Raise the Hammer

Each city has its unique set of problems which need to be addressed in their own unique way. Solutions that work in one city when blindly implemented in another city can lead to new sets of problems at worst, or leads to a bland homogenizing of the city experience.

Hamilton's lower city and especially the downtown core suffers from a chronic "SPEED" problem and not necessarily a "One-Way vs Two-Way" problem.

We do not have the density presently to wage this battle, and even with an infusion of 200,000 new residents overnight we may never face the complex traffic questions many large cities have to deal with.

Hamiltonians, all tend to drive fast, speak fast, research fast, jump to conclusions fast and opine even faster. We all need to slow down.

"Its got to be the damn lead in the water-pipes!" See even I am doing it right here. No research, no verifying facts... I just dived in and found the solution to our speed problem... instantly!

Even when there are two-way streets converted recently, do we really slow down? Or do we continue to do the same?

Have people on James Street North really slowed down... and become more tempered in their research, and opinions? No. Bob just has to sneeze and they all start revving up and zoom right thru the living room walls at 100kmh. Well, if not all, at least a few - who give the perception of the whole.

Here are some observations made over a period of ten years, on why people speed on Main street and how it has turned into a one-way/two-way issue from being a speed issue - and how it has lent to the driving habits and perception of dangerously high-speeds all across the lower city.

The strong grid pattern of the lower city lends itself to an ideal one-way traffic pattern, which could lead to good results. However it fails because of the random authoritarian breaks in the one-way flow pattern around large blocks in the core - which defeats the very purpose of the one-way flow of a grid. A grid if allowed to flow organically, is in many way a representation of democracy at its best.

The extremely poor connections and traffic calming transitions from the peripheral highways into the city, especially from the Main Street East exit off the 403 - has lead to unplanned rubbernecking of cars while getting off the exit and onto Main Street.

When you provide a tight bottle-neck as an entry into the city - and immediately thereafter a wide five-lane road past the first traffic lights on Dundurn - the natural human tendency is to make a dash to get out of the crowd. This behaviour is reinforced all the way past Victoria Street - until one get to Sanford/Sherman - after which the change in building type on both sides of the road, and the reduction in lanes/widths naturally acts as a reinforcement to the driver - signaling to them that they are in a residential neighbouhood. Most, naturally slow down, yet many don't out of conditioning, and continue speeding and changing lanes to go faster to nowhere in particular.

The green-wave signaling and the wide carriageway of Main Street further reinforces bad driving behaviour and adds to an already bad situation.

Beyond Sherman the natural shrinking and undulations of Main Street East tends to slow down the traffic speeds drastically. But there are always the chronic speeders who are an exception who traumatize the city from the lack of speed enforcement.

The solution as I see it is more a highway engineering issue rather than a pervasive city-wide one-way/two-way conversion issue.

A simple doubling of the exit ramp length from its existing start point on 403 to somewhere near the underpass to Kay Drage Park - and distinctly segregating it from the 403 while defining it strongly with lower speeds up to the underpass on King West - coupled with a strong canopy of tall trees and other lower-speed landscape inducements -- would result in a dramatic calming effect on drivers who are getting off the 403 and make them aware that they are entering a significant city of half-a-million people.

As this exit curves onwards to Main street, there are two parks on both sides that can be landscaped far more effectively with water fountains and solar/led lighting to signify the "presence" of a major city. Yes, awe and pride can be used strategically to dramatically slow-down the human instinct to zoom by.

The "last-mile" problem into the city from the 403 east exit to Dundurn street will always be a problem, because of the many cross-over of lanes - a secondary problem which could be easily tackled if there is a will to tackle the primary problem of speed and phasing down of highway aggression as one enters the city.

That little exit experience can become the most refreshing drive-by 'spa' experience for half the cost of all the one-way/two-way conversion costs - and which can impact the self-image of all drivers into self-correcting their speeding behaviour.

Of course a significant one-way boulevard landscape on Main street with bike-lanes - from Dundurn to Wellington or Sherman would make the entrance as dramatic as the York Blvd entrance - giving the drivers an extended drive-by 'spa' experience and slowing them down naturally.

When you use drivers to slow down drivers behind them, it can be the most sustainable and fulfilling way to reduce the speed on roads. If our roads are beautiful, there may never be a need to put up a glut of speed signs. And there will be no reason to enforce - of course that may be the start of new problems, when the Traffic dept begins to see a drop in revenues from errant drivers.

Similar speed reductions across Wilson, Cannon, and Barton if and when achieved, would be the starting point of Hamilton's rebirth as a tempered city.

There is much research available on One-way/Two-way street conversions - on both sides of the argument:

• One-Way vs Two-Way Streets: Let the Debate Begin
• One-Way Streets vs Two-Way Streets, Portland
• One-Way vs Two-Way Street Accident Rates
• Effective utilization of street width on urban arterials

Reviewing it with diligence can only help us to create rapid innovative solutions to our problems. Failing to do so, will only continue the propagation of rabid ideologies and conflicts between both sides of the one-way/two-way debate.

While living in Manhattan over many years, I never once experienced the need to debate one-way/two-way street issues. In spite of NYC's famous super blocks, super high density, wide street widths, and high speeds - the kind of vitality in street life which we are seeking in Hamilton through two-way streets, just happened there on one-way streets -- which I believe was on account of the open-spiritedness and inclusive nature of its people.

Of course there were reckless speedsters there too, but they just got ticketed heavily.

I fear that even if we get two or even three or four-way streets, we will continue to remain who we are until we slow down and open up to diversity and co-existence - but we are in love with speed instead, and hence we lack vitality.

Mahesh P. Butani

Comment edited by Mahesh_P_Butani on 2012-01-10 22:31:22