Lauren McIntosh got a $127 notice that traffic lights had changed along the de Maisonneuve bike path, as recently, police issued her a fine for burning a stoplight at the intersection of Union Street.
“I can see the reason because de Maisonneuve is very dangerous,” she told Global News. “But I didn’t know it was there… there really could have been something else.”
According to traffic attorney Avi Levy, the city has a responsibility to warn cyclists as the signals along a road or bike path change. “If that wasn’t in fact done, then it does open the door to a defence,” he said.
But city spokesperson Audrey Gauthier wrote Global News that the city isn’t obligated to put up notices of a simple modification of a light, and that the new lights have been on the street since Aug. 24.
Nonetheless, Gauthier added, the city is examining the possibility of putting up signs warning cyclists of the new lights.
But some cyclists, like Geneviève Albert, told Global News the lights do more harm than good. “I just have the impression that the people who make these decisions do not use a bicycle in their daily lives,” she said.