Comment 52544

By Pxtl (registered) - website | Posted December 02, 2010 at 14:51:35

Wasn't this already the plan? I thought the city had already settled that Main and Cannon were going to remain a 1-way coupled corridor.

King staying 1 way makes sense for the business owners along King street - considering the cramped streetwall of King, losing street-side parking really isn't a realistic option for those businesses, and much of King is narrow enough that you can't fit 2-way traffic + LRT + street-side parking, so one of those things had to get the axe.

If Cannon and Main remained 1-way and King became 2-way, then you'd have drivers taking Cannon/York all the way to Dundurn and then cramming onto that residential street. With King staying 1-way between the 403 Bridge and Bay St, this means drivers heading west will move to the gradually-widening King St. before that last-second crawl at Dundurn, at more traffic-appropriate streets like Queen (wider and less residential than Dundurn).

I think council has realistically identified the 1-way corridor as a sad necessity of Hamilton's geography. The so-called "ring road" is completely disconnected from the lower city and RHVP was meant for commuters in the mountain suburbs and nothing more.

I'd focus more on making the 1-way corridor safe. Lighted crossings at every intersection. Photo radar. Wider sidewalks on the left and all-day street-side parking to keep the fast traffic away from the pedestrian area on the right. Running a highway through downtown should not be done on the cheap.

And get every other street 2-way. There's no good reason for things like Herkimer or Bay or Charlton or Wellington or Victoria to be one-way streets.

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