Montreal expands student safety program to 32 schools, 5 parks

“Safer for everyone” says Sandrine Cabana-Degani, executive director of Piétons Québec, as the city of Montreal is expanding its student safety program. Swidda Rassy reports.

By News Staff

Posted September 4, 2024 11:31 am.

Last Updated September 4, 2024 7:11 pm.

The City of Montreal is continuing to implement measures this year to make school zones and parks safer for young people.

Montreal says 32 high schools, elementary schools and daycares, as well as five parks – across 10 boroughs – will share $14 million in 2024 as part of the Programme de sécurisation aux abords des écoles (PSAÉ).

Those measures can include widening sidewalks, building speed bumps, improving visibility at intersections, ensuring speed limits are obeyed, reducing car traffic, and increasing safety at pedestrian crossings.

Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante says the safety measures are being implemented with Mariia Legenkovska in mind, the seven-year-old who was hit by a vehicle while walking to school with her siblings on Dec. 13, 2022.

“There’s a little girl Mariia that was killed by a driver here by a car, and so we’ve put measures like changing he direction of streets, making speed bumps, a lot of things have been done. So we feel like we’re ready for the next step,” Plante said.

One of those next steps is a pilot project that will see streets near certain schools fully shut down to vehicle traffic twice a day for 30 minutes – when students arrive at school in the morning, and again when they leave in the afternoon — six times between now and the end of the calendar year.

As soon as this Friday, sections of De Rouen Street in the Ville-Marie borough — near École Jean Baptiste Meilleur where Mariia was struck — will be closed during those hours.

“What we want with this initiative is to make sure the project fits the neighbourhood,” said Sophie Mauzerolle, head of transport and mobility on Montreal’s executive committee. “This is why we’re starting slow. We want to make sure parents, police officers, everybody that is involved knows how it works.”

The city says more than 11,000 additional students will benefit from the additions around their schools or play areas.

*Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante at a press conference on school and park safety on Sept. 4, 2024. (Swidda Rassy, CityNews)*

Sandrine Cabana-Degani with Piétons Quebec says their organization is “really happy” the city is going forward with those initiatives, but she wants to see more.

“Advanced sidewalk and curb extension and raised intersection – all those infrastructures can really help make pedestrians safer,” Cabana-Degani told CityNews.

“Making neighbourhoods safer for pedestrians is making them safer for everyone. We’re all pedestrians at a time.”

The schools and parks targeted this year are in these 10 boroughs: Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Le Sud-Ouest, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Montréal-Nord, Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, Saint-Laurent, Verdun, Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, and Ville-Marie.

Since launching in 2019, the PSAÉ has introduced increased safety measures to 121 schools, seven daycares, and seven parks.

Since the beginning of this year up until July 13, Montreal police data show nine pedestrians have been killed by a vehicle. At the same time last year, that number was at 15.

“Our administration has made travel safety a priority, particularly with the school safety program that we launched five years ago,” Plante said. “Since then, the travel of more than 50,000 students has been safe throughout Montreal, and we will continue to accelerate the pace. Quality of life in neighbourhoods is a signature of Montreal, and it depends largely on travel safety.

“The population is increasingly demanding measures to ensure safe travel, and we are proud to be there by increasing the number of pedestrian crossings, speed bumps and traffic lights with pedestrian priority in all of Montreal’s neighbourhoods.”

Plante pointed the finger at the Quebec government for not adding enough photo radars in the city.

“The city asked the Government of Quebec to add nearly 300 of these devices to Montreal and to allow it to determine their location. Currently, the metropolis only has eight photo radars across its entire territory. Photo radars would reduce accidents by 42 per cent on the roads where they are installed.

“To date, the Government of Quebec has only agreed to the addition of 250 photo radars throughout Quebec over the next four years. The City of Montreal considers these additions to be largely insufficient to meet the growing needs in the metropolis.”

CityNews reached out to Quebec’s Ministry of Transportation for comment but did not immediately hear back.

Meanwhile the Opposition in Montreal says it’s “deplorable” that Plante’s safety strategy does not include schools along arterial roads — high-volume roads with more cars and higher speeds.

“Our party had also requested in August 2023 that the planning criteria for developments be reviewed so that schools located on arterial roads benefit from the Programme de sécurisation aux abords des écoles,” said Alba Zúñiga Ramos, the spokesperson for transportation and youth portfolios with Ensemble Montréal. “We are disappointed to see that this request is once again ignored by the Plante administration despite the multiple accidents recorded in recent years.”

Here’s the full list of schools and parks getting safety upgrades this year:

Ahuntsic-Cartierville