The City of Montreal is continuing to implement measures this year to make school zones and parks safer for young people.
Montreal says 32 high schools, elementary schools and daycares, as well as five parks – across 10 boroughs – will share $14 million in 2024 as part of the Programme de sécurisation aux abords des écoles (PSAÉ).
Those measures can include widening sidewalks, building speed bumps, improving visibility at intersections, ensuring speed limits are obeyed, reducing car traffic, and increasing safety at pedestrian crossings.
And six times between now and the end of the calendar year, a street near the schools in question will be fully shut down to vehicle traffic twice a day for 30 minutes – when students arrive at school in the morning, and again when they leave in the afternoon.
The city says more than 11,000 additional students will benefit from the additions around their schools or play areas.
The schools and parks targeted this year are in these 10 boroughs: Ahuntsic-Cartierville, Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Le Sud-Ouest, Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, Montréal-Nord, Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, Saint-Laurent, Verdun, Villeray–Saint-Michel–Parc-Extension, and Ville-Marie.
Since launching in 2020, the PSAÉ has introduced increased safety measures to 121 schools, seven daycares, and seven parks.
“Our administration has made travel safety a priority, particularly with the school safety program that we launched five years ago,” Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante said. “Since then, the travel of more than 50,000 students has been safe throughout Montreal, and we will continue to accelerate the pace. Quality of life in neighbourhoods is a signature of Montreal, and it depends largely on travel safety.
“The population is increasingly demanding measures to ensure safe travel, and we are proud to be there by increasing the number of pedestrian crossings, speed bumps and traffic lights with pedestrian priority in all of Montreal’s neighbourhoods,”