Comment 98542

By jason (registered) | Posted March 17, 2014 at 20:01:30

I would really like to see Hamilton get on board with the North America wide trend of having street lanes down to 2.75 meters, or 9 feet. Buffalo, Toronto, LA and scores of other cities have realized traffic is still safe to move about with 9 foot lanes, but it frees up more space for other uses like curb parking and protected bike lanes. Also, the narrower lanes act as a bit of a traffic calming device. Drivers instinctively go slower in narrower lanes.

I was just in LA and 9-foot lanes appear to be the norm now. And this is on very busy streets with 4-8 lanes of traffic. Curb-side parking is provided 24-7 on most of these major thoroughfares too, and bike lanes are being installed all over the LA area.

Even if the city felt it was so important to save the .3 minutes by restricting parking during rush hour, those lanes could have all been in the 2.75-3 meter range and allowed plenty of space for an appropriate buffer next to the bike lanes.

It's a great step forward for Hamilton for sure. Hopefully we'll become more accustomed to adding this type of much-needed infrastructure city wide even if it delays auto trips by a few minutes here and there.

Let's hope to see more cycle-tracks, city-wide quickly.

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