There are few hard and fast rules in the world but one of them is that if you treat people badly they will usually respond in kind and that what you give is usually equal to what you get. These truisms are especially relevant to traffic management and to how people respond predictably badly to bad or inappropriate traffic rules.
In recent years, many of us in Montreal have observed a growing disrespect for traffic regulations with the result that it is now common to see motorists ignoring stop signs and running red lights. Illegal U-turns on major streets are two-a-penny, bicycles on the sidewalk seem more numerous than those on the roads and it is commonplace to see scofflaw motorists blocking intersections and failing to respect the rights of pedestrians.
Sometimes we see improvements in civic behaviour - such as the recently observable increase in general courtesy in the bus and Métro system - and sometimes deteriorations. But, since we have not gone back to living in caves, the positive is obviously predominant. However, there are downward dips on the upward curve and, for the moment at least, respect for traffic regulations in Montreal has obviously gone down.
Could the City of Westmount be to blame ?
Westmount happens to be located in the geographic centre of the island of Montreal and this means that whatever bad habits its motorists learn are readily radiated outwards to influence motorists on the rest of the island and to teach them bad habits by bad example.
Westmount, unfortunately, is the home to several anti-traffic 'traffic safety' initiatives that help to teach dangerous driving skills to its motorists and which seem more designed to discourage through-traffic than at creating optimum traffic and pedestrian conditions within the town. Dangerous and irritating speed bumps are scattered willy-nilly on many streets (especially near Westmount Mountain and on Lansdowne Avenue) forcing motorists to drive much more slowly than the legal speed limits and thus making a mockery of those same limits.
Mid-block stop signs are also common and these of course have the effect of lessening respect for stop signs Stop signs are, after all, designed and almost universally used to separate traffic flows at intersections, and not to pointlessly make vehicles halt for no apparent reason beyond the fun of it. Naturally, the drivers of the vehicles - all of the vehicles - that are required to make pointless mid-block stops quickly lose respect for stop signs and, aided and abetted by frustration, become far more likely to start rolling through intersection stop signs where the real danger lies. And it is a small step from rolling through stop signs to running red lights and really endangering everyone.
In addition, the Westmount imposition of absurdly low 30-kilometre speed limits on various ordinary stretches of street tests the patience and skills of even the most cautious and careful drivers since modern cars are simply not designed to drive so slowly and cannot easily do so over extended distances. In addition, since thirty kilometres an hour is the provincial norm for passing schools and parks the use of the same limit elsewhere lessens its effectiveness when properly used for child-safety purposes. When the use of a speed limit is patently unreasonable drivers conclude that they are not doing wrong when they exceed posted speed limits and become merely concerned with not getting caught.
At the beginning of the railway age in England, when smoke-belching trains began to traverse the countryside, the authorities were afraid that the cows would be scared so, for a while, the speed limit was limited to five miles (eight kilometres) per hour with someone required to go ahead with a warning flag. Impossible speed limits, pointless stop signs and obstructions planted on the road (speed bumps) stem from the same restrictive mentality... a mentality that we should build efficient thoroughfares but that we should try to dissuade anyone from actually using them. A mentality that says that civilised people cannot police themselves and that we need to treat everybody with distrust because nobody can be trusted. A mentality which encourages good drivers to be disrespectful of the rules because the rules are clearly designed for the other, bad drivers.
Motorists who live in and drive through Westmount and other suburbs with similar restrictions quickly learn and apply the first step to dangerous driving when they let off their 'speed bump frustration' by driving more recklessly once the pointless obstructions and unreasonable delays are passed.
Internationally, there are many recognized, intelligent and safe ways, especially mid-block road narrowing, that encourage and require motorists to respect posted speed limits and which thus achieve greater pedestrian safety. Since the roads must be shared, road safety is based on mutual respect between cars and pedestrians and on regulations which allow both groups to circulate as efficiently as possible.
The police cannot be on every corner, and neither should they be, and it is the controlling, boring, influence of the good drivers that is most instrumental in controlling the bad. Bad drivers, for instance, may want to drive at 100-km per hour on residential streets and to run stop signs and red lights but they simply cannot if the vehicles in front of them are respecting the speed rules and stopping when required. Encouraging and respecting the good drivers is the most effective form of controlling the bad.
Westmount and other suburbs applying ‘don't drive on our streets' policies may not be entirely to blame for bad driving habits on Montreal island but they do discourage respect for the rules and thus have a lot to answer for. If you think that your municipality has unreasonable traffic control measure or is thinking of applying them, get in touch with your elected representatives and share your thoughts. And drive safely.
Jeremy Searle
Jeremy Searle is a long-time promoter of safe driving and pedestrian safety. From 2002 – 2004, as president of the City of Montreal Transport Commission (created at his request) he promoted this agenda , and still does. His 2002 crosswalk safety initiative earned the AQTR annual road safety prize and he has a lifetime perfect driving record
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