The future of Hamilton's public transit

[Dr Awesomesauce]

It's a step in the right direction but you're not gonna catch me getting excited about something we should have done 30 years ago. Maybe in another 30 years we can add a bus lane to Main or perhaps even bike lanes. Wow! That's about the speed of this necrotic city and its feckless representatives.

Hopefully this tactical urbanism movement can gain some momentum and we can start showing people how easy and cheap it is to create complete streets and a livable city. In process we'll also demonstrate how completely useless and pointless our municipal government is.

[SteelTown]

WTF?!?!?! Well I hope council will reverse the decision.

Councillors scrap bus-only lane on King Street

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/2877329-councillors-scrap-bus-only-lane-on-king-street/

Transit stops and the looming bus-only lane on King Street are to be detailed today at council.

The city's public works committee has voted down plans to test-drive a dedicated transit-lane on King Street.

The dedicated lane, proposed to run two kilometres from Mary Street to just east of Dundurn, was meant to speed up bus travel and evaluate the traffic impact of an eventual light-rail line running east-west through the busy corridor.

The pilot project was approved in principle, after much debate, by council in February as part of a larger Rapid Ready transportation plan.

But a public works committee with only five members in attendance voted 3-2 against implementing the transit-only lane, which was scheduled to go live at the end of September.

Council still has to ratify the decision next week.

[thistleclub]

Present: Ferguson (Chair), Collins, Duvall, McHattie, Merulla
Absent: Whitehead (Vice-Chair), Jackson, Pasuta, Powers

[movingtohamilton]

Who voted against?

[SteelTown]

Ferguson, Collins and Duvall.

[HillStreetBlues]

Outrageous. This was such a no-brainer, it's not even funny.

We can't even get a single bus lane on one street with excess capacity, on a trial basis.

[movingtohamilton]

Collins comments are utterly idiotic, but sound well rehearsed.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/05/16/hamilton-transit-lane.html

[drpgq]

Originally Posted by movingtohamilton

Collins comments are utterly idiotic, but sound well rehearsed.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/05/16/hamilton-transit-lane.html

That's why you don't vote for someone whose only previous job experience was video store clerk.

[Pearlstreet]

What was the argument against it? Perhaps having it would percieve us to be heading in an HSR only direction without LRT? Seems strange... Poor McHattie must be shitting his pants.

[movingtohamilton]

Collins could be a former video store clerk or a neurosurgeon. What matters is his capacity to learn, retain, and organize information. Oh wait...I'll vote for the neurosurgeon.

[HillStreetBlues]

“If (bus rapid transit) becomes the default position to LRT (light rail transit) for whatever reason and this pilot project goes forward and there really are no benefits…we run the risk of turning people off of BRT completely,” he said.

So they're supporting LRT, but if they end up supporting BRT, he doesn't want the City to have piloted something to enhance bus transit (which is what transit users have now and the only thing they will have no matter what for a decade), in case it turns people off of the idea of Bus Rapid Transit (which is not what they're supporting, but then again could be).

[movingtohamilton]

Originally Posted by Pearlstreet

What was the argument against it? Perhaps having it would percieve us to be heading in an HSR only direction without LRT? Seems strange... Poor McHattie must be shitting his pants.

Read here for argument against: http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/story/2013/05/16/hamilton-transit-lane.html

[Dr Awesomesauce]

Does everybody see what's happening here? As I alluded to a couple weeks back, somebody's put the screws to these fair-weather dib dabs. Considering their previous level of support for rapid transit - virtually nil - I'm sure very little pressure was actually required, however.

Some friendly advice for newcomers to Hamilton - tune out. No city is what you think it is. Some are better than you imagined, some are worse. Enjoy Hamilton for what it is and stay out of politics. You'll only go mad.

[movingtohamilton]

pEte, Hamilton is a great city. As a newcomer, I'm not yet jaded and hope to stay engaged.

[matt602]

I don't even have words for this bullshit. Seriously?

[CaptainKirk]

Why do we even employ staff when know-it-all politicians know better?

[bigguy1231]

The politicians are just voting the way their constituents are telling them to vote it's no surprise to me. These people don't get elected by not having an idea for what the majority of their constituents want. Outside of the few activists advocating for LRT, most people in this city have no interest in seeing it built and the more details that come out the greater the opposition will be.

[HillStreetBlues]

Bigguy, the public works committee was not discussing LRT, and I can't understand Collins' confusion about that.

LRT is very expensive and will ultimately only directly serve some parts of the city. It's understandable that some people won't understand the benefits, and oppose it based on cost.

But this bus lane, which should have existed ages ago, is a great and easy way to incrementally improve transit for people who use it today (sorry- actually, just to study how it might improve transit for people who use it today, on a pilot basis). It was going to be no cost to the city.

Collins represents Ward 5, an area of the city with a higher proportion of low-income residents, and a higher proportion of transit users. I don't think his constituents would tell him that they want him to vote against making their commute by bus a little quicker because they're concerned about taxis having to unload on the opposite side of the street.

[thistleclub]

A bit dated but interesting nevertheless.

Labour Force Transit Adoption, 2001 / 2006

Ward 1: 1,540 / 2,020 (13.8%)
Ward 2: 2,770 / 3,645 (22.5%)
Ward 3: 2,480 / 2,885 (17.8%)
Ward 4: 1,935 / 2,410 (14.8%)
Ward 5: 1,750 / 1,915 (11.3%)
Lower City Total: 10,476 / 12,875
Lower City Avg: 2,095 / 2,575 (16.0%)

Ward 6: 1,615 / 1,825 (9.8%)
Ward 7: 2,450 / 2,390 (8.7%)
Ward 8: 1,440 / 1,920 (8.7%)
Mountain Total: 5,505 / 6,135
Mountain Avg: 1,835 / 2,045 (9.1%)

Ward 9: 570 / 535 (4.1%)
Ward 10: 325 / 520 (4.2%)
Ward 11: 160 / 265 (2.2%)
Ward 12: 320 / 390 (2.7%)
Ward 13: 555 / 585 (5.2%)
Ward 14: 70 / 70 (1.0%)
Ward 15: 340 / 300 (2.4%)
Suburban Total: 2,340 / 2,665
Surburban Avg: 334 / 381 (3.1%)

City-Wide: 18,325 / 21,670 (9.3%)

[Jon Dalton]

King Street has 5 god damn lanes in this area. Not one can be used for buses?

The right lane is for all intents and purposes, already a bus lane. Why not just make it official?

What sucks now is not so much traffic, but the odd taxi or FedEx truck blocking the GO bus from pulling over where it should. When this happens, the bus must stop in the second from right lane. Passengers have to walk across the active lane to board the bus and sometimes load their bike on the bike rack. This is dangerous.

The solution is to have a clearly marked bus lane and designated areas for taxis and delivery vehicles. There is ample real estate to do this.

With so many piss poor, gutless decisions coming from council resulting in pedestrian death traps, it is a matter of time before the city is in hot water over the coming Provincial Complete Streets policy guidelines. Similar to Places to Grow, our council will be called to task for its consistent bed-shitting on pedestrian safety.