The city of Montreal has thrown its support behind restrictions on trucks in order to make life safer for cyclists and pedestrians on the roads.
“There’s no price on safety,” said the city’s spokesman on cycling, Marc-André Gadoury. “We’re aiming for zero deaths from collisions, and the ones that are occurring still are mainly caused by trucks.”
Montreal wants big trucks to be banned from areas with a lot of people walking and biking. It also wants to restrict deliver hours, so big trucks aren’t around when a lot of pedestrians are out.
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The Quebec Trucking Association says restricting trucks and delivery times will cost them money, and in turn, will cost Montrealers money.
“We all have to understand that at the end, the consumer will be paying for that. Any cost of transport operation increases will resume into an increase of the cost of goods in Montreal,” said the Association’s CEO Marc Cadieux.
Cadieux said if they’re forced to use smaller trucks, that will mean more trucks. He also told Global News delivery hours are already restricted severely.
The city is taking his concerns into account.
“We don’t want to impair economic development, that’s why we’re talking about phasing out, bit by bit, the trucks that are least safe,” said Gadoury.
The city already has lateral bars on all its trucks, now it also wants that safety measure on trucks belonging to contractors hired by the city.
There is no specific timeline to implement the new rules. The city is in the studying and planning phase.
The trucking industry hopes the rules change before they’re implemented.
“We’re going to discuss with the city of Montreal. We’re going to try to find a solution,” Cadieux said.
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