"What Mayor Boyer is presenting is not a safety plan, it's a traffic sign replacement program!" - Claude Larochelle, interim leader of Parti Laval
Laval, Wednesday, April 26, 2023 - After months of anticipation, the Boyer administration finally presents its plan to improve safety on Laval roads. The main, and almost only, new measure to be put forward: a reduction in the speed limit throughout the territory. A wall-to-wall solution to a complex problem, says Parti Laval interim leader and Fabreville councillor Claude Larochelle: "I'll say it again, if limiting the speed limit to 30 km/h on residential streets were sufficient, the City wouldn't have had to install 700 speed bumps around parks and schools. Even the city's own experts say that lowering the speed limit won't change a thing. Drivers who don't respect the signs will continue to do so. The problem is speeding, not the speed posted on the sign," articulates the outspoken elected official. "The Boyer administration is maintaining the number of speed signs at 20 throughout Laval. Yet this is a concrete and effective measure that has an impact on speed. It is also content to add 100 bollards, which represents less than 5 per district. It's an aberration," he maintains.
A disappointing, out-of-touch plan
"Mayor Boyer's plan is completely out of touch! You only have to look at the statistics and accident data to see that none of the deaths in Laval over the past year have occurred on residential streets. The problem lies on boulevards, major arteries and large public and private parking lots, where there are virtually no facilities for pedestrians. Pedestrian crossings are often obliterated, inconspicuous, little respected or non-existent. Until road signs are adequate, located in the right places and respected, safety won't improve," laments Claude Larochelle.
"The idea of creating a Road Safety Table is interesting on the face of it, but the Boyer administration hasn't even bothered to invite members of civil society to sit on it! Citizens are part of the solution. They are the ones on the ground, experiencing the problems and being victimized by speeding and disregard for traffic signs. We can't afford to shut them out of the discussion, as the mayor's team intends to do. It doesn't make sense to act on human behaviour without taking the individual into account in the equation," points out Marc-Aurèle-Fortin city councillor Louise Lortie.
"Mayor Boyer's proposed plan lacks ambition, doesn't set any objectives, doesn't take the environment into account and completely misses the target of keeping pedestrians, cyclists and motorists safe and sound. There's nothing new here, when what we really needed was a major shake-up," concludes the Fabreville councillor.
Source: Parti Laval Cabinet
Information: Tommy Vallée, Communications Manager | 438 875-8663 | t.vallee@laval.ca