March 9, 2010 News

Pedestrian priority at Concordia

New diagonal intersection could make walking at downtown campus safer

by Justin Giovannetti

With tens of thousands of pedestrians, cars and bicycles competing for space, the sidewalks and crosswalks of Concordia’s Sir George Williams Campus can be chaotic.

The solution, according to Allégo Concordia, would be a scramble intersection.
At a scramble, all four traffic lights turn red and pedestrians are allowed to cross the intersection at a diagonal, allowing for faster and safer pedestrian crossing. A scramble was installed two years ago at the intersection of Yonge and Dundas Streets in Toronto—none exist in Quebec.

Allégo, a part of Sustainable Concordia that helps students walk, bike and use public transit to get to university, went to the City of Montreal with a plan to install a scramble at the intersection of de Maisonneuve Boulevard and Mackay Street.

“There are always a lot of people waiting to cross from the southwest side to the northeast side, because most of the traffic is from the metro station to the Hall building,” said Marilyn Tremblay, Allégo’s former coordinator. Tremblay oversaw the project after Audrey Noeltner, a Concordia urban planning student, proposed the idea to Allégo.

“The city seemed to like it but they did have some concerns. If the timing of the crosswalks were to change, as it would, then the traffic timing of all of de Maisonneuve would be thrown off,” said Allison Reid, Allégo’s current program coordinator. “It’s really expensive to coordinate a street’s lights.”

There is also concern about the impact of the soon-to-be-completed tunnel linking the Hall building to the Guy-Concordia metro station, a conduit expected to relieve foot traffic at the intersection targeted for the scramble.

“When the tunnel is open, Allégo will be recounting the pedestrian traffic and what path it is taking,” said Reid. “We will see if it is still feasible and then resubmit the report to the city.”
Scrambles are illegal in Quebec. Although there are intersections with four-way red lights, pedestrians are not allowed to cross diagonally.

“I think of it every time I cross an intersection, how efficient it would be if I could just cut the corner instead of waiting,” said Reid. “What’s interesting is that so many of us do it anyway here. The number of people who cross diagonally regardless of what the lights say is surprising—it’s so dangerous.”

Allégo received full support from Concordia on the project, Reid and Tremblay confirmed. According to Tremblay, who is now directing the rebuilding of Le Massif ski hill near Quebec City, the scramble would do more than help traffic; it would also help set Concordia apart.
“[Noeltner’s] goal was not only to make the intersection safe, but also to create a community feeling,” said Tremblay, who added that the scramble could be integrated into Concordia’s existing Quartier Concordia project. “By putting down special pavement markings, the scramble would become a landmark.

“We don’t have the typical campus. We have an urban campus so we need to have urban elements to signal our campus.”