Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie making school zones safer by limiting car access

Montreal's Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie has a plan to reduce cars in one of its neighbourhoods with multiple schools and daycare centres.

The Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie borough wants to make school zones safer for children by reducing the number of cars on some of its streets.

Borough Mayor François Limoges says the key is to have fewer cars on certain residential roads, like Dandurand.

“Dandurand, there’s three schools, many daycare centres, and parks. And there’s 4,300 cars a day. It’s way too much for the nature of the street,” the mayor told CTV News.

The borough plans to start with three school zones this year that include five elementary schools. It will reconfigure several nearby streets. Some will become one-way, including Dandurand, which will change direction multiple times.

“You can go home, you can go to school, you can go to your local business. There’s no problem, but you won’t be able to use the street to cross the entire neighbourhood,” Limoges said.

Some streets that are already one-way will now send cars in the opposite direction, such as Henri-Julien in Little Italy between Mozart and Bellechasse.

Montreal boroughs began increasing safety measures near schools in the years following the death of Mariia Legenkovska, the seven-year-old girl who was struck and killed by a driver on her way to school in 2022 in the Ville-Marie borough.

Limoges says his borough has already reduced speed limits and has added speed bumps. He believes reconfiguring streets is the next logical step.

For some residents, the change is welcome. Residents who spoke to CTV News said they feel like they will make areas near daycares and schools safer.

But Limoges admits the plan will also have critics, who will call this another move by boroughs run by Projet Montreal to get rid of cars.

“We’re not anti-cars. We just don’t want our cars to cut through the entire neighbourhood to get a shortcut,” he said.

In the meantime, the borough plans to make similar changes to its other school zones over the next three years.