Increasing road safety on Montréal streets: A Conclusive Pilot Project!

MONTRÉAL, March 8, 2018 /CNW Telbec/ - At the monthly general Council meeting on March 6, 2018, Saint-Laurent Mayor Alan DeSousa announced the results of the pilot project involving the street name signs on Saint-Laurent arteries and designed to increase road safety. As the tests were conclusive and the comments received were very positive, Saint-Laurent's Administration has just sent its recommendations to Ville de Montréal's Direction des transports.

The technical report of the Borough's Division des études techniques et de l'ingénierie advises the use of blue road signs, with white lettering, and 41% larger than the usual signs, with a new type of reflective lettering, for limited use at intersections within the arterial network.

Among the arguments that led to this conclusion are the fact that these new blue-coloured signs are easier to see from a distance, because they contrast more with such installations as other signs and posts. They are also more reflective, especially at night. Cities like Ottawa, Toronto and Los Angeles, to name a few, are moreover already using this type of sign.

This pilot project was set up in Saint-Laurent in spring 2015 by Ville de Montréal's Direction des transports. Its objective was to increase road users' safety by making it possible for motorists to take decisions, in advance, at the intersections of arteries, by increasing the distance of visibility of these road signs. In addition, the project aimed to make it easier to guide all users by clearly identifying, both day and night, the streets that cross an artery as well as the artery itself. Within the scope of this project, some fifty of these street name signs were installed on certain parts of two boulevards?Côte-Vertu and Marcel-Laurin?at some fifteen intersections.

Ensuring everyone's safety

This initiative was part of the Métropole ami des aînés (MADA) (senior-friendly metropolis) program, an initiative launched by the City to adapt its services and infrastructures to the living conditions of aging people. It also benefits the other road users: pedestrians, cyclists, drivers of cars, trucks and buses as well as their passengers.

"By making it possible to reduce dangerous manoeuvres, by facilitating freer flowing traffic and by taking into account the needs of all residents, this pilot project made it possible for us to test the hypotheses put forward by our city's specialists and the installations set up by our technical teams. We are pleased to contribute, in this way, toward improving road safety in Montréal for all users, and especially the vulnerable ones, such as seniors," stated Saint-Laurent Mayor Alan DeSousa.

Mayor DeSousa also pointed out that this initiative is perfectly in line with the objectives of the Plan local de déplacements (local mobility plan) and the Plan d'action intégré en développement (integrated action plan for social development) published by Saint-Laurent in August 2017.

As it may be recalled, traffic is very heavy on the streets and arteries of Saint-Laurent, a territory where more than 400,000 cars, trucks, buses, etc. pass through every day. A driving force behind the economy of the island of Montréal, the Borough already has 104,400 residents, in addition to 107,000 people working at its 5,000 business and commercial establishments.

SOURCE Ville de Montréal - Arrondissement de Saint-Laurent