Transportation

Council Approves Cyling Master Plan, Punts on Funding

By Ryan McGreal
Published June 25, 2009

Last night, Hamilton City Council voted unanimously to support the Cycling Master Plan. Unfortunately, their support did not extend to a funding commitment, which they deferred to the budget process - even though they had already commited to funding new cycling infrastructure through the Transportation Master Plan in 2007.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Ryan wrote a city affairs column in Hamilton Magazine, and several of his articles have been published in the Hamilton Spectator. His articles have also been published in The Walrus, HuffPost and Behind the Numbers. He maintains a personal website, has been known to share passing thoughts on Twitter and Facebook, and posts the occasional cat photo on Instagram.

3 Comments

View Comments: Nested | Flat

Read Comments

[ - ]

By Really? (registered) | Posted June 26, 2009 at 10:49:20

So Council can committ $$$$$$ for Airport lands, but refuses to do so for bike lanes? http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/articl...

Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By mikeonthemountain (registered) | Posted June 26, 2009 at 11:29:21

This city has chosen how it wants to develop. It just happens to not be in the livable city model. They don't want too much upset so we will see a few more fragments of bike lane, half-hearted not-truly-meaningful-projects to stall the status quo until 2180AD or something like that. Meanwhile road raging drivers will continue swaggering in their arrogance, attempting to emotionally murder everyone else too self absorbed to realize what they are actually doing to themselves not just their society.

Bikes are filling the streets and drivers with low emotional intelligence have really been making their presence known last couple weeks. Perhaps because the nice weather is here so everyone wants to 'cruise' I dunno ... Oh well fortunately still a tiny minority. Most people are still nice ... don't change! Let's be civil to each other and ignore neanderthals! It's just so much more pleasant to get through your day, isn't it?

It is a deeply troubled time for this model of civilization. It is changing even as we speak, but won't go quietly. It intends to go kicking and screaming. Most of the GTA increasingly reminds me of Idiocracy. But the important thing is coucil has electrolytes! And it's what plants crave!

Infrastructure may not improve at all for the forseeable future. Ride confidently and ride anyway. This is in fact occurring so it is nice self propelled citizens are not being intimidated. Be the lifestyle you wish to see. But do not reciprocate road rage for road rage. Stay safe and make no response - it makes it worse.

Sorry for the long rant. It is not easy being on the receiving end of horns and/or abuse several times a week. Sorry this is kinda off topic here, it kinda belongs in the cycling conflict article but this is only going to get worse as middle aged white men driving late model large vehicles continue to lose their minds*:

http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/02/so...

(* I am aware that stereotypes are not universal and are in fact ridiculous but this is a real example to illustrate the difficulty we are all facing with the social readjustments underway).

Permalink | Context

[ - ]

By highwater (registered) | Posted June 26, 2009 at 14:07:42

Whenever I'm on the receiving end of horns and/or abuse, it's invariably a young white man.

Permalink | Context

View Comments: Nested | Flat

Post a Comment

You must be logged in to comment.

Events Calendar

There are no upcoming events right now.
Why not post one?

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds