Sunday, February 17, 2008
- Vision Montreal held a meeting today to plan a leadership convention: so far, Benoit Labonté is the only candidate, the two members who've been housekeeping since Pierre Bourque quit in November 2005 not being interested in the job. The party doesn't look very impressive these days with only 15 councillors to its name.
- Irish media have got hold of the McKibbin's story.
- Many Montrealers must have wondered what it's like living in Habitat 67: Chris DeWolf interviewed a resident and had a look.
- Motorists are sending in complaints to the city about vehicles dinged during snow clearance maneuvers; we're expecting a brief thaw tomorrow (it crossed my mind, walking around town yesterday, what a mess we're going to have this spring); some snow removal contractors are working at a loss because they base their contract bids on averages, and in a season like this they lose the toss.
- A summary of the changing statistics on road accidents in Montreal and the numbers on pedestrian deaths. Chris on Spacing has some thoughts about it and a link to a piece he wrote on Urbanphoto in 2006 about why pedestrian primacy should be respected and encouraged in certain parts of town. ...I've said it before on this blog, but it bears repeating: until police ticket motorists turning through no-turn arrows at busy intersections – so usual here that drivers who don't do it are honked by others waiting behind them – and in general make it safe for people to cross on foot where aggressive drivers want to turn, often it is safer for a pedestrian to jaywalk at many intersections than to cross on the green. Why? Because the pedestrian can see whether traffic is coming straight at him on the street he's crossing. He can't so easily monitor whether someone's going to come up from behind and pick him off on the turn. I don't know why this is never taken into account when people do the finger-shaking routine at Montreal's "bad" pedestrians. We know perfectly well where we're safe, and where we're endangered. We're not just doing it to be perverse. (On the other hand, I don't think you'll ever get the Montreal pedestrian to wait passively at a red light with no traffic visible in either direction, as I've seen people do in Ontario. That's just weird.)
- Some notes on art events taking place around the Lumière festival.
- mtlweblog's blog
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