Raise the Hammer

Attention to the muckrakers at NOHAMILTONLRT please read this carefully. I know you are not anti-LRT, you are just anti-transit in general. I have been in on your forms and talked to your supporters, they are mostly made up of the garden variety, anti-tax, anti-government and especially anti-transit types. Due to the advanced age of most (although not all) of your supporters, I find it quite ironic considering most of you will be loosing your drivers licenses in the coming years.

The plan is to have drivers tested every year from 70 years and up. The test will be a eye sight and hand to eye coordination tests. The entire insurance industry is demanding it from every Canadian province and US state, you are becoming to expensive to insure. Oh by the way, both the government and insurance companies still want a licensed driver in every car, even if its a driverless one.

Listen up NOHAMILTONLRT, if you are referring to the recent trend of streetcars being rolled out in generally conservative dominated cities in the US then, yes these new streetcars don't have segregated rights of way and operate in mixed traffic. However, most European streetcar systems or what they refer to as tram systems have mostly private or segregated rights of way but some sections of mixed traffic running does happens.

NOHAMILTONLRT you are getting a Light Rail Transit system, completely separated from traffic except at intersections, which will have a traffic signal control system that favors the LRT line. This is very common technology and is already in use in many US and Canadian cities.

If you are worried about your taxes going up then refusing the money to build LRT will be the last thing you want to do. I work with developers everyday as an independent planning consultant. Make no mistake, THE MAJORITY OF THE INCREASE IN DEVELOPMENT IN THE CORE OF YOUR CITY IS BECAUSE OF LRT! Without LRT you still see some development increases in the core but it will slow down. Those new developments produce more property taxes. The days of big residential developments in the suburbs are for the most part, over! You will still see some new suburban development but it will happen at a very much slower rate. Downtowns are back in fashion, the suburbs are out of fashion. Developers just follow the trends.

NOHAMILTONLRT you are competing against other cities for jobs and in demand, knowledge sector companies and workers. LRT will help attract those companies and workers. Suburban development, Highways and one-way streets won't. They kill street life and atmosphere, something that those companies and their workers for the most part find very appealing. LRT enhances street life and the urban experience as well as moving a lot of people, in a very small amount of urban road space. The choice of refusing LRT will only help other cities not Hamilton.

There are many waiting LRT and BRT projects throughout the rest of the GTA that have complete or nearly complete Environmental Assessments and are only waiting for funding. That $1 Billion will be spent, do you want it spent here? That money is going to give you a well thought out LRT line plus a BRT line from your new downtown GO Train station to your Airport as well as another new Centennial Parkway GO station.

Or do you want it spent on a subway or LRT line or an LRT extension in Toronto, an LRT line in Mississauga or an LRT extension in Waterloo. How about a BRT system in Durham Region, a BRT extension in York Region, BRT in Halton and yes even a BRT system in Toronto. There are a lot of other places in Ontario as well, Ottawa has both new LRT&BRT extension projects to fund. London also is planning BRT and LRT if it can get enough money. $1 Billion, would pay for London's entire rapid transit plan in one shot, both LRT & BRT.