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!
