Avez-vous déjà fait un signalement au 911 pour rage au volant? Savez-vous si la personne signalée a bien été punie ou c’est une inconnue totale?
Over the last few months, I decided to see if I could redesign the intersections of Galt / LaSalle, de l’Église / LaSalle, and de l’Église / Gatétan-Laberge. I find the layout currently is fine, but doesn’t take into account the pedestrian, bike and bus routes of today.
Previous Layouts
I went through historic vue aérienne photos, and here are the changes, starting in 1947, followed by 1961, 1977, 1985, 1990, 1998, and 2002:Essentially, the roundabout in front of the auditorium developed into the median, and Galt removed its connection to what is now Gatétan-Laberge.
Current Layout
The area currently has a few issues:- No sidewalk on east side of Galt towards the beach/park
- Long traffic light cycles, takes a long time to cross
- Extremely long crosswalk on Gatétan-Laberge (over 45 metres!!), and only a stop sign despite large intersection (generally okay, but the stop lines are so far away it’s hard to negotiate)
- No greening along LaSalle
- No protected bike path on Galt and De l’Église, cars regularly use it as a turn lane
- Most ramps are not ADA compatible/wheelchair accessible
- North mixed-use path ends at Galt with no ramp, no crosswalk
- Small sidewalk along expanded hospital
The bus routes are also a bit complex currently, with lots of turns and extra asphalt needed to allow these turns:
My Redesign
I focused on trying to get of the main issues:- Sidewalk on east side of Galt towards the beach/park, by removing parking on the west side (instead of cutting trees/removing green space)
- Allows for scramble pedestrian/bike signals
- Shorted crosswalk on Gatétan-Laberge (with refuge islands), and raised intersections similar to further east on GL
- Added greening along LaSalle with median to prevent left turns from the St-Hubert
- Added protected bike path on Galt and de l’Église, on left side to avoid crossing bus stops (similar to St-Jacques)
- All ramps made ADA compatible/wheelchair accessible, including parking spots at the auditorium
- North mixed-use path connects to Galt and de l’Église bike paths, and connects west of auditorium to the path on the other side
- Large new space for public plaza beside hospital
- Curb-cut driveways, instead of sidewalks that move down at every driveway
The bus routes would be more direct, with the stops relatively at the same place too:
Before and After Comparisons
Here are the images together, so you can easily see the differences clicking back and forth:
@ScarletCoral sais-tu s’il y a un plan pour bonifier cet aménagement devant le château Saint-Ambroise? Je le trouve plus dangereux que rassurant car les piétons sur le point de traverser sont souvent cachés par les véhicules stationnés.
En plus, la signalisation est loooooin de la route quand elle ne se fait pas massacrer par le déneigement.
Il y a un aménagement similaire sur Saint-Patrick en face du Nordelec qui fonctionne bien mieux.
Nous venons juste de réviser les projets 2025 de sécurisation cette semaine avec les fonctionnaires. Il n’y a pas d’intervention prévue sur la rue Saint-Amboise
Il faudrait faire une demande au 311,
Un aménagement possible serait de déplacer les panneaux de signalisation sur la chaussée, comme sur l’avenue du Parc-La Fontaine/rue Roy sur le Plateau
D’ailleurs, ce sera fait pour la traverse piétonne sur la rue Charlevoix/Sainte-Cunégonde
Merci!
Le concept de s’inspirer d’une neige fraichement tombée est relativement nouveau. Ça s’appelle le «sneckdown» ou en français «améneigement». Tes photos en sont de superbes exemples.
C’est dans la même veine que les lignes de désir et ces idées me fascinent depuis longtemps. Même si ce ne sont pas des sciences, elles traduisent très bien l’espace excédant laissé à la voiture qui peut être détourné pour des saillies vertes ou des espaces sécuritaires pour piétons.
Streetfilms montre des applications de ce concept à New York. À Verdun, les intersections des rues Brown et Mannings avec le boulevard Champlain semblent s’être inspirées de la neige avec des saillies temporaires à l’essai.
I shared this before but I wish these types of developments included paint on the asphalt, not just white lines, to have a visual of the street actually getting smaller. Adding blocks too, all transitional until it’s redone to be safer, would help a lot
That’s excellent work.
For years, I worked at the Verdun Borough, this intersection was set to be redesigned. But then it was decided to wait for the Auditorium to be redone, then to wait for the new Hospital pavilon. If it did not change again, I think it would be redone around 2027-28, at the same time as the LaSalle blvd.
@Begratto might know.
Nonetheless, great redesign work! In my opinon, though, there should be a bidirectionnal bikelane on De l’Eglise all the way from Gaetan Laberge to La Vérendrye.
C’est le cas oui. On parle de s’inspirer du sneckdown à Verdun pour ce genre de chose depuis 2017-18, mais la pose de bollard s’est accélérée après 2021.
Effectivement, il est prévu que ce secteur sera revu en même temps que la réfection majeure du boulevard Lasalle.
@mashdash , super proposition, merci de l’avoir partagée! Je vais même la partager avec nos professionnels de l’urbanisme, pour inspiration future
Dommage qu’on remarque de plus en plus ce genre d’accrochage par les déneigeurs. Ces panneaux de signalisation ne sont malheureusement pas remis en place promptement, diminuant le pari de sécurisation des intersections et des rues.
Montreal should receive a road layout like on less major roads, like on rue de Verdun or rue Bannantyne, where traffic has to yield to oncoming traffic. It requires more focus when driving:
It already is allowed according to the highway standards, although only mentions it being used in construction sites:
I agree with the idea. However, I don’t see it happening because this is reducing throughput just for the sake of it, when the current philosophy of road design is to remove as much as possible in the way of cars in order to “solve congestion”.
While this is one tool in a toolbox of a road design engineer, I think creating meanders instead of a straight road is preferable, which can accomplish much of the same while also reducing the perception of “a long, straight stretch of road” making one want to go faster (you might even have posted about it some time back if I recall correctly!).
The drivers here would never respect priority and just run into each other.
Do you drive? The way a majority of drivers in our region act on the road, this would be a nightmare. Not many drivers are courtious, patient and skilled to go thru such a stretch of road.
That grey car on the botton going towards the right, would have push thru after the truck. This is just calling for head-on collisions
Well when everything is designed for cars then that’s inevitable, it’s a learning curve for everyone. In the UK this sort of thing is normal under tight structures and to slow traffic, I don’t see why it can’t be done here, people have adapted to bike lanes mostly, people should adapt to other calming measures too
Yes, back to driving school for everyone. That would be a great decision.
Look, I’m just sharing an idea for traffic calming that’s done in Europe. The video I’m showing is in the US, not Europe, closer to Montreal, I’m just showing we could adapt something like that as a traffic calming measure. It’s nothing more, not that serious
Also I don’t see what’s wrong having required driving tests later in life. In Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland they require driving tests in regular intervals once you reach 70, the same should be true here in my opinion
Je ne sais pas, ça ne me semblerait pas une si mauvaise idée, vu le constat.
Sérieusement, je crois que ce serait une bonne chose, collectivement, de considérer l’impact sur notre qualité de vie de cette attitude dans la conduite. C’est assez invasif. Je ne sais pas le meilleur moyen, mais j’aimerais bien qu’on fasse quelque chose pour conscientiser les gens à l’importance de la courtoisie, de la patience et de la sécurité sur nos routes.