Let's talk about one-way streets

[durandy]

I agree that it's not the one way streets per se. I find King st through the international village just fine. But 5 lanes of one-way is a freeway. You can see the effect from the 403 on Main and King to James. Both streets from Dundurn to James, particularly Main, could be thriving commercial streets if they had three lanes, one or two way, with street parking and wider sidewalks.

[thistleclub]

IMHO, it's the highway access points that cause greatest friction, which infects the goodwill and conduct of pretty much all drivers crammed through that frazzled nexus.

Toronto's most central access point from the Gardiner (where it exists as a two-way three lane) are more oblique and complex traffic funnels than the east/west off-ramps at Main. If nothing else, solutions like the York/Bay/Yonge ramps don't immediately merge eastbound and westbound highway traffic and into a five-lane one-way bumper-ball arrangement with city traffic (with fast food drive through draws added to keep things interesting).

[SteelTown]

There's a big debate about going two way streets. I support going two way but I think we're losing our focus on completing the rapid transit plans.

Once the rapid transit plans are finalized than we will know what road conditions we will be facing.

[thmx]

Here is a link to an interesting article that was just posted on CBC hamilton about the 2 way street idea.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/talk/stor...onsidered.html

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by MeIsThomas

Here is a link to an interesting article that was just posted on CBC hamilton about the 2 way street idea.

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/talk/stor...onsidered.html

I love this idea. I wish they could get the money for this and do this at the same time as the LRT work on King St.

[LikeHamilton]

Urban design expert says two-way streets should get green light in Hamilton

Hamilton should have two-way traffic on both King Street and Main Street, according to one architect and urban design expert.

Designer Ken Greenberg said people should seriously consider changing the city's two main arteries of traffic.

“[One-way traffic] inhibits the relationship from one side of the street to the other," Greenberg said.

He was a guest speaker at the Transforming and Revitalizing Downtown conference in Hamilton on Thursday.

Greenberg is the former director of urban design and architecture for the city of Toronto, and has over 30 years of experience working with downtown rejuvination in Europe and North America.

"You have very wide, one way streets ... which are designed to move at high speeds," he said. "It makes crossing more difficult. It visually disconnects the street so there's a whole different feeling for pedestrians."

Greenberg lamented that Gore Park is a gem the city is not using properly.

"It has great form. It has this interesting history — but the way in which it has this river of high speed traffic beside it really dimishes what it could contribute to the life of downtown Hamilton," he said.

Greenberg said it's actually foot traffic that boots the economy, not two-way streets.

"Having feet on the street is really what makes the difference," he said. "Anything that would increase pedestrians. And having [King and Main] as two-way streets would certainly do that."

Fore the video:

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/news/stor...t-one-way.html

[mattgrande]

Every single urban design / traffic / renewal / downtown expert that comes to this city tells us the exact same thing. When are we going to listen to them?

[SteelTown]

McHattie's motion...

That a Ward 1 and Ward 2 – One-Way to Two-Way Street Implementation Team be established to systematically plan and implement one-way street conversions in the downtown area, beginning with a project submission to the 2013 budget process for conversion of Cannon Street and Queen Street to two-way streets;

http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/...ablishment.pdf

[SteelTown]

Hamilton councillor calls for action on one-way street conversions

http://www.cbc.ca/hamilton/commute/s...ay-motion.html

Councillor Brian McHattie will try and light a fire under city council next week to help get rid of the downtown Hamilton's one-way streets.

The Ward 1 councillor will introduce a motion at city council that calls for a team to be established to plan and implement conversions of one-way streets to two-way in wards 1 and 2.

“There appears to be a strong convergence of public opinion in Hamilton in favour of one-way street conversion to benefit adjacent retail businesses, slow traffic, improve pedestrian movements, and generally increase liveability in neighbourhoods,” McHattie's motion says.

More than 100 one-way streets remain in Hamilton, the majority downtown.

McHattie wants the implementation to include public consultation and input from community associations.

McHatttie suggests the first project could be the conversion of Cannon and Queen streets.

The motion will be heard by the General Issues committee on Thursday.

[realcity]

Why did he not include Ward 3 in his motion? Since Canon turns into a one-way at Sherman any traffic coming downtown on Canon started in Ward 3.

And if Main, King, Wilson all run through Ward 3 also, is the good councilor suggesting we keep them one-way in Ward 3? And we do the half two-way, half one-way stupid streets this city does.

[realcity]

Some of the most ridiculous one-way streets in this city that make zero sense.

Aberdeen (east of Queen) someone needs to explain that one to me?
Sherman North
Locke St (between King and Main)

and note how much westbound traffic is on that one-lane conversion on York in front of the farmers market. The lane ends at Bay. What was the point of that? Did tons of traffic need to get from northbound James to Bay North? Since southbound can't make a right hand turn onto York from James. Just ridiculous.

What worries me about the City's great efforts to convert the streets is that they go only halfway, it's almost worse. The York/Wilson partial conversion is a fail. The John Street conversion with all it's turning lanes is a fail. And the southbound lights timing on John makes sure you have to stop every 50 meters. And I noticed a new light is being installed at John and Augusta.

[movingtohamilton]

There is a huge discussion going on at raisethehammer.org, on the one-way street issue. Here's a sample, and there are other threads.

http://raisethehammer.org/article/16...mentation_team

[SteelTown]

Council approves the motion with some adjustments to the wording.

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by SteelTown

Council approves the motion with some adjustments to the wording.

Council basically gutted McHattie's motion. It is now a study committee rather than an implementation committee. They have very little authority to do anything besides study possible conversion.

Any councilor from an area outside of the downtown that votes for conversion will lose next election, it's as simple as that. There is that much opposition to it happening from those outside of the downtown.

[flar]

Just convert them already. The one ways make driving so confusing for outsiders. It's the first thing people talk about when they describe a visit to downtown Hamilton (even before the decay and abandonment)

[Jon Dalton]

That was such a shit show. The mountain concillors didn't offer a god damn shred of evidence to support their claims that two way streets would cause unacceptably slower traffic.

Hamilton has 7.2km of highway and arterial road per person. This is the highest of any city in Canada. Excess capacity was built when employment boomed in the north end and no highways around our city yet existed.

Concerns about commuting in, driving through and accessing facilities like Copps are secondary to those of downtown livability. It is in our official plan to increase residential downtown, reduce car dependence and increase transit and active transportation. Those are our goals.

We are not trying to be the best place in Canada to watch a Bon Jovi concert or a football game. Sure that will continue to be part of downtown life but it is not the priority. Councillors from outside of downtown should not interfere with it reaching its own goals which are also the goals of the entire city.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

That was such a shit show. The mountain concillors didn't offer a god damn shred of evidence to support their claims that two way streets would cause unacceptably slower traffic.

Did the councilors that proposed the original motion provide any evidence that the change would not impact traffic patterns?

[flar]

It's supposed to impact traffic patterns

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by Jon Dalton

Hamilton has 7.2km of highway and arterial road per person. This is the highest of any city in Canada. Excess capacity was built when employment boomed in the north end and no highways around our city yet existed.

Are you on crack, 7.2 kms per person, that's would be over 3.5 million kms of arterial roads in this city.

As for the rest of your nonsense, downtown is downtown it is not supposed to be a residential area, it is supposed to be a central business area.

[flar]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

As for the rest of your nonsense, downtown is downtown it is not supposed to be a residential area, it is supposed to be a central business area.

Streets like Cannon, Wilson, Queen, Victoria, Charlton, Herkimer, Markland, Aberdeen and literally dozens of others are mostly residential.

Why on earth do they need to route through traffic on a street like Charlton? Right through what should be the best neighbourhood in the city. One of many examples. It's plain stupid. Every single authority on urban planning that has been brought to Hamilton says get rid of this outdated system. Why is the burden of proof on those who agree with the experts? Or do we just write off their expertise, as if they don't know what they're talking about?

In the end, the question we should be asking is, what good has come of the one-way system? Is there any evidence that the one-way system has improved Hamilton? Is there any evidence that removing it will make the city worse (is that even possible at this point?)