Life in the slow lane
North End residents mean to slow down traffic
http://www.thespec.com/news-story/28...-down-traffic/
Life will soon be a lot slower in Hamilton's North End — and that suits many residents there just fine.
After a decade in the works, the city is ready to begin a five-year pilot project called the North End Traffic Management Plan.
The highlight of the plan is a reduction of the speed limit to 30 kilometres per hour on all roads in the North End with the exception of James and Burlington streets. The plan covers the area from Wellington Street to the west harbour and from the water's edge to the CN tracks just north of Barton Street.
The pilot project also calls for other traffic reduction measures such as curb extensions, enhanced crosswalks, lane narrowing and additional street parking.
"It's all about creating some calm," said Ward 2 councillor Jason Farr, who represents the North End. "It's about making this a child- and family-friendly neighbourhood.
"I talk to my colleagues and so many of them are going to be watching this five-year pilot closely," Farr added. "It's one of the major complaints in any residential neighbourhood."
The traffic management project is the North End community's response to the city's Setting Sail plan, which lays out the vision for the west harbour in the decades to come.
Redevelopment of the waterfront will bring increased traffic and density to the North End — as well as increased safety concerns for families already living there.
"We very quickly learned that the speed and the volume of traffic have a profound impact on how people relate to their community," said Herman Turkstra, a well-known Hamilton lawyer and North End resident. "Parents intuitively understand the safety relationship between the street and where they live.
"The goal was to try to find a way to channel the traffic that was going through the community to the main streets, to slow it down and to make the residential streets a place where if you have two or three children, you'd feel safe inside that this was a place where your kids were at minimum risk for harm."
About 100 people turned out Saturday afternoon at the corner of James and Strachan streets for the ceremonial ribbon-cutting to start the project and they were treated to pizza, live music, children's games and information displays.
"I happen to think that the strength of a city starts in the neighbourhoods," said Turkstra. "If you don't have strong and vibrant neighbourhoods, you don't get a strong and vibrant city.
"Small areas like Ancaster and Dundas know this intuitively," he added. "When you're in the heart of the city, you have to fight to make this happen. It doesn't happen automatically."