Traffic calming versus fire protection debate

Devil's Hill residents ask fire department to re-evaluate

The West-End Times
Read the letter presented to SIM by Devil's Hill residents HERE

Traffic-calming tactics hit speed bump as fire department weighs in

Concern over delayed response; 'First responders - it's life and death,' Applebaum says to explain new bylaw

BY ANNE SUTHERLAND, THE GAZETTE OCTOBER 22, 2011

City hall announced Friday it will impose new requirements for boroughs looking to implement traffic-calming measures after Fire Chief Serge Tremblay sounded the alarm about delays in response times.

Executive-committee chairman Michael Applebaum said the proliferation of speed bumps, bollards and stop signs on residential streets, while motivated by concerns over safety for residents and pedestrians, has become a hazard of a different sort.

Applebaum singled out Plateau Mont Royal and Rosemont-La Petite Patrie. Every time a fire truck has to stop to navigate a bump or avoid a planter, it adds to the precious time it takes to respond to an emergency. And not knowing where those bumps are can damage expensive vehicles.

"A speed bump delays the fire department by approximately 10 seconds," Applebaum said. "If you have four speed bumps on one street, it delays the fire department by 40 seconds - minimum."

Every second counts when a building is on fire or someone is having a heart attack. "First responders - it's life and death," Applebaum said.

Until now, boroughs have had the power to implement lower speed limits, new stop signs, speed bumps, bollards, narrower lanes, wider curbs and street directions - often at the behest of residents who gather signatures on petitions.

But the executive committee has decided boroughs must now get the fire department or a central city engineer to sign off on traffic calming propositions before instituting the change.

While some were doing this already, others were not, Applebaum said.

"I really don't understand what they are talking about," retorted Rosemont-La Petite Patrie mayor François Croteau. "We have a (traffic) committee that works with the fire department, that checks with them when we put in speed bumps.

"I'm shocked and surprised to hear this, because it's all false.

"The speed bumps we put in are near schools and parks and it will be difficult to work with the city because they obviously don't want speed bumps.

"I guess when citizens ask me for a speed bump I will have to tell them that the mayor of Montreal thinks it's more important for a big truck than it is for the children."

Louise Tremblay, spokesperson for the Montreal Fire Department, said the goal of the new edict is co-ordination and collaboration between boroughs and emergency services.

"We've invested money to improve our response times and some of these calming measures are now augmenting those times," Tremblay said.

Richard Bergeron, borough councillor for the Plateau and leader of the opposition Projet Montréal, had a simple explanation for the new resolution.

"This is an anti-Ferrandez measure to block all initiatives in the central quarter by boroughs that are not Union Montreal," Bergeron said in reference to Plateau mayor Luc Ferrandez of Projet Montréal.

"The Plateau works with the ambulances and fire trucks but the arterial roads, like Sherbrooke St., where the trucks and ambulances go 90 per cent of the time, have no speed bumps.

"This is nothing more than a direct frontal attack on the elected members who are not Union Montreal."

The executive-committee resolution is to be voted on by city council Monday.

Fire chief gets rough ride over traffic calming

26 Oct 2011, The Gazette
JAMES MENNIE THE GAZETTE

Day-long discussion fails to resolve whether measures present safety hurdle.

A proposed bylaw that would give Montreal’s fire department a say in how local streets are subjected to traffic-calming measures sparked a day of debate at city council that saw Montreal fire chief Serge Tremblay given a rough ride by opposition councillors.

Projet Montréal leader Richard Bergeron, who has already dismissed the bylaw as a “frontal attack” by the administration of Mayor Gérald Tremblay on his party’s traffic policies in Plateau Mont Royal, was particularly skeptical of the arguments against speed bumps raised by the fire chief.

Referring to a study cited by the chief that found speed bump related delays to emergency vehicles would result in 85 deaths compared with one life being saved because of reduced speeds, Bergeron noted that study was conducted in Denver, Colo.

“Denver is a city that has one of the highest rates of automobile ownership – 1,100 vehicles for 1,000 inhabitants – more than one car per inhabitant, and that includes babies and grandfathers,” he said.

Bergeron added fire chief Tremblay had already told the council that to his knowledge, no ill consequences had occurred in Montreal because of speed bump related delays to emergency vehicles.

Tremblay told the council that 25 firefighters had sustained injuries related to travelling over speed bumps, three of them requiring more than 1,000 hours off work.

He was less specific, however, on the wear and tear sustained by the city’s fleet of fire engines, citing an assessment from an official in the vehicle maintenance department that described the speed reduction obstacles as contributing to the deterioration of fire department vehicles.

The fact the bylaw would apply only to Montreal and not the suburbs was also a sore point for some councillors.

Plateau Mont Royal borough mayor Luc Ferrandez said Tremblay had told city of Montreal manager Louis Roquet that “traffic calming is good for the West Island, but things have to move in the downtown neighbourhoods.”

“But it’s in those downtown neighbourhoods where accidents (involving pedestrians) are occurring,” said Ferrandez.

Tremblay replied that his remarks to Roquet referred to the width of the West Island’s streets, as opposed to the problems speed bumps would create in the narrower streets in Ville Marie and Ferrandez’s borough.

Lachine borough mayor Claude Dauphin wondered how it was the city of Montreal West was able to block off a street he said his residents might need to use as an evacuation route, even though Montreal’s fire department, which serves all island municipalities, had opposed the plan.

“It’s clear we’re going to have a double standard here,” Dauphin said.

Tremblay said he hoped to meet with suburban mayors and convince them to consider his department’s needs when applying traffic calming measures to their streets.

The proposed bylaw has been referred to the city’s executive committee for further study.

contributor's note: The the double standard referred to by Mayor Dauphin is that under this bylaw, within Montreal's boroughs, the fire department (SIM) would be able veto traffic-calming measures  based on safety concerns. But the independent towns (i.e. Montreal West), which share the same fire protection services as Montreal, could ignore fire department recommendations (as Montreal West blatantly did regarding the Broughton/des Erables barricade). Let's hope that common sense and concerns for public safety prevail over ideology!

School Bus Service Cancelled in Devil's Hill; Abuse of Power by Montreal West?

West End Times, Sept. 17, 2011 

Where is the outrage?

Re: Letter to the Editor — The Gazette July 16, 2011


Sir:

A letter from a Montreal West resident on July 16 describes it ‘an outrage’ that adjacent Lachine rented part of Rene Levesque Park for an all terrain vehicle (ATV) event there. He claims that this chased away joggers and red-winged blackbirds. While sympathetic to the author’s arguments, I suggest he begin by questioning the antics of his own municipal government.

In 2010 Montreal West arbitrarily erected a traffic barrier that cut off a 100-year-old road access for Lachine residents, leaving them only one road access (a 13 percent hill) to the rest of the world. The Montreal fire department (SIM) studied the question before listing five reasons why the barrier should never be built—including that this barrier impedes the emergency evacuation corridor for 1,000 people who live next to train tracks where toxic cargo is routinely carried--but Montreal West ignored that advice. Montreal West similarly ignores two traffic studies and communication from the police department which all describe the barrier as dangerous and/or unnecessary.

The ATVs have now left Rene Levesque Park; joggers and birds have now happily reclaimed their territory. Meanwhile, Montreal West insists that the traffic barrier is permanent and steadfastly continues to ignore all evidence or open any dialogue on the question. This means Lachine residents are nervous every time they hear a freight train rumble by.  

Yours truly,

John Symon

111 Rosewood

Lachine

Lachine residents file complaint with Quebec Press Council

Misleading remarks in Montreal West’s The Informer;

Residents of Lachine’s Hillcrest-Pominville neighbourhood have filed a complaint with the Quebec Press Council regarding an article in Montreal West’s The Informer about the Broughton Rd traffic barricade erected in October 2010. They feel the article is very misleading about a major matter of public security. The Quebec Press Council defends freedom of the press and the public’s right to quality reporting.

“We realize that The Informer simply quoted Mayor Beny Masella in the minutes of the August 23 council meeting,” notes Hillcrest resident John Symon. “But Mr Masella’s remarks were misleading and this fact has been clearly pointed out to the editor at The Informer. Many people reading The Informer article came to the false conclusion that the fire department and police department did not object to the barricade. In reality, the police department called the barricade ‘unsafe’ and the fire department strongly recommended against erected the barricade. Informer readers need to know this.”

Devil's Hill Community Meeting!!

There will be a Community Meeting to discuss a variety of topics on Wednesday, March 23, 2011 at 7:30 p.m.

Please call John Symon at 514-485-5795 for information on where the meeting will be held.

SCOTTY’S REAL DVD RELEASE AND ON CBC TV TOO – PARTY! Comedy Nest – Tuesday, March 15

Tuesday, March 15,  2010 – Montreal native Scott Faulconbridge celebrates the real release of  his DVD “Nice Shoes” with a free half hour of stand up and improv,  the story of how the first release was botched by the forces of evil and an opportunity to view the first time airing of Scott’s Winnipeg Comedy Festival appearance on CBC TV. 

READ ALL ABOUT IT!!
http://bit.ly/gGy7c5

Feb. 3, 2011 School Bus Crash: The West End Times article

                                             http://bit.ly/fdi8wh

School Bus loses control descending Devil's Hill during Feb. 3rd snow storm

Lachine residents deserve a safe access in and out of their neighbourhood

I was surprised by Campbell Stuart’s op-ed piece, published in The Gazette on December 17th.

My understanding is that Lachine residents simply want a safe access in and out of their neighbourhood.

I am aware that Campbell Stuart has another point of view on this issue but I think it is important to correct some of the facts exposed in his letter.

First, Mr. Stuart was not there when, in 2002, I sat down with Robert Libman, then President of the Borough of Montreal West-Hampstead -Cote St. Luc, to discuss the traffic issues that had been brought to his attention by citizens of his borough and try to find a joint solution.

Acting as a good neighbour, Lachine, even if not convinced at the time that there was really a problem there, agreed to institute a number of traffic calming measures on its side with the hope that it would help the situation in general.

In reality, Lachine never admitted that there was too much dangerous traffic there. In fact, all the studies conducted in the area over the years showed that the traffic flow on Broughton Road/ des Érables Street was minimal compared to that found on many other streets.

I would also like to rectify the fact that Lachine never broke the 2002 agreement by taking the signage down, as mentioned by Mr. Stuart. It was in fact Montreal West that withdrew from the agreement, perhaps because some of its citizens started putting a lot of pressure on the council members to adopt a more radical stance on the issue.

Finally, I am also questioning Mr. Stuart’s interpretation on the emergency services response to the barricade built by Montreal West. My understanding of Urgences Santé’s position is that they never expressed themselves and refused to take part into the debate. As with the Fire and Police Departments, they clearly expressed their discomfort with the construction of such structure by issuing written recommendations against this barricade. This issue has nothing to do with a conflict between cars and humans; it is simply the result of a municipality’s inability to take into consideration its neighbours’ reality.

Claude Dauphin

Lachine Borough Mayor

Lachine Mayor Claude Dauphin Responds to Campbell Stuart's Gazette Editorial

Mayor Dauphin responds to Campbell Stuart's Gazette December editorial in this week's West End Times, claiming the Gazette piece was "99% false." Read the full story on p. 7 at http://bit.ly/h9KFmQ

In response to Campbell Stuart’s op-ed on December 17

Dear Sir: 

In response to Campbell Stuart’s op-ed on December 17 (“Montreal West's side of barrier dispute”) regarding the Broughton road barricade dispute on the border of Lachine’s Hillcrest neighbourhood, some important facts must be put right.