Boulevard residents push for another light

A high-speed car accident on Tuesday afternoon last week was the last straw for Michaeleen O'Connor and Audrey Juras, two home owners on the heavily-traveled artery.

The vehicle was heading eastward, when the driver lost control, veered to the right and slammed into the foundation of a home on The Boulevard's south side.

Although the driver later claimed her brakes malfunctioned, the posted speed limit varies from 30 to 40 km/h along The Boulevard, and the car "was travelling way too fast," O'Connor insisted. Juras recalls being told by a fireman on the scene that it was the third vehicle in a month to jump the sidewalk.

She said cars parked outside homes on The Boulevard get sideswiped so often that most residents know by now not to park on the street. "Less than a year ago, someone plowed right into my in-laws' parked car," she said.

While describing as "outstanding" the work Station 12 traffic and circulation officer Steven Goldberg has been accomplishing, ticketing speeders on The Boulevard over the past few years, O'Connor maintains it's still not enough.

She says the problem is that a series of traffic lights on The Boulevard is coordinated in such a way as to encourage drivers to speed up so they can get through before the signals turn red.

As a result, she estimates most cars travel along doing 70 to 80 km/h. "If there were something that made them stop, there'd be no point," she said, referring to the proposal for an extra traffic light.

O'Connor decided the time had come to act two years ago, when her family's puppy was run over and killed after venturing out onto the street. Juras, who witnessed the accident, gathered a petition, which she submitted to Mayor Karin Marks.

Although police radar operations were increased, "that only slows it down temporarily," O'Connor insists. But there are limits to the traffic calming measures that can be implemented. Since The Boulevard is an emergency services route and a megacity arterial street, Westmount can't put in speed humps or install obstacles, such as large concrete planters, to narrow the road's width.

An alternative Juras thinks ought to be considered is painting virtual medians onto the road surface, narrowing traffic towards the centre and putting some distance between the sidewalks and the high-speed traffic.

According to Const. Adalbert Pimentel at Station 12 in Westmount, radar operations conducted over the last few years on The Boulevard have helped deal with the speeding situation, although the problem persists. "It's a quick access from one side of the city to the other, so there aren't many lights," he said.

"It's a major route for people going downtown and heading west," City Councillor John de Castell, who chairs the committee responsible for community safety. De Castell said a good deal of study has gone into the configuration of the lights on The Boulevard, with control of speed being the most important consideration.

"But there are people who will exceed any limits where that's concerned, and unfortunately it only takes one to cause a tragedy," he said. "I think, on the whole, Westmounters are pretty respectful of the traffic regulations. The trouble is that that traffic is usually not emanating from Westmount.

"It's usually through traffic, and those are people whose minds are fixed on getting to work or getting to their destination as quickly as humanly possible and often without regard for their own safety or the safety of the community they're travelling through. That's just something that we all have to contend with."