Raise the Hammer

couple thoughts on these traffic jam incidents.

1. In both cases, only HALF of the highways were closed. Not the entire highway. 403 EB and QEW Toronto were closed during these recent events. Imagine the chaos if the entire highway was closed (this will certainly happen at some point).

2. Was interesting to see/read the huge number of people walking between downtown and McMaster on Friday. A walk that most people would never dream of making suddenly became viable when King/Main weren't expressways and when other options were limited. In cities like Montreal, Boston, Vancouver folks don't bat an eye at a 30 minute walk. But this walk feels like an eternity along the ultra skinny sidewalks, next to roaring traffic. We obviously don't want gridlock like we saw Friday, but as neighbourhoods have been begging city hall for years - we need balance.

3. Transit. Where to start. We all know Hamilton has been destroying, not building it's transit network in recent decades. No more proof needed than Friday. Just last week in fact I was chatting with a neighbour about how crazy it is that there are no bike/bus lanes from Downtown to Mac, especially considering all the lanes on Main W. Think of the huge number of people LRT could have carried that day.

4. Bikes. Once SoBi is up and running it would have surely seen a boom in business on Friday, but again Main W is hostile to everyone but cars. Nonetheless, folks would have taken to a bike share.

Moving forward:

• time to get leadership working on the B-Line LRT and A-Line BRT ASAP. Every other city around us is doing this, it's time we stopped being our own worst enemy.
• bus lanes: it's time to implement transit lanes over the 403 on King/Main. A repainting of Main from Paradise to Cootes can house a total of 6 lanes at minimum. 4 for autos, 2 for transit. The current King bus lane, while needing to be reconfigured downtown, can extend over the 403 to Paradise.
• bike lanes: there is ample space at sidewalk level for a bike path along many of the empty building lots and institutional lawns on both the north and south sides of Main West. From Cootes to Dalewood there is space for a two-way bike path on the north side of the street. Like this one at sidewalk level along Elmwood Ave in Buffalo:

https://www.google.ca/maps/@42.9286002,-78.8770028,3a,75y,327.39h,83.91t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s7NC3qUJny2IJa8DAuis7hg!2e0

East of Dalewood space exists for this bike path next to the sidewalk to switch to the south side of Main all the way to Paradise where the current bike lanes over the 403 can be extended west to Paradise. At Dundurn, a parking-protected cycle track can be accommodated on the north lane of Main while still leaving ample capacity for cars. Again, we need balance and quick.

Main St, east of the 403 would become a complete street with bike lanes in the north lane, then street parking, 2 car lanes and a bus lane in it's 5-lanes. If traffic volumes warranted, the north side parking could be a travel lane from 7-9am.

http://www.streetsblog.org/wp-content/up...

Comment edited by jason on 2014-12-02 09:52:01