Cavendish Boulevard in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce has been reduced to one lane in either direction.
Over the long weekend, work crews painted a new median at the centre of the popular thoroughfare.
Cavendish Boulevard between Côte Saint Luc Road and Sherbrooke Street has been reconfigured with the aim of reducing speed, according to the borough.
The speed limit has been reduced from 50 to 40 kilometres an hour.
“I’m proud of our efforts to ensure children have a safe and pleasant way to get to school,” borough Mayor Sue Montgomery told Global News in a statement.
“We hope that families will choose walking, cycling and other forms of active transportation to get to school.”
In 2018, the borough council unanimously voted to reduce the speed limit to 30 km/h for all residential streets and 40 km/h for most of the larger arteries.
The borough says the speed reduction on Cavendish Boulevard was not possible due to the width of the lanes, hence the installation of the new painted median.
Some residents who live on the street, like Marie-Louise Mavros, do not approve the lane reduction.
While Mavros says she is happy the borough is trying to reduce the speed of drivers along the boulevard, she says reducing the lane is not the way to do it.
“Speed is an issue on Cavendish, there is no doubt about it,” Mavros said. “(But) it takes me 10 minutes sometimes just to get out of the driveway.”
With only one lane accessible to drivers, she claims traffic will get worse in the area.
It’s a problem that Sherbrooke hair salon owner Jana Memic has seen in the last year after a similar median was put in place along a section of Sherbrooke Street West.
She claims since its installation in October 2019, traffic has been an issue outside her salon.
“It’s very dangerous and it didn’t help. I always worry about my customers,” Memic said.
“I think it created more traffic and people drive very fast.”
New markings and signs on a number of residential streets reminding motorists to slow down have been installed by the borough as students return to school.
“With almost 100 elementary and secondary schools, CEGEPs and universities, the new school year means thousands of students need a safe way to get to school,” Montgomery said.
Since 2019, the borough has invested heavily in traffic calming measures, with the installation of 73 speed bumps, 56 curb extensions and the rebuilding of 38,000 square metres of sidewalk.
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