The future of Hamilton's public transit

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by coalminecanary

whether it's 4 or 5 doesn't matter if we are discussing overcapacities since we only really need two lanes - and that's only an hour or two a day. The rest of the 22 hours we only need one.

That is an interesting point. I am having a difficult time finding a traffic pattern study that supports that claim. If you have access to one, I would appreciate it if you could post a link to it here.

[SteelTown]

Tuesday launch of transit-only lane depends on tonight's weather

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/t...e-depends-on-tonight-s-weather-1.2128951

City staff are watching the skies before deciding whether the transit-only lane on King Street East will open as planned Tuesday morning.

"We're waiting for the weather report because we were going to do the lane painting tonight," said Kelly Anderson, public affairs coordinator for the city's public works department. Tonight's forecast calls for a few showers, which could mean the dedicated transit lanes, originally slotted to open in September, will face further delays. The lane won't be opened until the lines can be painted, Anderson said.

In May, council approved a one-year pilot project to convert the North lane of King Street East into a bus-only lane between Mary Street and Dundurn Street. Originally, council voted down the the $300,000 project, which was slotted to launch in September but faced delays.

The transit-only lane is meant to get buses moving faster along the busy corridor and will bump parking on the north side of King Street East to the south side. Businesses will also have to rely on the south lane for loading.

City staff will be required to submit an end of project report to the general issues committee on the lane's success following the completion of the pilot.

[SteelTown]

It's raining now so I doubt the transit lanes will happen tomorrow.

[matt602]

They were installing the signs today around 5pm but yeah, it's raining pretty good now.

[SteelTown]

Rain delays transit-only bus lanes on King Street

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/n...-only-bus-lanes-on-king-street-1.2129500

Hamiltonians will have to wait a little longer for Hamilton’s first transit-only lane on King Street. Monday night’s rain delayed city officials from painting pavement markings overnight, the city says.

“Rain prevented crews from completing the transit-only lane on King St.,” the city said in a tweet Tuesday morning. “They will try again tonight, weather permitting.”

The $300,000 city pilot project that converts the north lane of King St. into a bus-only lane from Mary Street to Dundurn Street starts was to start at 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Crews may have to complete the work in stages, according to Kelly Anderson, public affairs coordinator for the city's public works department. Environment Canada is calling for a 40 per cent chance of showers overnight.

"Motorists should drive according to pavement markings and signage," Anderson said in a release.

The one-year project, aimed to increase the flow of public transit along the busy throughway, means parking and loading on the street will be moved to the south side. The project was originally shot-down by council before being approved in May. It was set to launch in September but faced delays. It's also seen as an early test of attitudes and reactions to an LRT line in the corridor.

There are some immediate issues councillors, planners, and business people will be watching.

Cars and bikes are not allowed in the transit-only lane, something some cyclists have criticized, according to city councillor Brian McHattie, who re-tabled the pilot project in May. It could lead to more changes throughout the project, so drivers should keep their eyes peeled for pavement markings.

"[Cyclists] have suggested adding "sharrows" [shared lane markings] in the lane next to the bus-only lane so cars know that bikes may be travelling there," McHattie said. "This is a good suggestion and I am checking with staff on that."

In the meantime, bikes and cars will share the road without having to dodge buses and vice versa, something councillor Jason Farr said will improve traffic flow on the corridor. Originally, business owners he spoke to in the area felt positive about the project, Farr said, but lately there's been a petition circulating against it.

"The petition cited buses going 70 km/hr, less romantic streets and the possibility nefarious folks gathering at the area bus stops among a few other concerns," Farr said, adding city staff have worked with the King West Business Improvement Association to try to ease their reservations, which came too late in the planning process.

After the one-year project is complete, city staff will present a report on the effects of the dedicated bus lanes to the general issues committee.

[Beedok]

Nefarious folks gathering at the bus stops because of bus lanes??? What?

Also, how is the street less 'romantic' with a bus lane?

[SteelTown]

Yay! Hamilton enters a new era on public transit...

UPDATE: Bus-only lane launches on King Street

http://www.thespec.com/news-story/4169889-update-bus-only-lane-launches-on-king-street/

The north side lane of King Street is now a designated transit lane

A King Street lane designated for public transit vehicles including HSR buses is now in partial operation.

The city said Wednesday morning that the transit-only lane pavement markings along King have been completed up to Locke St.

Upon completion, it will include Mary to New streets - which is one block east of Dundurn.

Motorists should drive according to pavement markings and signage, the city said; adding city crews will continue with street markings and unveil signage beyond Locke.

[mattgrande]

Traffic was terrible on King this morning. I'm not even going to look at The Spec's comments, because I know what will be there...

Kinda strange that it's the second-from-the-right-hand lane in front of Jackson...

[LikeHamilton]

Originally Posted by mattgrande

Traffic was terrible on King this morning. I'm not even going to look at The Spec's comments, because I know what will be there...

Kinda strange that it's the second-from-the-right-hand lane in front of Jackson...

As someone who drives or get driven throughout the downtown several times a week, traffic is always terrible during the day and worse during rush hour. It takes nothing to slow it down. The stretch from Wellington to Queen is always the worst as traffic from Victoria, Wellington, John, James, Bay and Hess are merging onto King. That is why I always favoured LRT to be one-way on King and One-way on Main like the old trolley buses.

[markbarbera]

I suspect this will likely push westbound traffic over to Cannon Street, which will impact on any planned complete street efforts there.

[coalminecanary]

There are a lot of alternatives to driving through Hamilton on King. Choosing that route (regardless of transit lane) is akin to choosing to drive through downtown Toronto on Yonge.

[coalminecanary]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

I suspect this will likely push westbound traffic over to Cannon Street, which will impact on any planned complete street efforts there.

Interesting, do you have a study to back that up?

[MaxT63]

I took some pictures of the new bus lane while biking. Interestingly, another cyclist approached me asking "whether the new bike lane goes all the way to Dundurn". She was amazed that the city recommends using the second lane now.

Otherwise, I thought the bus project is implemented fairly well, and traffic didn't seem any worse than usual at 5 PM. Hopefully this infrastructure will help build ridership and lead toward a similar lane on Main or the B-Line LRT.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by coalminecanary

Interesting, do you have a study to back that up?

There won't be a study available until the pilot has been completed next year.

I did present that as a suspicion and not as if it was fact. I am sorry you misunderstood me. Do you understand the difference now?

[coalminecanary]

dude lighten up it was a joke.

In regards to your other question about how many lanes are actually necessary on King, the volume on King west was 27,000 in 1999 and has fallen to 24,900 (presumably it will fall more if we actually build good alternatives in transit and cycling, and people do have alternate routes that are underutilized)

According to wikipedia Road diets can succeed at volumes up to about 23,000 - road diet referring to one lane in each direction with a turn lane.

So that's why I said we only need two lanes on King.

[markbarbera]

Originally Posted by coalminecanary

dude lighten up it was a joke.

In regards to your other question about how many lanes are actually necessary on King, the volume on King west was 27,000 in 1999 and has fallen to 24,900 (presumably it will fall more if we actually build good alternatives in transit and cycling, and people do have alternate routes that are underutilized)

According to wikipedia Road diets can succeed at volumes up to about 23,000 - road diet referring to one lane in each direction with a turn lane.

So that's why I said we only need two lanes on King.

If we work with the assumption that all things on Wikipedia and RTH are fact, the road diet article on Wikipedia makes the statement "Not all multi-lane arterials are good candidates for road constriction. Added congestion can outweigh benefits if vehicle traffic volumes exceed the capacity of the three-lane roadway. This threshold is approximately 20,000 vehicles per day.[3] Burden notes additional characteristics of better candidates for vehicle lane removal." The current traffic volume as quoted from RTH is 24,900, about 25% above the threshold mentined in the Wikipedia article.

[ScreamingViking]

Hopefully council doesn't get spooked at any initial anger, and lets this play out.

I think of it as less a test of the operation of a bus lane, and more a test of how everyone will adjust to a narrower King St.

[matt602]

I went down to King and Bay this afternoon to document the traffic chaos that the bus-only lane has apparently created.

• Video Link

Yeah...

[ScreamingViking]

Yeah? Well you clearly missed what was happening at 5:08! And you weren't there at 4:40 either... OMFG!!


A couple quotes from a late Spec article: Police issue tickets on bus-only lane despite ‘education period’
Mayor Bob Bratina joked the city could tell provincial transit agency Metrolinx, which put $300,000 into the pilot, that "we finally have some congestion."

Mountain Councillor Terry Whitehead urged motorists to bring any concerns about the bus-only lane to councillors, adding if problems persist the city may have to revisit the one-year pilot project earlier than planned.


How surprising.

[coalminecanary]

Originally Posted by markbarbera

If we work with the assumption that all things on Wikipedia and RTH are fact

The RTH numbers come straight from the city. RTH just provides a much more accessible version of them.

The real problem is, you are working under another assumption - that the ultimate goal of King Street should be to move the full 25,000 vehicles unburderned - without slowing down - 24 hours a day. But this is not the job of the primary commercial street in any functional city. It would be like maintaining 80km/hr on highway six through every town. There's a reason they built the Caledonia bypass - because fast through traffic has no place on any town's "Main Street".

You also assume that changing the dynamic of king won't reduce the number of vehicles. How many vehicles on King have an alternate route that they are not motivated to take because King is simply the easiest? Studies prove that when you reduce lanes, people adjust to alternate routes as necessary. And if we remove lanes in order to provide better transit and cycling options, some cars literally disappear as people choose completely alternate methods.

King is already two lanes through international village. So if you want to see a study about how two lanes are enough to move the cars on King, just go down to the street and look at it.

I'd like to see the study that shows that there are enough extra vehicles entering King from John to justify widening it to 3 lanes there. And enough entering from James to justify widening it to 4. And enough entering from Locke (!?) to justify widening it to five lanes.

Can you even comprehend how ludicrous a 5 lane street is in a city our size? The 401 through mississauga only has 3 lanes in each direction.

I'm not interested in your lane capacity study concern trolling. YOU go find some studies to justify the lanes we have. King's busiest stretch (west of bay) routinely operates fine with two live lanes - every time there is construction - sometimes lasting months or years! There's no reason King would not work as a two lane street for its entire length.