Transportation

Petition: Extend Aberdeen Bus To Mac

By Ryan McGreal
Published July 17, 2007

I just received the following email from Michael Ventresca from the Department of Medical Sciences at McMaster about a petition to improve bus service between the Aberdeen Ave. area and the university:

A petition urging the Hamilton Street Railway (HSR) to extend the 6 Aberdeen bus route to McMaster is now available online.

As many commuters are aware, the 6 Aberdeen bus route does not currently service the McMaster Children's Hospital or McMaster University, despite the fact that many students and staff live in these areas.

This petition is intended to show support for an expansion of the 6 Aberdeen bus route to McMaster in order to accommodate the McMaster students and staff who live in this area.

To show your support for this campaign, please read and sign the petition.

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.

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By Al Rathbone (anonymous) | Posted July 18, 2007 at 19:19:54

What about service to princess point?

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By seancb (registered) - website | Posted July 19, 2007 at 14:03:21

I received notes about this petition from many friends and had a lot to say. I'll try to summarize:

First of all, this petition makes no sense. The 6 bus doesn't go toward McMaster and stop short.. it's a completely different line that goes down to Princess Point. This petition is calling for a complete rerouting under the guise of an "extension" which is not the reality.

Second of all, if you rerouted it to McMaster, you'd be cutting off access to a lot of houses that lie between King and Princess Point and who may rely on that bus to get them to the King and Main connections. Not to mention, the waterfront trail that starts at the point should be promoted as much as possible -- including through convenient transit access.

Third, why not focus on petitioning for a solution that helps everybody? What we need to fight for is more frequent service along King so that the connection at King and Longwood is better (less waiting and no packed buses during the rush). Really, there's nothing wrong with the actual King and Aberdeen routes under the current setup -- it's the frequency of service that is causing problems. So wouldn't the best solution be to put 20% more capacity on the King line during the rush, reducing crowding by 20% and reducing wait times by 20%? This would help everyone who rides to McMaster, including those that try to get on a King bus anywhere between Queen and Longwood -- people who would not benefit at all from rerouting #6.

I will not sign because I am 100% FOR increased service area and 100% AGAINST decreased service area. In my opinion, removing any current routes is a step in the wrong direction, even if it helps more people in the short run. Once that Princess Point leg is gone, it's gonna be like pulling teeth to ever get it back. So, send me a petition for increased King service and I'll sign it twice!

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By ventrems (registered) | Posted July 21, 2007 at 01:06:37

Hi Sean,

I completely agree with you about increasing (and not decreasing) service, but this petition is not advocating the elimination of certain stops, so I apologize if it came across this way in the wording of the text.

I do, however, think it is important for the residents who live on/around the Aberdeen route to have quick and convenient access to McMaster Children's Hospital and McMaster University. As you've suggested, increased service along the King St corridor would alleviate some of the congestion at the point of transfer. However, a direct route accomplishes the same goal while also enhancing the convenience of the 6 Aberdeen route for McMaster students, staff and patients.

While I think this is best left to the people over at the HSR to decide, a potential modification would be to extend the 6 Aberdeen such that it turns left onto King St from Longwood and essentially mimic the 10 Beeline (2-3 stops max). It would loop around at the front entrance to the Children's Hospital, and continue back out along Sterling and King Sts, turning left onto Longwood to continue along the Princess Point loop. In total, this extension would add roughly 10-15 minutes to the route time, which I think is reasonable.

So overall, I think we're on the same page here. We all want increased HSR service and hopefully we can come up with a solution that will satisfy everyone's needs.

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By jason (registered) | Posted September 01, 2007 at 15:44:09

I'd sign a petition to increase service on the east/west corridor (which #6 riders can easily transfer to at Longwood and King). the city should buy another 30 60 foot hybrids and increase routing on the B-Line, King and Barton with them.

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