Montreal City Weblog

Kate 17:19 on 2025-10-07 Permalink Reply  

• DeWolf 18:02 on 2025-10-07 Permalink

  No kidding.

  There’s a crosswalk at St-Laurent and Bagg that over the years has been enhanced with flashing lights and about a million signs, and yet most drivers still don’t stop, even if you’re already halfway across the street.

  The other day my wife suggested we adopt the British-style flashing globes, which are always operating, because they draw attention and force drivers to look at them instead of having tunnel vision down the road to the next stoplight. They’re also much more attractive than the panoply of signage with blinking LED strips that are now being installed all over the place.

• Blork 18:15 on 2025-10-07 Permalink

  But then… neither do pedestrians. -> Laughing emoji

• Ian 18:48 on 2025-10-07 Permalink

  Nor bicyclists, at least in my neighbourhood… I’ve even seen STM buses blow through crosswalks while pedestrains are already using it.

  I know it’s something I’m always on aout but I sincerely believe that consistency is the key to adoption when it comes to road safety. I’ve seen lots of different styles of crosswalks around town and pedestrians usually don’t know how to signal their intention to cross either – but drivers and bicyclists aren’t helping, and I think standardization would help.

  I’ve seen only a few locations with crosswalks that have what I think of as “gold standard”:
  zebra stripe clearly indicated, sign at each side facing traffic, and an overhanging sign with flashing lights that are activated when a pedestrian presses a button on either side. Basically a crossing light activated on demand by pedestrians.

• MarcG 20:34 on 2025-10-07 Permalink

  Acedotal based on my experience with a specific crosswalk but I felt like there was a huge shift about 10 years ago from drivers totally ignoring it to being extremely cautious, and that was before the lights and better signs were installed. (Attitudes totally change during rush hour though when most people to actively hate it and everything else in the world.)

• Nicholas 20:59 on 2025-10-07 Permalink

  How does a pedestrian “signal their intention to cross”? Until 2018 there was nothing in the Highway Safety Code about signalling one’s intention to cross, neither that it was mandatory to do so nor that it conferred any priority over other users. The law was since changed to require drivers and cyclists to stop when demonstrates the intention to enter a pedestrian crosswalk, but there is no obligation to demonstrate; one can simply enter a crosswalk and others are required to stop.

  And I can find no information about how to demonstrate the intention to cross, not on pages from the SAAQ, SPVM, Piétons Québec nor Vélo Québec. I never learned a method of showing one’s intention in driver’s ed or in the SAAQ materials, since I did that before the law was changed and made it have any purpose, but because there seems to be nothing available online, I can’t imagine how anyone could be made aware of this or fined for failing to follow it. I have occasionally seen people hold out a hand, but much more often it is to flag a cab. The best method seems to be just entering the crosswalk, which immediately confers priority over all other road users.

• Blork 22:29 on 2025-10-07 Permalink

  Regarding signalling your intention to cross, it’s less about legal requirements and more about not getting hit by a car and asserting your right of way. It’s a cultural thing, not a legal thing. Signalling is generally done by catching the driver’s eye and making a hand motion if necessary.

  Stupid drivers (and inattentive drivers [is there a difference?]) just assume the pedestrian will wait until they pass before stepping onto the crosswalk, so it doesn’t occur to them to stop. This is wrong, and illegal, but it’s what happens because in Quebec (or at least in Montreal) there isn’t a culture of mutual respect between drivers and cars/pedestrians. Pedestrians signalling their intentions is one way to change that culture.

  I should note that over here in Longueuil it’s largely not like that at all. When I’m walking or cycling the vast majority of drivers are courteous and go out of their way to let me pass at a crosswalk or intersection. Of course I always catch their eye, and when I’m on my bike I wave, and the driver almost always smiles and nods. I know, it’s like being in Vancouver or something. (It’s not like that in every area of Longueuil, but it certainly is in my neighbourhood and many others.)

• DisgruntledGoat 00:15 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  Living in Outremont, my experience is that cyclists are thé worst offenders and just blow crosswalks by default. I’m a pedestrian and was struck by an idiot on a Bixi last year on du Parc.

• Chris 09:12 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  >How does a pedestrian “signal their intention to cross”?

  In Moncton, at least in the past, pedestrians stick out their arm to indicate this.

• MarcG 09:16 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  I don’t know if they still have them around but I remember seeing these signs in Toronto and I find pointing to be a useful indicator that I plan to cross.

• Andrew 09:24 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  I only recently learned that it’s a standard unique to Quebec to use white crosswalks where traffic is controlled by a stop sign or light, but yellow if you only have to stop when there’s a pedestrian.

  One idea that’s gone viral recently is to place a basket of bricks on either side of the crosswalk. Carrying a brick is a clear signal of intent and consequences.

• Mark Côté 09:49 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  I’ve seen drivers get angry at people (including on a couple occasions, my wife and me) for crossing at a crosswalk, as though the signs and zebra stripes have no import whatsoever and we were just brazenly J-walking in the middle of traffic. I’m at the point that it actually surprises me when cars approach crosswalks carefully and slow down early.

• Em 09:51 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  When I was a kid NOBODY respected crosswalks. Now I find a fair number of drivers do, though not enough.

  As a driver, I appreciate when there is signalling and good visibility around the crosswalk to help me see the pedestrians. With parked cars and traffic it’s not always obvious in advance.

  And, while I always stop, I admit it’s a bit annoying to be waiting at a crosswalk, only to find the pedestrian has merely stopped to stare at their phone with no intention of crossing.

• azrhey 09:52 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  In Portugal, we used to have this problem up until the late 80s early 90s when I lived there. Then they changed the rules that if you don’t stop at a crosswalk it’s 600 € and 4 demerit points. Commercial vehicle can also be impounded depending on the situation. A lot of crosswalks come with a camera and automatically sends tickets home to the faulty drivers.
  And in the last decade or so I don’t remember witnessing anyone not stopping at a crosswalk. Maybe that’s the solution? If good manners and courtesy doesn’t work, hitting the wallet definitely will.

• CE 11:55 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  When I took drivers ed (about 25 years ago), the instructor told me that when I see a crosswalk, I should take my foot off the gas and hover it over the breaks until I know nobody is going to cross. This is a habit I’ve held onto whenever I drive.

  I’ve heard that some places require you to put your arm out before crossing at a crosswalk. Some places require pedestrians to carry little flags while crossing the street. These rules tend to exist in more car-oriented places.

• Tim S. 13:13 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  I walk a lot more than I drive so I would overall like crosswalks to be respected, but one thing that always makes me nervous as a driver approaching a crosswalk is if I’m being tailgated. Sure, I can see the pedestrian and brake, but will the person behind me be expecting me to stop? All of which to say, I hate crosswalks and would prefer they be replaced by stop signs.

• MarcG 14:09 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  CE: Did you do driver’s ed in Quebec? I got my license in Ontario and I believe it was mandatory for me to take a class, but I understood at the time that it wasn’t required in Quebec, you just needed to pass the exam.

• Ian 14:49 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  You do have to take driver’s ed here now, and of course becasue it is mandatory the cost is more than double what driver’s ed costs in Ontario.

• Joey 14:56 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  @CE my understanding is that what you’ve described is the law (you must always slow down as you approach a crosswalk).

  @MarcG in the 90s driver’s ed wasn’t mandatory, but IIRC you could take your final test sooner if you had completed a standard course (always felt like a racket for the driving schools – I think Kristian Grasvenor used to moan about this)

  @arzhey you make a very important point – the conversation about street etiquette always focuses on (a) who behaves the worst among drivers, cyclists or pedestrians, (b) how the streets should be redesigned for (insert your constituency of choice – this is where the “there are too many bike lanes” stuff really pops off, and (c) how our infrastructure is hostile to the idea of pleasantly moving around the city. We rarely ever talk about enforcement. For example: Projet Montreal has decided that Parc avenue is super dangerous. It wants to redo the entire street. In the best case scenario we are years away from even incremental improvements. Yet multiple people have died or been seriously hurt on Parc this year alone. Where is the conversation about deploying police to enforce the Highway Safety Code on and around Parc? I am certain that the revenue generated from infractions would far exceed the cost of deploying cops to enforce the law. We have no problem using our police officers to manage traffic lights around construction projects. Why can’t we use them to stop people from being hit by cars or bikes?

  You can have the best designed streets in the world, you can turn crosswalks into sentient creates that flash lights and emit noxious odours, you can paint lines on the road and prohibit dangerous driving maneuvers – but all of that means nothing if nobody is worried they’ll get caught for breaking the law.

• CE 16:15 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  I got my first license in New Brunswick. The class wasn’t mandatory but if I took it, my insurance would be much cheaper for about 10 years. I think I did the math and the class would pay for itself after a few years. I also doubt my parents would have let me drive a vehicle that belonged to them had I not taken drivers ed.

  My opinion is that drivers ed should be mandatory and license-holders should have to take at least the written exam every ten years (I let my license lapse due to spending a few years outside of Canada and had to take both exams to get my license back. I learnt a lot).

• MarcG 16:59 on 2025-10-08 Permalink

  A little searching reveals that Quebec made driver’s ed mandatory in both 1983 and 2007, indicating that at some point there inbetween the requirement was removed.

• Kate 10:59 on 2025-10-09 Permalink

  I vaguely remember the requirement being removed, but not why or by which government. Only a vague idea that it was pitched as removing an obstacle to getting a license. Later, I believe it was found that drivers who’d had formal instruction had a lower accident rate generally, so it was reinstated.

  But I could be confabulating here from other things I’ve read.