Pedestrians don’t get enough respect
Road safety figures may be getting better, but don’t tell that to those who walk in city
There’s a new kind of Two Solitudes emerging in Quebec: those who drive and those who don’t.
Just as there was once rampant linguistic friction in the province, there is now growing tension on our roads pitting cars against pedestrians and cyclists. Especially in Montreal — where more urban dwellers are leaving their cars at home in favour of walking or biking amid increased densification and hellish traffic — this conflict is readily apparent.
The latest road safety statistics from the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec put these fault lines in stark relief. While the total number of road deaths across Quebec in 2016 reached their second-lowest point in 70 years, there was a spike in the number of pedestrians killed.
With 63 pedestrian deaths provincewide in 2016, the rate shot up a staggering 40 per cent over the previous year and eight per cent above the average for the last five years.
The death toll for cyclists remained stable at eight, one less than in 2015. These are alarming numbers, but as a pedestrian, I can’t say I’m shocked.
On my way home Tuesday night, I witnessed a car cut off a cyclist on a bike path, then nearly run over the toes of pedestrians about to cross a street two blocks from a school in a residential neighbourhood.
Actually, the toes in question were mine and my kids’. I shook my fist as the driver sped away, but I’m sure I was but a speck in the rear-view mirror.
This kind of altercation is a routine occurrence. From my perspective, drivers have no respect for pedestrians. They speed, block crosswalks, burn red lights, roll through stop signs, emerge from alleys without looking, and grow impatient with anyone who takes too long to cross a street. (Not surprisingly, people over age 65 accounted for the majority of pedestrian deaths last year. Children seem to have been spared, but I would venture to guess that’s because hawkish parents barely let their kids walk anywhere anymore — a shame.)
Even when people on foot or riding bikes outnumber cars in a neighbourhood, drivers barrelling through seem to feel they have right of way — and everyone else should move aside.
I’m not trying to vilify drivers. I know they routinely complain about jaywalkers or two-wheeled kamikazes, who are no doubt annoying. And I imagine all the orange construction cones and the eternal congestion in Montreal contributes to a kind of slow-burning, omnipresent road rage. But motorists shouldn’t take their frustrations out on pedestrians and cyclists, who are equally entitled to space on the roads.
Attitudes of drivers need to change. Quebec Transport Minister Laurent Lessard called on motorists to be more responsible. But making that happen will require a lot of help from policymakers and urban planners. Besides Lessard’s promise of an update to Quebec’s road safety code and Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre slamming the door on right turns on reds, the pedestrian carnage calls for drastic measures.
If drivers won’t share nicely, they should be made to, with lower speed limits and trafficcalming measures like Outremont has adopted. The Plateau Mont-Royal borough has led the way in changing street directions to reduce through-traffic, greening laneways so children can play safely, widening sidewalks and installing bump outs with planters at intersections that reduce visibility and naturally force cars to slow down.
Crosswalks need to be marked better, and pedestrians given priority at intersections.
Even major streets need to be designed with narrower lanes to help deter speeding.
I would also argue a better separation between vehicles and pedestrians could be achieved by giving each their own space, so to speak. Some side streets should simply be off limits to through traffic during peak hours so that they become pedestrian and cycling corridors. Perhaps some of these measures are part of the Vision Zero strategy Coderre announced to reduce road deaths, but we’re still waiting to see that plan take shape.
I write this as a city dweller, so clearly these kinds of measures aren’t warranted in every corner of Montreal. But pedestrians in the suburbs — where vast intersections, winding streets, a dearth of sidewalks and huge parking lots seem to discourage walking — merit some consideration, too. Careful planning that makes people less reliant on cars will have health, environmental and financial spinoffs.
It’s time for pedestrians to stand up for themselves and demand the respect they deserve.
If pedestrians manage to organize as effectively as cyclists have in recent years, maybe we will be less of an afterthought and our safety will be taken more seriously.