The City of Montreal announced new safety measures to reduce speed along Camillien-Houde Way and make Mount Royal safe for all road users.
“What we are proposing today is all about security. How do we make sure there are no more accidents and that everybody has a safe access to the mountain?” Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said at city hall on Wednesday.
In a report released earlier this month, the Office de Consultation Publique de Montréal (OCPM) gave several recommendations to make Camillien-Houde Way and Remembrance Road safer for cars, cyclists and pedestrians, following the city’s pilot project to limit car access on the mountain.
READ MORE: Montreal to permit through traffic on Mount Royal following report
As of mid-June, the city said it will gradually implement the new safety measures, which includes installing vertical posts in the centre to deter motorists from making illegal U-Turns. There will also be speed bumps, larger shoulders and additional radar speed signs.
The narrowest part of the Camillien-Houde — which is a two-way street — will be reduced to a one-way lane with a traffic light so that cars will have to take turns to drive through. The other lane, Plante said, will be reserved for cyclists and pedestrians.
Plante also said she is aware that some Montrealers might be opposed to these measures, but that they will deter drivers from using Camillien-Houde Way as a shortcut through the city.
As part of the plan, Mont-Royal Avenue will be reduced to one lane of traffic at the corner of Camillien-Houde Way. The traffic lights at that intersection will also be longer.
“If people are upset because it doesn’t go fast enough because there’s a light and some speed bumps, well, take another road,” Plante said.
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Opposition leader Lionel Perez said the new plan is necessary, but that it should have been implemented last year.
However, Plante says these are short-term measures and that a long-term plan to make Camillien-House more scenic will be discussed in coming months.
The plan to make Camillien-Houde Way safer for cyclists and pedestrians was prompted by the death of an 18-year-old cyclist in October 2017. Clément Ouimet was killed after he was struck by an SUV making an illegal U-turn on the road.
WATCH: Montreal to allow through traffic on Mount Royal
— With files from Global News’ Kalina Laframboise and Anne Leclair
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