Posted Sep 19, 2016, 8:09 PM
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Hamilton councillors Whitehead, Farr collide over bike lane projects
(Hamilton Mountain New, Kevin Werner, Sept 19 2016)
Hamilton councillor Jason Farr accused one of his political colleagues of creating a “wall of divisiveness” over the installation of bike lanes on Herkimer Street and Charlton Avenue.
A “frustrated” Farr at the Sept. 19 public works committee said Whitehead, who criticized the city’s decision to install bike lanes along Herkimer and Charlton in June, during an earlier public works committee meeting, and later on during an interview on The Bill Kelly Show on CHML, was purposely creating problems even though the Ward 8 councillor had supported bike lanes and other road projects in the lower city in the past.
“I take the approach that we are all working collaboratively to build a better city that we are working collaboratively on urban renewal” said Farr. “I’m very, very concerned we are sending these mixed messages, creating this divisiveness.”
Farr took particular issue with Whitehead asking questions of staff that the bike lanes were “putting people’s lives at risk.” Farr said Whitehead – although he did not use his name during the 26-minute exchange – was using incorrect facts about the number of vehicles and bikes that use the roadways in an effort to support outrage mountain residents.
Whitehead brought up the bike lane issue on Herkimer and Charlton at the Sept. 8 public works meeting because he argued mountain residents were being delayed about 15 minutes driving to their downtown destinations, such as St. Joseph’s Heathcare.
Whitehead blamed the bike lanes on Herkimer and Charlton as causing traffic tie-ups on Garth Street and West 5th on the mountain during the first week of September.
He said at the time that there were 15 bike trips compared to 1,000 vehicles using the roads and asking staff for a more “balanced” approach to road projects, a statement Farr, who transcribed the statements from the last public works meeting as “a wall of divisiveness.”
Farr countered that local residents, including representatives of Raise the Hammer, studied the bike trips taken for one week along Charlton Avenue and found 756 bike trips, while Herkimer saw 564 bike trips.
City staff has said they will study the pilot project including conduct traffic counts on both roadways.
Farr acknowledged the pilot project is currently being monitored, since it is the first of its kind in the city. He said there were “hundreds of people” in Ward 2 that supported bike lanes on Herkimer and Charlton and that during the four public information sessions held, “99 per cent” of the public supported it.
Farr said the bike lane installation was supposed to have occurred in 2014, but it was delayed two years “to make it better.”
Whitehead told Farr he was asking “legitimate” questions of staff, about winter control, waste pickup, DARTS services were all being impacted due to the bike lane including on local residents.
He said ambulances “were stuck” between parked cars due to the street design.
“I can understand why the good councillor is upset when facts speak for themselves,” said Whitehead.
The Ward 8 councillor said he “supports” bike lanes, but “what I don’t support is half-hearted design that doesn’t engage the people that’s impacted.”
He said there are cost implications to the project, and he was upset that the project didn’t even come before council for approval.
Whitehead said there were also no public information sessions for the pilot projects on Herkimer and Charlton on the mountain.
“Where the heck is the collaboration?” he said.
Farr, though, said he was fed up with Whitehead’s criticism about bike lanes and complete streets, even at the same time he was purporting to support the ideas.
He said over the years all of council, including Whitehead, has backed Hamilton’s cycling master plan and pedestrian mobility plan.
“This kind of stuff finds itself in the public record,” said Farr. “I gotta tell you it ain’t fooling my public. And I’m not going to sit quietly anymore.”
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