Raise the Hammer

Thanks for the thoughtful response. I appreciate your point about Toronto, because I go there two or three times a week for work. I would never drive, unless I had a heavy parcel, or passengers. But I think that's as it should be. Our infrastructure design should encourage people to take more efficient modes of travel, and loading up a GO train is much more efficient than loading up the QEW with single-person vehicles.

But I take it your point has to do with driving in Toronto itself, which is certainly a bear. I appreciate why you don't go there. I like to stay in Hamilton myself. Nevertheless, Toronto gets plenty of visitors. It gets them because it is a vibrant and exciting place. It gets them for the same kinds of reasons Manhattan gets them. When you get to Toronto, you park your car and walk. It's pleasant to walk even along heavily trafficked thoroughfares like Bloor or Yonge or University. The sidewalks are broad and welcoming. The cars are not racing by.

It is interesting to walk along Bloor Street, but it is frightening to walk along Main Street in Hamilton. On Main Street, the sidewalks are narrow. Every hundred feet or so they are interrupted by a lamppost that makes two-abreast impossible. Conversation is difficult because there is always another wave of speedway traffic roaring by. One clings to children anxiously because the sidewalk is too narrow, and the speedway too fast, to be safe for them. The sidewalks are shared with cyclists who, in Toronto, would be on the road where they belong, but, in Hamilton, are scared off it.

In Hamilton, there are a few areas allowed to thrive. James North is getting there. International Village on King Street has the makings of an interesting area, and part of it is because the city has departed from its customary cars-first policy and allowed an interesting pedestrian environment to survive. There are other places. But in general, they are sacrificed to automotive throughput.

My point is that people will visit Hamilton if Hamilton is an interesting place to visit. They will not be deterred by gridlock, nearly as much as they are presently deterred by the charmless speedways lacing our core. If we want a vital Hamilton, we have to make it hospitable to PEOPLE, not to their cars.