Right on Red, Dangerous

The original title of Sebastien Menard’s article in the Journal de Montreal of July 3^rd and on Canoe is “Virage à droite dangereux”. The picture is taken from the article and a link to it is at the bottom of the page. For those of you than can’t read French, the caption of the picture says that the lady saw the car closely while the driver was making a right on red. Look at the picture again. The lady wants to cross the street on the red light too!

This came out as a report was issued showing a rise of the accidents involving pedestrians in Quebec at intersections where right on red is permitted. The law that allows the manoeuvre is clear stating that the pedestrian has the right of way when in the cross-walk on the green light. I presume it is the one crossing the path of the driver. The only exception I can understand, with the little common sense my government leaves me, is when there is a pedestrian light to allow priority crossing in the same way I am going. The culture of “Yield to Pedestrians” is not yet part of our driving habits here in Quebec. Are we more stupid then the rest of North America because we were the last ones to adopt the right on red? I hope to believe that Montreal’s administration do not think of their citizens as the dumber of the continent or it was to cut in the cost of posting signs at the thousands of intersections that they banned the right on red on all the island. Surely it was cheaper to put those signs only on the access roads.

Some members of my family are living in Halifax. One day my brother-in-law was telling that a Halifax pedestrian would only live a few minutes in the Montreal traffic. When a pedestrian sets foot in a cross walk, the automobile must yield right of way. Our government has set penalties for the faulty drivers. Can we have proper enforcement of the laws before doing any modifications to them again?

The easy answer from the authorities is that the man-power is not available enough only to do that. Anyway, not too many drivers are going to break the law when a police cruiser is in sight. However, in Montreal, when it comes to cell phone use without a hands free gadget, they are the provincial record holder of citations and there are enough cops available for that.

Mrs, Minister, if you are really so worried on the situation, why not send one of your staffers to contact a staffer of the Minister of Public Safety and make another round table on applying the laws to the drivers.

The link to Sebastien Menard’s article on Canoe

http://fr.canoe.ca/infos/quebeccanada/archives/2009/07/20090703-053800.html