After schools, Ensemble Montréal wants to focus on safety near subways. The leader of the Official Opposition at Montreal City Hall, Aref Salem, and the spokesperson for active transportation, Alba Zuniga Ramos, put forward proposals on Friday morning to improve the safety of pedestrians and cyclists near the city’s various stations. The elected representatives called for the implementation of a program in which sums would be invested to carry out various traffic control improvements.
“Subway stations are major travel centers, which poses challenges and issues in terms of the cohabitation of road users and the safety of the most vulnerable. The approaches to stations that have been made safer in recent years, such as Honoré-Beaugrand, show that we have the capacity to act to reduce the number of collisions,” says Alba Zuniga Ramos, City Councillor for the Louis-Riel district in Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve.
Ensemble Montréal proposes to deploy the safety program first where the collision toll is highest, i.e. on the arterial network, as shown by open data from the Ville de Montréal and the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM). Whether within a 50-meter or 100-meter radius of their station entrances, the Jean-Talon, Berri-UQÀM, and Guy-Concordia stations rank among the intersections with the highest number of victims between 2018 and 2021.The program could then be extended to streets, avenues and alleyways in collaboration with the boroughs.
Lastly, the City of Montreal needs to equip itself with the tools it needs to assess which intersections should be made safer as a priority, and the impact of these improvements. This data should be included in future annual reports on road safety, say the elected members of the Official Opposition at Montreal City Hall.
“For Ensemble Montréal, we can’t hope for vision zero without intervening in the vicinity of subways. At a time when we want to encourage more and more citizens to use public transport, it is essential to tackle safety issues near stations today,” concluded Mr. Aref Salem.
Highlights
Subway stations with the highest number of minor, serious or fatal collisions involving a pedestrian or cyclist between 2018 and 2021, according to open data from the Ville de Montréal and the SPVM :
Within a 50-meter perimeter of the metro
- Berri-UQAM (12 victims)
- Radisson (11 victims)
- Jean-Talon (10 victims)
- Frontenac (9 victims)
- Guy-Concordia (8 victims)
- Peel (7 victims)
- Côte-Vertu, Jarry, Joliette and Namur (6 victims)
- Henri-Bourassa, Square-Victoria-OACI and Vendôme (5 victims)
Within a 100-meter perimeter of the metro
- Jean-Talon (22 victims)
- Berri-UQAM (19 victims)
- Guy-Concordia (15 victims)
- Fabre (14 victims)
- Radisson and Peel (12 victims)
Between 2018 and 2021, collisions resulting in at least one pedestrian or cyclist fatality or injury occurred within 50 metres of 46 of the 64 metro stations in the City of Montreal.
