[HillStreetBlues]

Herkimer is one way because Charlton is one way. Charlton has to be one way because, if it were two ways, motorists coming down the mountain access in the morning might theoretically be delayed a couple of minutes while they travel through residential neighbourhoods to get to their jobs downtown, in the west end, or to the 403 via Durand and Kirkendall.

They need Charlton (and they need it to be fast) because the city has a terrible dearth of expressway infrastructure serving its suburbs. Ask anyone: taking the Linc onto the 403 is just madness because it’s only (!) one lane merging eastbound. So they have to come down the mountain to travel west, but downtown is “a traffic nightmare” (actual quote by someone who feels entitled to go fast down the residential Charlton to get to his job in West Hamilton from his residence in far-south Glanbrook), so they have to avoid King (‘cause it’s so slow, and has now lost a lane to taxis or something to boot), and Charlton is a perfect way to do that.

There are only a few stop signs and lights, between which one can go as fast as one likes (you get a double wide lane to yourself, proving that your ability to get somewhere as fast as possible is of critical import). If you’re going far enough, you can pop out at Dundurn without watching for children who might be walking to Earl Kitchener, and you’re not interrupted by any impediment until Main. Well, except maybe other motorists turning onto Frid, but the city has installed a bike lane so you can zip around them.

Anyway, that’s why Herkimer is one-way, because it’s one half of a pair that gives a small benefit to the most important constituency in the city (people who are mathematically challenged, and so drive vast distances to get to jobs from their insane places of residences at the far edge of the sprawl). Putting bike lanes in will make it worse, as it will diminish hope that these two entirely residential streets will ever be reconfigured to a form that shows some respect for the people who actually live on them.