A reader writes: The intersection of Acadie and Cremazie has been a nightmare for residents of the city.
“See, only 16, not enough,” says a man in his 50s, pointing to the pedestrian light counting down at the noisy, busy crossing at Acadie and Crémazie.
“At least 25! At least, from there across to the other side, at least need 25!”
The man, carrying a shopping bag, is one of a small group of people who have just gotten off a city bus and are making their way across Acadie. Working people, older people, women with little kids, are crossing over to Park Extension on this snowy February afternoon.
The intersection mentioned by our reader is the pedestrian crossing of Acadie at Crémazie, part of the Acadie Circle, reconstructed most recently over four years between 2000 and 2004.
Crossing this intersection is a slog: first you cross a lane of traffic turning off Crémazie eastbound, then you land on a small traffic island. Then you cross two lanes of traffic coming southbound on Acadie off a bridge over highway 40 – from which drivers can’t see this intersection till they've crested the bridge. Then you land on a second, larger traffic island. After that you cross three lanes of traffic going north on Acadie, one of which curves to join Crémazie eastbound on the Park Ex side.
The traffic circle sits on boundary lines between Montreal’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough, the Villeray-Saint-Michel-Park-Extension borough, and the Town of Mount Royal. The TMR side of the intersection is close to an exit from Rockland Shopping Centre and a busy bus stop (routes 100 and 460). On the Park Ex side there are many apartment buildings lining Acadie.
Cross here and you’re walking over the border between TMR and Montreal, but the intersection is managed by Montreal alone. Asked whether TMR is concerned about the safety of its pedestrians in the area, a spokeswoman said “I don't believe any TMR resident uses that crosswalk as east of Acadie is not a usual destination for our resident pedestrians.”
On the traffic island, Ms. Boghossian, in her 70s, explains that she lives just over on the Park Ex side, and says she feels the crossing is generally safe because the signage is clear, but that it’s more hazardous in winter when the traffic islands become iced up and slippery. Like most pedestrians it takes her two lights to get all the way across.
Her experience is confirmed by an explanation from Montreal city spokeswoman Eve Carle, who says that the timing of the traffic lights is based on the assumption that pedestrians would cross Acadie in two stages. One of the traffic islands is nine meters wide, the other 12 meters wide – three to four times bigger than most islands in the city, Carle emphasizes.
“They are refuges for pedestrian safety,” Carle adds. “If we doubled the pedestrian crossing time at this location, it would cause too much congestion in a key sector.”
Dr. Patrick Morency, a medical specialist who studies dangerous intersections with the city’s public health department, says there are always choices to be made when designing the interface between motorized traffic and pedestrians.
“Where a major artery intersects a highway, the traffic is at high volume and high speed,” Morency says. “But even at places like this, there are ways to change the built environment to calm the traffic down and make the crossings safer for pedestrians.”
Pedestrian risk is a consequence of volume and speed, Morency says, but over the last 50 years the city has usually given priority to motor traffic. “Things are changing in this area – some boroughs are installing traffic calming methods – but with a thousand pedestrians a year injured in traffic accidents in Montreal, there's definitely more that could be done.”
Morency is realistic, though. “When intersections are too dangerous, most people simply find a way to avoid using them.”
Out on the traffic island, Joseph, in his 50s, says he feels the crossing is safer in winter because drivers are more careful. In summertime drivers sometimes fly over the highway bridge at high speed and blow through the red light, making the crossing more dangerous, he explains. “Days like today, everybody is more careful.”
A young man pushing a bike over the highway bridge laughs when asked what he thinks of the intersection. Not a great place for a cyclist, he calls over his shoulder as he pulls the bike out of the path of an oncoming bus and vanishes behind a wall of traffic.
Photo and video also by Kate McDonnell
