Quote:
Originally Posted by markhornich
I think that area is more pedestrian unfriendly due to loud traffic, having to walk long distances and across parking lots to access businesses, which themselves are spread farther apart from each other than in an urban (downtown) setting, and because the area itself is visually uninteresting. Its boring, noisy, and destinations are far apart.
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Thank-you - yes, that's what I meant. bigguy, I'm definitely open to the possibility that you (and perhaps a - very - few others) actually enjoy walking on those sidewalks, but I can remember from my own personal experience that the few pilgrimmages that I had to make from the lower to the upper city during my time in Hamilton were, as a pedestrian, among the least bearable days I spent in the city during my 1.5 years there.
Transit? Infrequent at best, with buses stuffed to the brim when they did finally arrive. Relief from the heat and/or cold in the form of shade trees and/or heated/air-conditioned-heated coffee shops, etc.? Virtually none. Possibility for a pleasant conversation? What with the noise and exhaust, absolutely none.
Here's my summary of the two types of street, with pictures for visual reference. Pedestrian-unfriendly street: loud traffic, long distances between buildings, narrow sidewalks with nothing separating them from traffic, building entrances (and often windows as well) oriented away from the street, "free" parking. These sidewalks are completely empty (in all directions) for a good reason, as the area was never designed with bipeds in mind. Consequently, very few people in their right mind would walk here if they didn't have to:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...12,173.21,,0,0
Pedestrian-friendly street: traffic-calmed, usually barriers between traffic and pedestrians in the form of parallel parking, trees, etc., nice wide sidewalks, buildings spaced at pedestrian scales and street-oriented, pay parking. Not surprisingly, there are pedestrians in this picture. After all, the street and sidewalk itself are designed to be a pleasurable pedestrian experience, so as to entice window-shoppers, etc. You did say
any downtown street, so I chose James North, but Locke, King (the downtown part anyways, Hess, Caroline, Augusta, James South, Markland (where I used to live), etc. would equally do. In short, almost every downtown street except for Main is preferable - from a pedestrian perspective - to the area where these towers are slated to go. Even then, I'd take living on Main St. downtown as a pedestrian over that part of Upper James any day, as I could simply choose to use cross streets instead of walking along Main itself.
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&sourc...12,173.21,,0,0
Like I said though, since you say changes are coming, along with this development, I'd be curious to see what those might be - though I should add I'm pretty skeptical. It would be nice to be surprised and proven wrong here.
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