Comment 52689

By Mahonebone (anonymous) | Posted December 06, 2010 at 10:27:43

There is a tug-of-war in my mind for how to go about this whole LRT thing. For one, I sympathize with the concerns about King Street. They seem reasonable enough in the context of laying down LRT rails. For the conversion of Main Street and Cannon, I think we need to take some political gamesmanship into account.

I've heard some suggestions of keeping Main and Cannon two-way, so long as traffic could be slowed. Though I am pro-two-way conversion, it is a political hot potato to do a wholesale changeover. A strategy is needed whereby Main and Cannon traffic could be slowed while remaining palatable (which sadly means catering to a lot of people not in the downtown). If this could get off the ground, it could precipitate the baby steps of revitalization. From my vantage point, if we can get more people living downtown, then the influence of urban concerns over city planning can only increase.

Why not try to make some quick wins such as traffic slowing on Main Street and Cannon, so that downtown can gain some residents back? More people living downtown probably are in favour of two-way streets (this is just a guess). Let's try to ramp up that number until we reach a tipping point where political will is in their favour. This would be a long-term project, but more plausible in my mind given the current political climate in the city.

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