The articulated 10 route now runs largely empty west of downtown because it is less convenient to take, while the non-articulated buses that make all stops and go through the campus are completely stuffed. The bus drivers seem to be more understanding than they used to be, to be sure - Most will let the entire front of the bus fill up with people standing. It's not safe, but I assume they know that otherwise, there simply wouldn't be enough room on the buses. Alternatively, it can be faster to walk downtown (I've done it several times, but, having just completed my term at Mac, I have more time than most, to say the least). Running giant, largely empty buses doesn't strike me as a wise expenditure of public dollars.
Last spring, I caught the 10 westbound every day from downtown - Almost every person on that bus from downtown to the campus was a student.
I agree that the system should not just cater to the university. Why can't the efficiency of the 10/LRT be increased by removing one of the Westdale stops on westbound trips, and even having no eastbound stop in Westdale at all?
The university is by far the most important stop on the B-line between downtown and Dundas (and, sorry, but with a student population larger than the city of Dundas, arguably more important), and should be better connected.
U of T has three subway stations accessing its campus (and streetcars as well, as raisethehammer points out), the Bee-line in Vancouver has been a staple of transportation to UBC for some time now (and the city is building a subway line to the university in the medium-term future), and McGill has two subway stops. What is particularly annoying about Hamilton is that the city (which is home to what is by many accounts Canada's fourth most important post-graduate university) seemed to have had their priorities largely in order in the first place - only then to change them drastically.
A well-planned transit system requires at least two things - that people make the commitment to switch from driving their cars to using public transit, and that the city make it convenient for these people. If the city and school is willing to do little to coax people out of their cars, this will not affect the committed few (like myself), but will surely discourage others from giving up their cars. This will likely have negative repercussions for the entire city.
I could partially understand if the city had plans to greatly densify the Main corridor west of the 403 - To abandon most of the university, however, as well as Westdale, in order to run the city's highly-anticipated LRT down a corridor of strip malls, car dealerships, parking lots, etc., with lower residential density and much less commercial activity south of that area, is simply not intuitive.
For most of the huge number of students and faculty who use the 10 to get to campus, the re-routing was a huge mistake. Given the conditions on campus in the winter (when the school is busiest), there will in effect be no "rapid transit" for those who work or study on the north side of McMaster at all (even for downtown-bound people from the hospital, apparently half the buses turn into the hospital itself, while the rest stop at Main and Emerson). Students like myself, who possess more than the average in the way of environmental conscience, will buck up and stand up on the enormously over-crowded buses downtown. What about the people who can afford to drive to campus, and have taken transit up to this time out of convenience?
The 10 is one thing - that can be changed (and I really hope they do change it). If the city/school botches the LRT, however, that isn't something that can be fixed overnight. If the LRT is not successful in convincing the otherwise reluctant that transit is a convenient way to get around the city, it will still be enormously expensive, still be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the city, but would in many important respects fail. Passenger revenue would be less on the Main route as well, making the LRT harder to keep up - This route makes little economic sense.
I still keep in touch with an old professor of mine in Vancouver. When I mentioned I chose Mac for a grad school, his response was that he thought Hamilton, by virtue of having a huge blue-collar, steel and manufacturing population, and a large cohort of white-collar healthcare and university types, would be an interesting city. My experience in Hamilton has been generally positive, particularly downtown. I have noticed quite a difference, however, between the eastern and western portions of the city. It has been quite common to hear from people who live in Westdale and environs that downtown Hamilton is dirty, dangerous, depressing, etc. On the other hand, to judge from some conversations I've had in the central and eastern part of the city, many people in downtown and environs don't realize how renowned their home-town university is. A typical response is "Couldn't you have studied that in Vancouver?".
The point of this is that it does not make any sense from the perspective of transit efficiency to not simply run the 10/LRT along its previous route, and to merely limit the number of stops it makes in Westdale (to keep students from riding rapid transit when they could just walk for five minutes). This would ensure better service for Dundas and other non-Mac residents over what it was before.
This re-routing makes perfect sense, however, from a political perspective. While I'm sure there are exceptions, based on what I've seen in this city, it is to be expected that the city (and its electorate east of, say, Bay St.), when planning the LRT route, would downgrade the importance of the university, while the university would probably see fit to ignore anybody east of Locke (perhaps even Longwood).
With the federal election just around the corner, perhaps people are thinking more politically than usual?
It's a real shame, because a poorly-designed route could have the potential to derail (sorry!) the LRT funding entirely.
Prev
Linear Mode
