By Robert Frank
www.thesuburban.com
Abord à Plouffe Councilor Vasilios Karidogiannis singled out street safety as a priority before he was elected in November.
Now, he told The Suburban, the city is moving to implement traffic calming measures to slow down Laval’s dangerous drivers.
“The number one priority throughout Laval is speeding and road safety,” he said in an interview. “It was a topic that came up often during the campaign and it is still coming up all the time. It’s an issue that needs to be resolved.”
Karidogiannis said the city has set up a permanent directorate that will take residents’ complaints, analyze the situation and tailor an appropriate solution on a case-by-case basis.
“If you have a concern, you can dial 311 and lodge a complaint,” he explained. “Then you can call your city councilor and say ‘I called 311 and made a complaint, and now I’m running it by you to see what you can do.’”
“There are a variety of traffic calming measures which could alleviate the problem,” Karidogiannis added. “Radar signs, for example, are very effective. They display the speed that you are traveling at, which lets you catch yourself and adjust accordingly.”
“[The new road safety directorate] will also determine whether the street needs a speed bump or some other form of modification to the roadway, such as wider sidewalks or a change in the direction of traffic flow,” he continued. “Each case has to be handled in an individual manner. I could understand that speed bumps on streets like Notre Dame and Labelle could hinder Urgences santé ambulances and other emergency vehicles, but they have to slow down anyway on smaller streets where I don’t think this would an issue.”
“Ultimately, we have to find a way to get delinquent types to slow down,” Karidogiannis asserted. “It is alarming the way that some people drive in their own neighbourhoods, where their own children play.”
“License suspension for long time would be the most effective measure for those people, but that’s in the provincial domain,” he concluded, “so a speed bump is a nice alternative way to get drivers to respect their fellow citizens.”
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