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Updated: Jan. 20, 2012

Despite my usual opposition to more stop signs the City of Cote Saint-Luc will be adding a stop sign and crosswalk on Mackle Road today just meters away from the intersection of Centennial Avenue.

Residents of Les Habitations Mackle apartment at 6655 Mackle Road have ignored the repeated advice of police and district City Councillor, Ruth Kovac, and have been hit in increasing numbers by oncoming vehicles as they jaywalk in front of their building to get to the mall.

Despite having a crosswalk a few steps away at Centennial Ave, residents can regularly be seen crossing the road without a care despite the congestion from the mall entrance, turning vehicles, buses and traffic along Mackle Road.  Some residents can be seen jaywalking using canes and even walkers.

I am typically against the proliferation of stop signs.  They are environmentally unfriendly (since cars need to burn more fuel, noise from brakes, etc…) and frustrating to motorists.  They inherently give a false sense of security to pedestrians who assume that all cars will come to a stop.  However this is not always the case and pedestrians still have to be alert and mindful of oncoming traffic.

I suppose we have little choice at this spot and in the interest of public safety this crosswalk/stop sign is necessary as all other efforts by police and city hall have failed to prevent errant and very dangerous jaywalking.  Of course police could have issued tickets to the jaywalkers rather than penalizing the motorists but I suspect this would have had a temporary effect.

We’ll see how this all works out.  Once the mall is redesigned, and once Cavendish is extended (yes, it will happen) we will have to take another look at the surrounding area for traffic flow and safety issues.  Meanwhile, look both ways before you cross the street!

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