UPDATE: 4:15 p.m. Friday: City spokeswoman Eve Carle told OpenFile that since Atwater is crossed in two stages at that intersection, having a short light on one side should not pose a problem. (In the city's understanding, this light is timed at 14 seconds, although our stopwatch showed 10 seconds when we timed it.) Nonetheless, Carle tells us that the city will consider extending the timing on that light if it can be done without interfering with the flow of traffic, and that they will communicate with Sud-Ouest borough to keep them apprised of the issue.
A reader writes: The traffic light on the west side of Atwater, south of Notre-Dame gives pedestrians 4 seconds to cross.
Here's the location on the map:
Traffic flows down Atwater like a torrent, especially at rush hour, breaking at an intersection south of Notre-Dame before veering to the right to circle Atwater Market and plunging south into the tunnel. Uptown and downtown traffic splits at a small traffic island at this intersection, and there's a somewhat unusual arrangement for pedestrians. If you're walking south to the market from Lionel-Groulx, for example, you have to negotiate Atwater in two steps: cross two southbound lanes of traffic to the traffic island, then cross one lane of southbound traffic and all the northbound traffic to get to the market side.
Here's how it looks on satellite view:
At the two southbound lanes crossing, the pedestrian street light changes to a walk symbol, then after a suspenseful little pause it quickly counts down 4, 3, 2, 1, then displays a hand. This short crossing time poses a real challenge to disabled people, the elderly, people walking with small children and people burdened with market purchases – categories which, added up, constitute a lot of the pedestrian traffic in this area.
Here's a video view of the traffic lights, looking east:
And another, looking west:
To be fair, the light times out on a stopwatch at just short of ten seconds, so it's a bit more than the four seconds cited by our reader. "Has it always been like this?" I asked her, as we met there on an overcast afternoon. "I've lived near here for eight years now and it's always been the same, counting down from four," she told me, as we crossed toward the market.
I asked whether anyone had gone to the borough about it. "I haven't," she told me, "but I think others may have done so."
In fact Sud-Ouest councillor Véronique Fournier says her borough has approached the central city administration more than once, most recently in 2011. "We're concerned about pedestrian safety around the market," she says, "but also the safety of cyclists and even motorists, because traffic moves so fast there."
Fournier speculated that some of the delay may be because of the STM's intentions to create more dedicated bus lanes radiating out from Lionel-Groulx. "The city is involved, and because this is an approach to the highway it also involves the transport ministry – that's why it has taken so long for any decision to be made in this area. There's a lot of planning to be done."
As we looked on, our reader and I both noted that what many pedestrians do is watch the traffic lights a block north at Notre-Dame and start across the intersection early, before the light changes. "Which is fine until a car turns out of the gas station unexpectedly," she observed, as a truck swerved out of the lot and barrelled south on Atwater.
Local pedestrian and mom Annie stopped and agreed that the crossing is tricky for her and her young son, whom she chivvied across the moment the light changed. But Jean-Claude Roy, who looked to be in his seventies, laughed when I implied his cane might slow him down crossing the street, and indeed he made the far side with a second and a half to spare.
In short, there isn't exactly a four-second traffic light, but there's an extremely brief window for pedestrians at this unusual intersection, and the borough knows it. How long it will take for a réaménagement of traffic flow in the area is anyone's guess.
We'll be following up and providing updates as we get more information.
