Raise the Hammer

At some point it would be great to do a follow-up post to this highlighting the City's Truck Map and how it barely makes the highways more prominent than the streets: http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/ABC2... The city could also consider adding info about driving times to truck route map too.

Alleluia, living and working downtown for years and seeing these trucks fly down Main St, why don't they go through the east end of Burlington St. Perhaps Mayor Bob can stand at the QEW 403 interchange and direct trucks in that direction.

Not to mention that the 20-minute trip time through the core would most likely be retained via a nice ride on the LRT (cross-our-fingers).

It won't be hard to improve on the HSR's current Mac-to-Eastgate metrics: 32 minutes using the B-Line Express or 54 minutes using the 5/1 combo.

Surely someone will post that it will cost more and use those precious resources. I doubt there would be much of a case for that argument but someone will make it.

I won't make the argument but I will point out the obvious... both the QEW and Linc loop routes suggested as alternatives are significantly greater distances than the status quo King or Main routes --- so much so that a vehicle would have to get twice the mpg on the highway as in city conditions to use less fuel and produce less smog than using the highway routes from Eastgate to Mac.
That said, there's still ample reason to turn our inner-city expressways into complete people friendly two way streets... more livable streets would promote more people living in the core, enable more businesses to locate there, and make non-polluting modes of transportation more feasible for more residents on a daily basis. Then, the amount of time to get out of or across town will not matter as much.

Yeah, but we care a lot less about smog produced on the QEW and 403 than we do about smog produced in the down-town core... not to mention all the other benefits that would come from redirecting through traffic around the city as opposed to through it.

You have very carefully chosen your start/end locations. I challenge you to make the same argument by changing the start/end locations to Downtown (lets say Bay/King) and Kenilworth/Main.

Bay/Main to Kenilworth/Main is a simple drive. And still would be if Main and King were normal, complete streets. Perhaps it would take an extra couple minutes to make that trek. Completely reasonable in a big city. The point is, Hamilton is small enough that bringing safe, vibrant streets to every neighbourhood (not just the rich suburbs like Ancaster and Dundas) will benefit all of us with new business, investment and residents.

Talk to someone at Yonge and Eglington in Toronto (some of the highest real estate values in the city) and ask them if they want a freeway from their front door to the 401. No chance.

No, what people at Yonge and Eglinton want is a "ring" subway line to divert transit riders around Midtown, so they can actually fit on the trains at rush hour!

Admittedly the line in question (the "Downtown Relief Line") is only inadvertently a ring around Midtown, its actual goal being to be a direct route from Downtown to the northeast. But it's still similar enough in concept to our ring expressways to be amusing.

The calculated driving times do not factor in traffic. Try using the QEW during rush hour. Add at least 10 minutes to the time and all of a sudden you have a route that takes 50 % longer.

Yeah..the sad thing is that downtown probably doesn't slow down because the streets are built so that even during rush-hour everyone and their dog can be out driving.

Because people who live in the high density, urban city deserve a fast throughway to get to the highway, for whatever they may use it for, just as much as someone on the suburban mountain does.

Really, we're using the word "deserve"?! How about families in the lower city "deserve" to have safe, complete streets in their neighborhoods where they live and children play?