{"id":621,"date":"2008-02-16T14:13:39","date_gmt":"2008-02-16T19:13:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingmontreal.ca\/?p=621"},"modified":"2013-01-21T11:59:53","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T16:59:53","slug":"police-response-to-pedestrian-safety-stop-jaywalking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/02\/16\/police-response-to-pedestrian-safety-stop-jaywalking\/","title":{"rendered":"Police response to pedestrian safety: stop jaywalking"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Yesterday’s pedestrian safety dossier in La Presse seems to have launched the issue into the public spotlight. Today, the Gazette reported that the SPVM’s response to the 24 pedestrian deaths we saw in 2007 will be to crack down even more on jaywalking<\/a>, which is blamed for 50 percent of pedestrian fatalities. The police already issues 8,000 tickets for jaywalking last year and they promise to hand out even more in 2008.<\/p>\n

While the police are only doing their jobs in enforcing the law, their approach to jaywalking often seems haphazard and opportunistic. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I’ve seen people jaywalk en masse in front of a police crusier on Ste. Catherine or other busy streets; meanwhile, jaywalkers are often given tickets in front of metro stations, which is pretty much the pedestrian equivalent of a speed trap. Instead of cracking down on jaywalking, we need to learn from it<\/a>: jaywalkers can tell us a lot about the design of our streets and how they should be improved<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Let’s take C\u00f4te des Neiges Road as an example. Between Queen Mary and the CPR tracks it functions as both a major commuter artery and a busy neighbourhood high street. Pedestrian traffic is high—extremely high on the stretch between Queen Mary and \u00c9douard-Montpetit—but the quality of the pedestrian environment is absolutely atrocious. Sidewalks are too narrow, crosswalks are poorly marked and intersections are dangerous. Still, jaywalkers abound, and efforts should be made not to prevent them from crossing the street illegally but to design the street so that crossing it isn’t so unsafe. The improvements that could be made here are obvious: more mid-block crossings regulated by actual traffic lights; wider sidewalks with more street furniture; sidewalk bulb-outs at busy intersections; and narrower lanes to slow traffic. <\/p>\n

This year, the city has committed to improving every single intersection<\/a> along C\u00f4te des Neiges Road. Even then, though, there needs to be a radical change in the way that Montreal views the relationship between pedestrians and drivers. In some situations, like on downtown streets, jaywalking is inevitable, and it might actually be desirable, since it forces drivers to slow down and be aware. Narrow, congested streets that facilitate and encourage jaywalking, like Ste. Catherine, are safer than those that do not, like Ren\u00e9-L\u00e9vesque. This is especially important since the risk of death when a pedestrian is hit by a car increases exponentially depending on the speed at which the vehicle was travelling.<\/p>\n

For all of the fuss about safety in the streets, maybe it’s important to consider one thing: Montreal has the second-lowest number of traffic fatalities<\/a> in North American, just behind Toronto. Clearly, despite our sometimes inadequate pedestrian infrastructure, aggressive drivers and unstoppable jaywalking habit, we’re aware of what is going on around us. That’s something to build on when we think of ways to improve our streets and intersections.<\/p>\n

Photo by Andr\u00e9 Forget for the Globe and Mail<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday’s pedestrian safety dossier in La Presse seems to have launched the issue into the public spotlight. Today, the Gazette reported that the SPVM’s response to the 24 pedestrian deaths we saw in 2007 will be to crack down even more on jaywalking, which is blamed for 50 percent of pedestrian fatalities. The police alreadyContinue reading “Police response to pedestrian safety: stop jaywalking”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7831,7839,31,103],"tags":[7,1952,66,48,1954,1277,1953,265,764,125,20,979,345,1276,152],"class_list":["post-621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community","category-neighbourhoods","category-traffic","category-walking","tag-behaviour","tag-car-increases","tag-cote-des-neiges","tag-downtown","tag-edouard-montpetit","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-inadequate-pedestrian-infrastructure","tag-la-presse","tag-mary","tag-montreal","tag-pedestrian","tag-queen","tag-the-gazette","tag-the-globe-and-mail","tag-toronto"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPolice response to pedestrian safety: stop jaywalking - Spacing Montreal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/montreal\/2008\/02\/16\/police-response-to-pedestrian-safety-stop-jaywalking\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Police response to pedestrian safety: stop jaywalking - Spacing Montreal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday’s pedestrian safety dossier in La Presse seems to have launched the issue into the public spotlight. 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