Every rush hour morning drive on Cote St. Luc near Decarie is traffic hell. The intersection has been overloaded with cars.
This is partly due to bad road planning as Coolopolis has mentioned elsewhere.
The situation is so bad that a special police officer is dispatched during the morning rush hour to the corner one block to the west to ensure that the intersection of Coolbrooke/des Orphelins and CSL doesn't get gridlocked.
That police officer sports a highly-visible orange vest so that he will be seen from afar.
Motorist Leora Bobrove ended up advancing and blocking the intersection in the morning of March 28, 2013.
She later maintained that there was sufficient space to pass if someone wanted to get by.
Well the police officer on duty that morning saw it differently, so he waved at her to pull over so he gift her with a new ticket.
However motorist Bobrove believed that the cop was actually a construction worker due to his orange vest.
She believed that by waving, he was redirecting her down des Orphelinats. So she turned down that street.
She then realized it was a dead end and scooted back.
The cop Gabriele Sene wasn't thrilled with that move so he blocked her car with his cruiser.
Sene thought that Bobrove was attempting to flee, so he attempted to take her key.
Sene got police backup officers on the scene who in turn calmed everything down.
After the dust settled, Bobrove was ticketed and hit with three criminal charges relating to the affair.
Her lawyer Yann Trignac pleaded not guilty and Bobrove had a day in court in Dec. 2013 and another last June.
On Dec. 15 a verdict came down: not guilty. The judge chalked it up to simple misunderstanding.
This judgment was particularly interesting to me. (and I'm sure you'll tell us why - Chimples).
About five years back I received a ticket from the very same officer about one block away and also challenged it in court. Not only did I get the ticket tossed out but I complained at the Police Ethics Commission that the officer had failed to be able to produce a police badge. We met later at a formally-arranged meeting and the cop Sene shook my hand and apologized.
Seems like a very nice guy.
This is partly due to bad road planning as Coolopolis has mentioned elsewhere.
The situation is so bad that a special police officer is dispatched during the morning rush hour to the corner one block to the west to ensure that the intersection of Coolbrooke/des Orphelins and CSL doesn't get gridlocked.
That police officer sports a highly-visible orange vest so that he will be seen from afar.
Motorist Leora Bobrove ended up advancing and blocking the intersection in the morning of March 28, 2013.
Well the police officer on duty that morning saw it differently, so he waved at her to pull over so he gift her with a new ticket.
However motorist Bobrove believed that the cop was actually a construction worker due to his orange vest.
She believed that by waving, he was redirecting her down des Orphelinats. So she turned down that street.
She then realized it was a dead end and scooted back.
The cop Gabriele Sene wasn't thrilled with that move so he blocked her car with his cruiser.
Sene thought that Bobrove was attempting to flee, so he attempted to take her key.
Sene got police backup officers on the scene who in turn calmed everything down.
After the dust settled, Bobrove was ticketed and hit with three criminal charges relating to the affair.
Her lawyer Yann Trignac pleaded not guilty and Bobrove had a day in court in Dec. 2013 and another last June.
This judgment was particularly interesting to me. (and I'm sure you'll tell us why - Chimples).
About five years back I received a ticket from the very same officer about one block away and also challenged it in court. Not only did I get the ticket tossed out but I complained at the Police Ethics Commission that the officer had failed to be able to produce a police badge. We met later at a formally-arranged meeting and the cop Sene shook my hand and apologized.
Seems like a very nice guy.
That area has always been bad for traffic. Traffic cops were put at both north and southbound Decarie service roads at Cote St. Luc in the late 1960s, throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s. I don't know about later becauise I moved away.
ReplyDeleteThe problem was always turning traffic: east to north and west to south. With the short distance between the north and southbound service roads, drivers would always attempt to get through and then get stranded blocking other traffic when the lights changed.
Eventually there was just one cop positioned at the northbound service road and Cote St. Luc during rush hours. That would be his longtime assignment. He was probably in his 40s in the 1970s and one of the nicest cops you could ever meet. He seemed to know everyone and had a smile or friendly wave for pedestrian and motorist. He was especially mindful of pedestrians (there were two schools in the area) and took extra care to get them across the busy intersection safely. When traffic calmed down, he always had time for a quick conversation with passersby. At Christmas, it wasn't unusual for cars to slow down with drivers giving him a little wrapped present. He was definitely a very well liked member of the local neighbourhood. The name John Nobel or Jean Nobel seems to come to mind but I can't quite remember. Perhaps Harold Rosenberg, the retired police photographer, who sometimes contributes here might remember.
That intersection has been problematic ever since the Decarie Depressway was opened in 1967 with congestion steadily worsening over the ensuing decades.
ReplyDeleteImpatient drivers on Cote St. Luc "chomping at the bit" in the hope of making a quick left onto Decarie north or south are faced with the all-too-brief flashing green lights which makes for some dangerous maneuvers and honking, not to mention the odd fenderbender. Even the traffic lights themselves have gone haywire, malfunctioning at the most inopportune times.
In the early days of the intersection's existence, I presume that nearby Monkland Avenue to the east was originally an alternate choice for drivers to avoid Cote St Luc, but if my memory serves me correctly I seem to recall that Monkland residents demanded--and got--the city to turn their short section of the street into a one-way west between Decarie to Girouard in order to eliminate the resulting eastbound rat-runners.
Not sure exactly when Monkland was converted into a two-way again, but it certainly must have been after the Esso station at 5470 Monkland was closed and that little park was established in its place following, I believe, a residents' petition.
I have always thought that it would be more efficient for the northbound 17 bus route to veer east onto Monkland in order to pick up additional passengers at the Villa Maria Metro than to add to the ferocious traffic tie-ups at Cote St. Luc and Decarie.
This is a no-brainer and a glaring inefficiency that the STM hasn't figured out yet, particularly since route 17 has for too long been underused with its busses running mostly empty and with very few, if any, passengers actually boarding the handful of stops along Girouard northbound between Monkland and Decarie.
Furthermore, the high number of students which converge on the Villa Maria Metro would as a result of my suggested routing change have an alternate choice of public transit heading north, a side effect of which would certainly reduce the crowding and time required to reach the Metro's underground platform via its escalators and stairways.
I lived on Monkland & Earncliffe between 1970 and 1976; the street was indeed one-way westbound. The southbound Décarie service road ends at Monkland, so it is plausible that the one-wayification was done after the Décarie hole opened because of the extra-traffic brought on Monkland.
ReplyDeleteAs I remember, Monkland was 2-wayized back when the Métro opened around 1981, so buses on Montkland could reach it.
Now, if I were coming on côte Saint-Luc with intent to go north on Décarie, I would avoid the clusterfuck by going through Hampstead & Isabella. And to go southbound, well, Girouard doesn’t look so bad, isn’t it?