Not to insult anybody but Montreal's traffic planners might think about taking their pensions and leaving the job to somebody whose practices methods are not from the 70s as the answer is about as clear as day: roundabouts.
As we've stated here repeatedly, roundabouts greatly diminish accidents by slowing traffic and eliminating left turns, which are the most dangerous maneuvre in driving.
We have already urged this very thing two years ago but the senseless perpetuation of the old-fashioned and outdated traffic light system - which is massively unpopular among drivers - shows Montreal to be a backwards-thinking place that can't commit to improvement.
Traffic lights cost $200,000 to purchase and about $2,000 a year to operate, according to an interview I conducted about five years ago with a local traffic bigwig.
Traffic bigwig Ottavio Galella, who has major influence in such issues, doesn't seem to like roundabouts.
Here's what he told me five years back: "For traffic volumes which are limited it makes sense but we cannot modify tens of thousand of existing intersections with roundabouts , financially it doesn't make sense. There are situations that warrant such geometric designs which work very well by the way yet it is not a miracle solution for all the users and it is actually a problematic design for the handicapped for the visually impaired and for other vulnerable users so generally the generally the design is appropriate in low density areas or some industrial park and it certainly constitutes a good solution under specific circumstances but should not be used as an overall tool or approach to solve the issue of traffic."