Let's talk about one-way streets

[Doady]

Glad to see Hamilton willing to take the necessary steps to revitalize its downtown. Hopefully Montreal will look at this and finally realize how much Rue Ste-Catherine has killed their downtown also.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by Doady

Glad to see Hamilton willing to take the necessary steps to revitalize its downtown. Hopefully Montreal will look at this and finally realize how much Rue Ste-Catherine has killed their downtown also.

This is happening with much kicking and screaming among the politicians. Yet every time a conversion happens, life goes on without much of a hitch.

There are a number of downtown residential side streets that are one-way which could be converted (but some which are narrow and may be best left as they are, with room for parking and bike lanes). The biggest fight will be over the two main east-west thoroughfares King St. and Main, especially if LRT or BRT does not happen along King St. for the foreseeable future.

[SteelTown]

Keanin Loomis
https://twitter.com/keaninloomis/status

[SteelTown]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

This is happening with much kicking and screaming among the politicians. Yet every time a conversion happens, life goes on without much of a hitch.

HAHA yeah and remember the Downtown Transportation Master Plan was approved in 2001, 19 years later we're still debating about it each time a road gets converted.

[interr0bangr]

I didn't see any recent hype or announcement about it, but Victoria Ave. North is now 2-way between Burlington Street and Ferrie Street.

Now lets hope it doesn't take another 20 years to extend it further south to Barton or Cannon or *gasp* King/Main.

[Innsertnamehere]

Yup. I drove along it the “wrong” way last week. A northbound bike lane has also been installed.

My understanding is this is primarily to serve the Hamilton Central Business park there, which built its first building this summer.

[cooke442]

Originally Posted by Innsertnamehere

Yup. I drove along it the “wrong” way last week. A northbound bike lane has also been installed.

My understanding is this is primarily to serve the Hamilton Central Business park there, which built its first building this summer.

There has also been an issue with responding paramedic vehicles getting stuck at the tracks on Burlington st. I'm wondering if that could be part of the reason as they couldn't go south from their base.

[ScreamingViking]

No reason not to continue it 2-way to Barton. It would be a single lane in each direction (bike lane and street parking are already there) but it would make the General's parking garage more accessible, despite that small connector road between Wellington and Victoria. Traffic volumes north of the hospital are very light... most times I drive that stretch it's rare to see more than one other vehicle, and not much less rare to be the only one driving it.

CN would have to reconfigure the barriers and lights at their mainline tracks. That could be a sticking point, or at least a source of delay.

Victoria between King William and Barton is a beautiful street, with lots of really interesting old homes and many large trees that overhang the road. Its conversion would require Wellington to be done as well, but I don't see why it can't happen, even to Main Street. South of Main things can be kept as they are for now, as the way they link to the Claremont makes it a more difficult/expensive conversion.

[Innsertnamehere]

Originally Posted by ScreamingViking

No reason not to continue it 2-way to Barton. It would be a single lane in each direction (bike lane and street parking are already there) but it would make the General's parking garage more accessible, despite that small connector road between Wellington and Victoria. Traffic volumes north of the hospital are very light... most times I drive that stretch it's rare to see more than one other vehicle, and not much less rare to be the only one driving it.

CN would have to reconfigure the barriers and lights at their mainline tracks. That could be a sticking point, or at least a source of delay.

Victoria between King William and Barton is a beautiful street, with lots of really interesting old homes and many large trees that overhang the road. Its conversion would require Wellington to be done as well, but I don't see why it can't happen, even to Main Street. South of Main things can be kept as they are for now, as the way they link to the Claremont makes it a more difficult/expensive conversion.

I think if they were to extend it to Barton they would have to rip out the street parking bays along the hospital and convert it to a rush hour traffic lane or something.

I'm fine with Victoria being converted to two way, though I think it will only work north of King St. Wellington St. should have a lane converted to a bi-directional cycle track instead, to connect to the Keddy Access.

[urban_planner]

Another person has failed victim to the Competitive advantage at Main and Dundurn.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by urban_planner

Another person has failed victim to the Competitive advantage at Main and Dundurn.

Jesus fuck. I saw that and continue to be angry at council for allowing this to continue.

https://twitter.com/emptybikelane/st...ixq7W007g&s=19

[Innsertnamehere]

A few minutes later a car went off the escarpment in Stoney Creek too.. Unfortunately I don't think this one has much to do with road safety design.

https://twitter.com/JoeyColeman/stat...khE9DksUNK3Vow

[bigguy1231]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

Jesus fuck. I saw that and continue to be angry at council for allowing this to continue.

https://twitter.com/emptybikelane/st...ixq7W007g&s=19

The police reported that speed or impairment were not factors. You guys really need to get over your irrational fear of roads and cars. Every city of any size in the world has one way streets.

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

The police reported that speed or impairment were not factors. You guys really need to get over your irrational fear of roads and cars. Every city of any size in the world has one way streets.

It's about safe streets. Not fear of cars.

Crashes will happen no matter what. But when you've designed things chiefly for one mode of travel, the others will be impacted, sometimes in very bad ways.

A walk home from school instead ended in a trip to the hospital for a teenage girl who was critically injured in a collision at the intersection of Dundurn and Main streets Wednesday afternoon.

Emergency crews responded to the intersection — adjacent to the Cash Money on Main — shortly after 2 p.m. for a pedestrian-involved, single-vehicle collision.

Const. Indy Bharaj said at a Hamilton police press conference Wednesday evening that the pedestrian was crossing east on Main when a white Hyundai SUV turned left onto Dundurn and struck her.

It’s believed the pedestrian — a 14-year-old girl and student of a nearby school — had the right of way, said Bharaj. She was walking alone.

The teenager was taken to McMaster Children’s Hospital where she underwent immediate surgery to treat multiple serious injuries.

As of Wednesday night, her condition remained critical but stable, said Bharaj.

Police have ruled out speed and impairment as factors in the crash.

https://www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...in-street.html

[HamiltonBoyInToronto]

This is not about cars or traffic .... this is about the disastrous 5 lane highway ripping through our downtown core with timed light changes allowing any asshole to weave freely from far right to far left. This is about undoing a horrible design that was made to get people into and OUT OF our core quickly without stopping ... literally without having to touch your brake pedal if you maintain a speed of 50-60km/h

[ShavedParmesanCheese]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

The police reported that speed or impairment were not factors. You guys really need to get over your irrational fear of roads and cars. Every city of any size in the world has one way streets.

I defy you to find a 5 lane, one-way street in a city about Hamilton's size that is not hazardous to anybody outside of a car.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by bigguy1231

The police reported that speed or impairment were not factors. You guys really need to get over your irrational fear of roads and cars. Every city of any size in the world has one way streets.

If I have to worry about drivers who aren't speeding or impaired how is that fear not rational. Too many car culture obsessed people thing injuries of teenage girls, deaths of seniors and massacres of entire families are just "part of doing business" despite the fact that there is incredibly clear evidence both that Main and King in their current configuration are more dangerous than surrounding roads, and that transportation systems can be designed without built in fatalities as a necessity.

[TheHonestMaple]

Originally Posted by TheRitsman

Too many car culture obsessed people

I don't know if people are "car culture obsessed". It's just that our Canadian cities are fundamentally designed around cars, they always were. Our cities are too young. They simply were not designed for walking around like in Europe. Sorry.

With that being said, I agree, Main and King are insane. Main really really needs to be converted to a two way. It's something that the city council should be taking very seriously with the conversion of King to two way with the LRT.

[TheRitsman]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

I don't know if people are "car culture obsessed". It's just that our Canadian cities are fundamentally designed around cars, they always were. Our cities are too young. They simply were not designed for walking around like in Europe. Sorry.

With that being said, I agree, Main and King are insane. Main really really needs to be converted to a two way. It's something that the city council should be taking very seriously with the conversion of King to two way with the LRT.

Youth has nothing to do with it. Car culture is ingrained in our society. The fact that Main and King are insane is tantamount to car culture. The fact that roads the predate automobiles were made insane at the behest of car drivers, people, pets, bikes, families, seniors, children, and all others be damned is evidence of that.

There are also plenty of places that have since fixed their car designed streets. Hamilton has got to be the worst at that. My house was built in 1870 automobiles were invented in 1886 so please don't tell me our cities have always been designed around cars. Much of our city was built before cars were even an idea. It's the suburbs that were designed for the car, and the suburbs that demanded roads downtown be altered to fit the needs of those who drove.

[ShavedParmesanCheese]

Originally Posted by TheHonestMaple

I don't know if people are "car culture obsessed". It's just that our Canadian cities are fundamentally designed around cars, they always were. Our cities are too young. They simply were not designed for walking around like in Europe. Sorry.

Hamilton was first settled about 1816.

For 82 years it grew as the industrial centre of the province before the first car was brought into town by John Moodie Jr. In 1898. Short line railways supplied those industries with networks all over downtown, as well as the harbourfront. Electric streetcars moved the masses and 3 railway stations - 2 on mainlines - connected the city to the rest of the world. Not to mention the incline railways.

In the 1890s, Hamilton was the 4th largest city in the country, larger than Winnipeg, Halifax, Ottawa, Vancouver, and anything else out west.

Not every city in Canada is Mississauga. We have history, and even the younger cities across the country have decades of it before the car was even invented. Just because it's comfortable to drive, doesn't mean it was always that way.