MONTREAL – A new bus lane planned for Sherbrooke Street has residents extremely worried that pedestrian safety in west of the city will go from bad to worse.
“We fear there is going to be a serious accident here before anything gets done about it,” said Karen Urtnowski, of the NDG Senior Citizens Council.
She points to the intersection of Wilson and Sherbrooke as an example of where the timing set to use a crosswalk timing is just too short.
Children and the elderly have trouble getting across Sherbrooke Street in the time the signal gives them, she said.
“It has been a problem for years and years, however we expect it to be more of a problem now,” she said.
The new bus lanes are scheduled to be implemented in about a month on the western part of Sherbrooke street. Parking lanes facing eastward in the morning rush hours and westward in the evening will be replaced by a dedicated bus lane.
“The time for a pedestrian isn’t long enough, especially someone like me, and there are a lot of old codgers like me out there,” said Lois Gamble, a walker from Hampstead.
It is something residents worry will worsen an already bad situation.
“I think it’s a legitimate concern, I mean the bus lane is one extra lane of moving traffic, so it’s a little bit further to cross to get safe,” said Peter McQueen, a city councillor who represents eastern NDG.
McQueen said that he hopes to extend the time of the signals across Sherbrooke to 25 seconds before the bus lanes are put in place, and certainly before the beginning of school in August.
“It’s the consensus in our community,” he said.
“The lights on Sherbrooke Street have to be made safer.”
Comments