Comment 13031

By city watcher (anonymous) | Posted October 18, 2007 at 18:07:41

Sean,
I hate to disagree...it sounds so great in theory, but, getting rid of all private autos at this point in Hamilton's development will prob. just deaden the gore even more.

People need something to go TO - destinations, and I don't mean the bus stop!

In my view it's the buses idling and taking up all visible and literal space that's the problem, along with the fact that so many one way lanes are too tempting to the 'thru' driver.

I do think something ought to change though. If we were to get rid of all buses and cars on the south side of King (a no brainer), reduce to two lanes and go two-way on the south King stretch, and get the few remaining buses (King St. ones only allowed)to 'wait' outside the gore - this would go a long way to making a more liveable/walkable area (and will be viewed as more than radical enough by the nay sayers)

Hopefully, once this was in place, and the sidewalks wider and the street slower and quieter, businesses would respond and create more and better types of services and THEN adventurous folks will go there, and other folks might drive by (slowly) and see real life going on, not just drifters and bus waiters, and it will build from there.

The upheaval and backlash created by trying to make south King in the Gore TOTALLY car-free is just not worth the risk. I worry that the mayor's plan is so dramatic that the 'anti' folks would have a heyday if such a project failed (which I fear it will), and we'd never get another chance.

Permalink | Context

Events Calendar

Recent Articles

Article Archives

Blog Archives

Site Tools

Feeds