Town shines light on traffic problem

Residents of Belcourt in Dollard des Ormeaux greeted the news that city hall intends to install traffic lights on the corner of their street and Sources Boulevard with relief, as well as surprise the project is finally moving ahead.

"(The city) said January 2008," said Hana Bazzi, who has lived on Belcourt for about nine years. According to Bazzi, Dollard des Ormeaux sent residents of the area a notice informing them of plans to install traffic lights in December 2007.

However, according Dollard mayor Ed Janiszewski, the main reason for the delay was conflict with the City of Montreal. "We've been trying for six years to get the lights up there," Janiszewski said. After demerging from Montreal, he explained, control over arterial roads went to the agglomeration council.

This was reversed with the June 20, 2008 agreement signed by Montreal and demerged municipalities about Bill 22, a provincial bill that revises division of powers between the different cities in question. Among other things, the bill returns control of arterial roads to demerged cities. Janiszewski said Dollard will regain full control of Sources Boulevard in January 2009, but council wished to install the traffic lights before then.

An approval to purchase the traffic lights was in last Tuesday evening's agenda for Dollard's public town hall meeting.

Janiszewski denied the city had given Belcourt residents any indication the lights would be up by January 2008. "I told them that we would take over as of January 2009," he said.

At any rate, residents seem largely content with the installation of the traffic lights. "I think this is a good idea," said Mohammad Islam, who lives a stone's throw away from the intersection on Belcourt. "I am so afraid of driving over there, I go from the back (of the street instead)," he explained.

Currently, drivers going toward Sources from Belcourt only face a stop sign. There are no other traffic signs in other directions from any which way on Sources. For Islam and others, this creates a problem because drivers trying to turn different ways from Sources on to Belcourt have no indication on who has the right of way.

"I have two of my friends that had accidents there," recalled Nazih Batros, who also lives on Belcourt.

Employees who work at nearby businesses, like Roberta Kotar, who manages a childrens' pottery area called Studio Zone, also gave the project a nod of approval.

"There is a lot of traffic in the West Island," she said, and the lights will make it easier to manage this particularly hairy intersection. "I've heard tires squealing," Kotar recalled, but she confessed to never having seen an accident.

At a nearby dental clinic, office manager Sylvie Bastien said she was in an accident at the intersection herself about two years ago. "(That intersection) is dangerous," she admitted.

An Ile Bizard resident, Bastien avoids getting back on Sources to return home now, instead getting on Pierrefonds Boulevard through some back streets behind the dental clinic in order to avoid the trouble spot.

However, she jokingly suggested the lights would make getting on the highway from Sources even slower, due to extra waiting time.

It remains unclear whether the lights will be synchronized with those all along Sources Boulevard. "We might synchronize with the Sunnydale (street lights)," Janiszewski said.

He estimated the project cost between $120,000 to $130,000, and the lights should go up within 4 to 6 weeks.