The average number of pedestrian fatalities per year increased by 22.7 per cent in 2022 compared to the 2017-2021 average. According to the 2022 annual report from the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal (SPVM), of the estimated 952 pedestrian collisions in the city, 20 resulted in pedestrian fatalities. This year, transport minister Geneviève Guilbault announced Quebec’s plan to hammer down on road accidents: The long-overdue launch of a five-year road safety plan that pushes firmer regulations and penalties for Quebec drivers. Though Montreal has adopted a more serious attitude toward road safety over the last few months with the implementation of projects like the SPVM’s pedestrian safety campaign, sidewalkers may not be able to count on the efficacy and enforcement of these new initiatives.
Children and older adults are not the only pedestrians at risk from reckless driving. As the cheapest mode of travel, walking is widespread among university students. If drivers’ callous attitudes toward the painted-yellow crosswalk on McGill’s campus, next to the intersection of rue Prince-Arthur and rue University, set an example, the future of road safety in Montreal looks bleaker by the minute. Very few drivers on this street seem to know or care about the province’s stricter rules and regulations around pedestrian safety. To use a crosswalk, pedestrians must summon the confidence to start walking without hesitation into oncoming traffic, hoping that drivers care enough about damage to their cars to stop.
The SPVM’s recently launched pedestrian safety campaign involved a shocking advertisement intended to remind drivers to slow down at pedestrian crossings, though its efficacy is dubious. A paneled truck placed in the Vieux-Rosemont neighbourhood displayed a woman sprawled out on a crosswalk—implying that she had been hit by a vehicle. While residents have been pushing for concern for pedestrian safety, shock ads have a rather short lifespan; they become easier to ignore once people are accustomed to them. Considering the uncertain long-term success of such advertisements and the city’s late reaction in halting pedestrian fatalities, this campaign unwisely uses the money allocated toward Montreal’s road safety.
Beyond their advertising Quebec’s plan dubiously increases fines, surveillance, and regulations. But the city and province’s responses come only after immense outcry and grief from residents. The province unveiled its new initiatives many months after the uptick in tragic pedestrian fatalities, such as the hit-and-run incident of 7-year-old Mariia Lehenkovska. It also comes after months of frustrated protests and pleas from parents and pedestrian advocacy groups such as Piétons Québec. This seemingly diligent approach, after so many months of pain and advocacy, tastes bittersweet. Besides this long-delayed response, what use are fines without the consistent presence of traffic police and road-safety technology to enforce them?
Though a part of Quebec’s road safety plan includes the installment of more photo radars on the province’s roads, it does not specify how many. This is particularly concerning given there are only 12 photo radars currently listed in the region of Montreal. Perhaps money allocated toward shock ads would be more effectively put to use by providing Montreal’s streets with more frequent traffic monitors and road-safety technology.
Nonetheless, the presence of additional traffic officers might just increase civilian distress. Rather than ensuring the safety of pedestrians, more patrols will add to racial surveillance in Montreal. According to one report, police stop Indigenous women 11 times more than their white counterparts. Even if the government and local police addressed the lack of enforcement, they do not enforce without prejudice and undue violence. Reckless driving must not simply be swapped out for another, just-as-deadly epidemic.
Montreal needs to provide more concrete and preemptive solutions, such as speed bumps and raised sidewalks in its high traffic areas, and needs to stop turning to surveillance tactics that disproportionately harm marginalized groups. Until then, Montreal’s busiest streets will remain hazardous for pedestrians.
