Montreal just renovated the street in front of a school in Plateau-Mont-Royal to secure the site, slow through traffic on residential streets and create more space for schoolchildren – a project that could make a splash in the coming years.
Posted at 5:49 p.m.
The nearly 400 children at Paul Bruchési Elementary School now have access to a classroom in front of their school, one of the first permanently secure facilities of its kind in Montreal and the first in the Plateau-Mont district. -Royal.
“This has been a wish of the school management for several years, as the schoolyard is too small, and we are happy to be able to implement it today,” explains Marianne Giguère, city school advisor for the De Lorimier district and deputy advisor to the Executive Committee of the City of Montreal .
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
The school square, created by the development company l’Arpent, occupies the section of Rue de Lanaudière, which lies between Rue Gilford to the south and Boulevard Saint-Joseph to the north. Eight large pews and three picnic tables were set up along the square, as well as several stalls with children’s drawings. Colorful motifs were created on the floor based on children’s drawings.
The site is cleared of snow in winter and a gap of 3.5 meters has been left between the large concrete containers that demarcate the area to allow emergency vehicles to pass through.
Next year, urban farming containers will be installed so children can grow vegetables there. The community organization Maison d’Aurore, whose premises border on the square, is taking part in the project.
“We also want to preserve the sense of space of the place. And even that the children can take part in activities with their teacher,” says Ms. Giguère.
To implement the project, the movement of motorized vehicles was prohibited on this section. The drop-off point used by school buses is on the other side of the facility, on Rue Chambord, and is not affected. A new pier was also built on Rue Garnier, not far from the school.
“Most of the children in the neighborhood come on foot, and the street is between the school and the Saint-Stanislas-de-Kostka church and was not very busy,” says Marianne Giguère. It might have been more complicated if there had been condos or shops here, for example, but that’s not the case. »
Ms. Giguère hopes other schools elsewhere in Montreal can benefit from such agreements.
“It’s not something we’re going to force. It has to come from the community, people have to ask for it and get involved in the project,” she says.
Eight bad behaviors per minute
This is all because the behavior of many drivers near schools in the province continues to worry authorities.
On Thursday, CAA-Quebec held a “school zone observation,” as it has done for several years. A total of nine schools across the province in Montreal, Quebec, Mauricie, Centre-du-Québec and Chaudière-Appalaches were monitored at the beginning of the school year.
Result: A total of 425 “risky or prohibited” behaviors were observed in 45 minutes, which equates to almost eight bad behaviors per minute, we read in a report from the organization.
Of these 425 risky behaviors, more than half of the violations (214) were related to drivers speeding “in front of and within school zones,” “despite good signage and flashing 30 km/h posters.”
83% of the problem behavior identified, namely 352, can also be traced back to drivers. The rest were committed by pedestrians, cyclists or scooter riders (48), parents near schools (25) or even school bus drivers (23).
“We saw people doing a U-turn in front of the school or even dumping kids in the middle of the lane with their four turn signals on by opening the driver’s door. It’s very dangerous. There were also motorists who did not respect the school bus sign,” CAA spokesman David Marcille told La Presse.
In his opinion, this data “does not prove that there is still much to be done in the field of road safety to make users aware of the need to be vigilant in school areas, but also throughout the road network.”
In addition to speed, non-observance of traffic signs, intersection attendant instructions and priority was also observed on several occasions, as well as non-use of indicators, use of mobile phones while driving or even non-observance of traffic signs. – wear a seat belt. “There is clearly a responsibility that must be taken individually. And this concerns all users,” concludes Mr. Marcille.