Photo Stephanie Watt
	At a recent press conference, Applebaum announced the implementation of traffic-calming measures including 400 bollards – those slim posts used to narrow lanes and slow traffic.

On April 30 Borough Mayor Michael Applebaum announced a series of concrete road safety measures for 2010. These measures target pedestrian safety, traffic calming and problem intersections.

He also announced the release in the next few months of a borough-wide traffic plan. This plan will complement the borough’s 2007 Traffic Commission’s recommendations and address the concerns residents have expressed over the past few years about pedestrian safety and the use of residential streets to transit from area to area.

Since 2008, the borough and its Direction des travaux publics have begun implementing measures to improve road safety. In 2008 and 2009, they widened sidewalks; installed crosswalk countdowns; and installed two radar units, 300 bollards and audible signals at certain traffic lights for the visually impaired.

“This is a work in progress. This is our third year…and another year where we’re coming up with new measures”, declared Applebaum.

In 2010, the borough will continue its work. It will redesign specific intersections; widen more sidewalks and install more crosswalk countdowns; reduce speed limits on specific collector streets; and implement more traffic-calming measures such as mobile speed bumps, bollards and three radar speed signs.

Bollards will appear on 28 blocks to bring the borough total to 400 bollards on 96 blocks. Mobile speed bumps will be tested on specific residential streets, especially in areas where speed limits have dropped to 40 km/h (from 50 km/h). Applebaum noted that traffic engineers will evaluate their effectiveness.

A new measure in 2010, previously disallowed by Quebec’s Ministry of Transportation, is the reduction of speed limits on collector streets. At the time of the press conference, relevant collector streets – which connect residential roads to arterial roads with higher capacities for traffic – had not yet been chosen.

Finally, the borough will intervene in a few of the problem intersections that CDN—NDG residents and community organizations identified during the 2007 Traffic Commission’s public meetings.

To increase pedestrian visibility and to reduce the distance of the street crossing, the sidewalks will be widened at the corners of Hudson/Brighton, behind the Ste-Justine Hospital. The Monkland/Cavendish intersection, adjacent to the future Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Sports Centre, will be fitted with new traffic lights and crosswalk countdowns.

The intersection giving access to de la Savane Park will be redesigned with curb extensions, long speed humps and visible traffic lights. Applebaum reiterated that “the goal [of these measures], of course, is always to reduce speed limits and give back to the pedestrian and cyclist a more secure area”.

Borough spokesperson François Puchin noted that approximately $700,000 will be spent in 2010 to pay for these measures. Excluded from this figure are the works planned for intersections along Côte-des-Neiges Road, which fall under the jurisdiction and financial responsibility of the Centre City because they affect an arterial road.

Spending has begun. On April 12, the borough council approved $77,628 for the purchase and installation of bollards. On May 3, it approved $34,709 for the purchase of two fixed radar units. Traffic Innovation obtained both contracts. Earlier in 2008-2009, the borough approved the spending of $31,489 for the purchase of bollards from Stinson Equipment.

[Stephanie Watt]