level and more importantly, helps people who are using mobility aides and wheelchairs, because there isn’t a DIP. And in Montreal, that would mean that there wasn’t a giant puddle in the corner.
See https://media.blogto.com/articles/20220120-raised-crosswalks-toronto.jpg?w=2048&cmd=resize_then_crop&height=1365&quality=70 for an example
Uatu 15:12 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
There’s raised crosswalks on Riverside drive in St. Lambert. Mostly because there’s a lot of schools on one side and Seaway park is across street. They work very well at slowing traffic and the neighborhood is full of $$$ so maintenance etc. is not a problem (also probably why they were installed in the first place).
Joey 15:39 on 2024-05-11 Permalink
@Ephraim there’s a version of raised sidewalks at the corner of Dufferin and Queen-Mary (north/south only; in fact I think it’s just the northern side of the intersection). IIRC there’s no indication or anything, even painted lines, so drivers who are not aware of the sudden bump will probably hit it too fast and nick the underside of their front end.
Ian 08:37 on 2024-05-12 Permalink
There are speed bumps on my street that have to be rdone every couple of years because the snowplows mess them up. Potholes in the speedbumps is a very Montreal thing though, there is some comic charm to it.
Blork 11:28 on 2024-05-13 Permalink
The pastilles are probably a good idea, but I can’t look at them and not imagine cyclists busting their wheels when they crash into them (especially when riding at night). Maybe that doesn’t happen, but I can’t get the vision of it out of my head when I look at the picture.
Kate 14:55 on 2024-05-13 Permalink
Maybe they could have a row of LEDs around the edges?