Montreal-area mayors pushing for right turns on red lights

CTV National News: The right way in Montreal Montreal is the only place in Canada where drivers cannot turn right on a red light. Genevieve Beauchemin reports on the rules of the road.

A group of Montreal-area mayors are planning to appeal to the Quebec government to allow right turns at red lights on the island.

During a news conference on Tuesday the group of 15 mayors all mentioned needless waiting, wasting gas and higher air pollution as reasons to allow right turns on red lights.

Turning right on red lights became legal in Quebec in 2003, after a pilot project. At the time, the island of Montreal cited security and safety concerns for not joining the pilot project.

“We need to keep in mind that the island of Montreal, along with New York City, is the only region in Canada and the United States where it is prohibited to make a right turn on red,” Beaconsfield Mayor Georges Bourelle told reporters.

The mayors cited a CROP poll that found 73 per cent of Montreal residents and 71 per cent of demerged city residents were in favour of turning right on red. They also pointed to Ministry of Transportation numbers that show, in 2015, there were 361 road fatalities compared to 2,200 road fatalities in 1973.

Bourelle, Mount Royal Mayor Philippe Roy and Montreal East Mayor Robert Coutu all agreed that certain traffic lights should remain off limits, particularly some in downtown Montreal, but that more than half of the 2,587 traffic lights would be suitable for the change.

“In all other parts of Quebec, for 13 years, Ministry of Transportation statistics prove that Quebecers behave in exactly the same way as motorists everywhere else,” said Bourelle.

The City of Montreal recently adopted a Swedish road model policy, “Vision Zero,” to help eliminate fatalities and serious injuries due to traffic collisions. Part of the policy calls for not allowing right on red as a way to protect the most vulnerable.

“I think that we have to learn to live together before even thinking about doing that because we have some relationship and coexistence issues between pedestrians and drivers, bikes and trucks,” said Montreal Mayor Denis Coderre in a previous interview with CTV News.

Coderre also said, due to the requirement that cars leave a five-metre margin at intersections, to allow pedestrians to cross the street safely, allowing right on red “won’t happen.”

With files from CTV Montreal’s Rob Lurie and The Canadian Press