On site at the corner of Kildare and Rembrandt with Police Traffic Officer

In keeping with my promise to study the traffic flow on Kildare Road, west of Cavendish, particularly at the corner of Rembrandt Avenue I spent 45 minutes with Montreal Police Station 9 Traffic Officer Simon Poitras on the scene during a Monday morning rush hour.

Officer Poitras and I monitoring the corner.

History will note that after the last election I  requested that the CSL Traffic Committee study the possibility of adding a stop sign to slow down speeders and give motorists on Rembrandt a window to  turn towards Cavendish – particularly during rush hour.

Last week Councillor David Tordjman (Traffic Committee Chair), Officer Poitras and I met with representatives of Rembrandt condominiums to discuss how the new stop sign has worked and sought suggestions on how to improve the safety of the corner even further.  A lot of good ideas were shared and they will be discussed at the next Traffic Committee meeting. You can see the summary here.

Officer Poitras did say at our meeting that at first glance he was concerned  that by having a stop sign at only one side of Kildare (the other is not long enough) it might give drivers a false sense of security. Following our session he went out on his own to study the corner and upon reflection he was comfortable that the new measure is working. He then called and invited me to join him. We noticed  that cars coming from Rembrandt were  all looking both ways very carefully before turning left. A lot of vehicles were driving fast, some doing quick (and illegal) stops at the new signs. Beware! Officer Poitras will stake out the corner. On the other side we noticed that the 162 bus was stopping well before the driveway where its sign is posted, which is a good thing because its actual stop does create a blind spot. And that existed before we added the stop sign.

We do need to reduce the speed limit on Kildare, from Cavendish to Merrimac and we hope the Montreal Transit Commission will consent to moving their bus stop back several feet.

I will keep everyone updated on this dossier.