Editorial: Slow Down You Move Too Fast - When the Fix Doesn't Fit the Facts

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The Pointe-Claire Record has been a strong champion for public safety, especially for pedestrians and cyclists. Quebec has a Highway Safety Code that provides enforceable rules for motorists, pedestrians, and cyclists. The province also has “Tome V,” part of Quebec’s Collection Normes – Ouvrages routiers (Standards Collection – Road Engineering Works), which provides the standards and guidelines engineers use when designing roads, signage, and traffic control measures, including crosswalks.

The Highway Safety Code determines what is legal and illegal, while “the Tome” is the reference used by engineers to design road systems and apply standards intended to create safe neighbourhoods. While some of these standards allow professional judgment based on local conditions, others establish clear requirements.

It was this combination of the Highway Safety Code and Tome V that the city used to explain why non-compliant stop signs were removed, including one in front of a high school. According to the law, stop signs are used to control motor vehicle traffic at an intersection — no intersection, no stop sign. They cannot be used simply as a measure to slow drivers. There was nothing to argue. So let it be written, so let it be done.

Recently, in Valois Village, a stop sign was installed on Donegani Ave. at Queen because of pedestrian safety concerns near a newly opened and popular seasonal business. The stop sign became the “solution” because Quebec’s transport ministry, the MTQ, determined that a crosswalk would be unsafe due to the curve in the road.

The city had to broaden its interpretation of the traffic bible to make it work. While the stop sign meets the legal requirement by being at an intersection, it does not fully align with some “normes,” the standards recommended by the MTQ.

How are residents supposed to reconcile using the strict rules of the government’s Good Book one day to remove an “illegal” stop sign in front of a school open 10 months of the year, where children’s safety is at stake, while allowing those same rules to be interpreted differently to install one on a commercial strip where other, albeit less convenient, options could provide a safe crossing?

This is not the fault of the city's Traffic Committee, which is doing its best to juggle public safety, the law, and requests from council to appease businesses and citizens. It is the result of poor planning and the rigidity of the law.

Our complaint isn’t about the stop signs themselves, but about how the city expects citizens to accept these compromises. Too many stop signs on a primary collector impede the flow of traffic and often result in drivers disregarding them and ignoring them out of frustration.

The same piecemeal approach can also be seen in how speed limits are implemented. The 40 km/h speed limit set by the City of Pointe-Claire on both Brunswick and Hymus boulevards also doesn't make sense, given that these are arterial roads that still retain their original design, built for moving cars quickly throughout the city. Neighbouring cities with boulevards of the same names seem to recognize their purpose, retaining 50 km/h speed limits on their roads of that size.

Yes, there are new residential buildings going up on these boulevards, but lowering the speed limit alone does not create safer streets. As we discussed in a previous issue, the city still hasn't begun to make the approaches to the REM or local businesses safer or more accessible for pedestrians or cyclists.

Public safety needs to be taken seriously throughout the city and not just tackled piecemeal as issues arise. Similarly, the reality is that we are a city of drivers, and we need to be able to get to our destinations in a safe and timely fashion. While The Pointe-Claire Record recognizes the challenges faced by the Traffic Committee, we need to make plans before things go wrong, not after. Whether it's the construction of new neighbourhoods, train stations, or grocery stores, the city needs to have plans at the ready and not fumble with Band-Aids after the fact.