Raise the Hammer Newsfeed - Blogs

Hamilton Hometown Love

2013-06-19T12:00:00-05:00

Hamilton's Urban Arts Initiative, a local not-for-profit providing outreach to street-involved, homeless and at-risk youth, has produced a wonderful music video called Hamilton Hometown Love:

The video celebrates a city full of richness and beauty that is often overlooked at first glance.

Featuring spoken word and rapping by Leon Robinson and Thea Faulds, the video was created by Andreas King, Collette Schotsman, Carter Shadwell, EhKlay Law, Humam Shwaikh, Jamie Kasiama, Jared Escalante, Mateos, and PJ Singh Chinjer.

The 'Efficiency' of a One-Way Street Grid

2013-06-18T12:00:00-05:00

Today we saw an example of how our one-way street network is only efficient for specific usage patterns (through traffic on days with no lane closures).

This morning, a transport truck hit a light pole at Hunter and John. The collision and subsequent pole repair job resulted in complete closure of both Hunter and John. As of the time of this writing, the intersection remains closed.

Damaged pole at John and Hunter

Drivers were forced to find alternate routes. As the following photos show, only half of our grid was available to cars, since half of the streets go against rush hour flow.

Young is backed up westbound

Forest remains completely empty, unable to be used by westbound drivers

Walnut is backed up northbound

Catharine is completely empty, since it's one-way in the wrong direction

John and James were both backed up northbound, with empty southbound lanes. Luckily, both are two-way. Try to visualize the alternative routing if we still had northbound John and southbound James. Without northbound lanes on James, traffic would need to reroute to Bay, Walnut or Victoria!

We've combined a path-restrictive one-way grid with a carte-blanche approach to through truck traffic, and this is the result. It is not an efficient network.

If we had a proper two-way grid, there would be twice as many route options. If we created a system which moved through trucks out of the core and onto the ring highways, we'd have a lower risk of transport truck-scaled collisions.

First published on Downtown Bike Hounds

Two-Way Street Networks are More Resilient

Enjoying the Gore Park Promenade

2013-06-14T12:00:00-05:00

Just a normal weekday lunch at Gore Park:

What if RTH Turned Comments into Letters to the Editor?

2013-06-14T12:00:00-05:00

Before I go any further, I would first like to state that I am quite pleased with the 'new' look of Raise the Hammer. I placed quotes around new, because I knew this layout had existed as a Beta version for some time. I am glad it has moved from Beta to production. These visually minor details somehow complete this site.

Secondly, those who have been a part of the RTH community for awhile, know that like any other site that opens their content to commenting, trolls are a breed that brings down the integrity and enjoyment of what is otherwise important and mostly informed commentary.

With these new changes to Raise the Hammer, it prompted me to think about a Twitter account I stumbled upon recently. The user goes by the name 'Don't Read Comments', and the Twitter handle is @AvoidComments.

There are so many gimmick accounts out there that claim to provide inspiration quotes and such, but often I find the real motive behind these inspiritors, is to plug countless other twitter accounts who promise you will get thousands of followers if you follow them. Like all Social Media sites, there is a tonne of crud out there.

But this account intrigued me to read on. I was skeptical and mainly because where RTH is concerned, sometimes the comments have more teeth than the articles itself. However, after reading through a handful of tweets from this person, I was determined to ignore comments sections going forward.

It's hard to stay true to my mid-year resolution to avoid comments, however, when it comes to RTH.

I realize that so many respect this site as a valuable part of our community, and count on the information provided here to keep us informed and engaged in this city we love enough to fight the good fight for, but what if we did away with comments on this site?

"NO!!!" you say, but hear me out.

What if the 'Comments' section was re-named 'Letters to the Editor'? What if everyone who contributed to this site, had to have an account and if you wanted to 'comment', it had to be in the form of a Letter? You'd actually have to take the time to formally write a piece that conforms to Letters guidelines.

If the guidelines are not followed (and there should be a link to those guidelines right beside the words 'Letters to the Editor' at the bottom of each article), it constitutes a Letter being deleted by an editor or perhaps forum moderators.

If your Letter exceeds the word max, then it must be approved as an article on RTH, with a link to the approved article within the Letters section of its related article.

Surely, seeing as though nobody is paid to be editor at RTH, articles that pose 80 comments would be impossible to manage 60 or so letters (weeding out the 20 comments from trolls), so Letters would be published immediately, but it would be easier for admins to delete accounts of those whose presence here is not of a supporting nature or those that continually disregard Letter guidelines set by RTH staff.

All accounts must be real names, with real email addresses, just like Letters to the Editor of any newspaper.

Could this be a way to go for online media? Especially sites like RTH where, for the most part, comment content is of an equal and sometimes even greater value?

Perhaps, in line with ensuring all voices are heard, a new tab could be placed at the top of the RTH header for articles that were never born. Ever felt editors were weeding out information they didn't want the public to be informed of? Have so many things to say but just can't formulate those thoughts into article form?

Perhaps this section could serve as a place for un-edited pieces that never saw the light of day for whatever reason. Either their relevance had passed for a piece written six months after an election that was about an electoral candidate, the piece was an editing nightmare, or what have you.

It could be a way to build further trust amongst readers. Maybe not a lot of people or no one, reads those random thoughts, or maybe someone with the creative will, takes those spewed words and formulates them (giving credit to the original author), to a formulated article.

Just a couple of things to ponder.

I'll leave you with a few tweets from @AvoidComments. I am sure they will get you thinking, if nothing else.

"I saw a sound, well-reasoned argument in an internet comment, and it made me reconsider my position." -- Nobody, ever

"The problem with internet comments is that you can never really know who's saying them." -- Winston Churchill

Nobody on their deathbed ever said, "I wish I had spent more time reading internet comments."

No journalist has ever said, "Good thing that guy left that vitriolic comment -- now I know how much I suck."

Back in the day, we called comments "letters to the editor." Someone read them, picked the best ones, & published them. Many were STILL bad.

Yes, there are comments. No, you're not going to read them.

Seeing a good internet comment is like finding money in your clothes: nice when it happens, but not something to base your life around.

"What an interesting article! I can't wait to read what the average internet denizen thinks about it!" Just stop right there. You're wrong.

You're feeling crappy right now, I can tell. It's probably because you read a comments section.

You don't need to read the comments section to see a group of jerks not listen to each other and waste time. We have congress for that.

Thinking of reading comments? Instead, call your oldest relative. He or she will appreciate your time much more than comments denizens will.

83-Year-Old Pedestrian Dies from Injuries After Collision

2013-06-13T12:00:00-05:00

An 83-year-old woman has died from injuries sustained when she was involved in a collision with an automobile while crossing Upper Gage at Mohawk.

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The collision took place just after 5:00 PM on May 25. The pedestrian was hospitalized with severe injuries and died on June 4, 2013 at 9:10 AM. Her name is being withheld at the request of her family.

According to an update from Hamilton Police Services, charges are pending for the motorist involved in the collision.

This is the second pedestrian fatality and the fifth overall traffic fatality for Hamilton in 2013.

Hamilton Tactical Urbanism in TreeHugger

2013-06-12T12:00:00-05:00

Sustainability website TreeHugger has posted an article on Hamilton's recent foray into tactical urbanism.

Casting the story in terms of the manufactured downtown-vs-suburbs crisis due to the Harris Government's amalgamation of cities like Hamilton and Toronto with their suburbs, author Lloyd Alter sketches out the story of the Herkimer/Locke guerrilla bumpouts and then asks: "Can a city change?"

(Sidenote: now I want to read Emily Talen's book City Rules: How Regulations Affect Urban Form.)

As I wrote when The Atlantic Cities covered the story, it's nice to see Hamilton held as an example of how a city can get it right for a change.

Another Rapid Transit Manager Leaves City

2013-06-10T12:00:00-05:00

Justin Readman, recently the manager of the rapid transit office that developed Hamilton's B-Line LRT plan, has resigned from the City after ten years' employment. Readman's last day was this past Friday, June 7, 2013.

Readman is starting a new job working as the director of transportation services for the City of Kitchener. His experience helping develop Hamilton's Rapid Ready LRT plan will come in handy as Waterloo Region implements its LRT rapid transit system.

Waterloo Region LRT Route Map (Image Credit: Waterloo Region)

Readman is the second rapid transit project manager in a row to resign from the position. The previous manager, Jill Stephen, resigned in September 2011, after a summer in which Mayor Bob Bratina regularly disparaged Hamilton's LRT plan and City Manager Chris Murray suspended the program.

Is Readman's departure a sign that city staff are losing confidence about whether Hamilton's LRT plan will come to fruition? Mayor Bratina is once again undermining the city's LRT plan, and the status of the Ontario Government's proposal to fund the next wave of Metrolinx priority project - including Hamilton's LRT - remains uncertain.

Best Practices for Protected Bike Lanes

2013-06-10T12:00:00-05:00

Here's some great news out of Toronto: physically separated bike lanes on Sherbourne with bright, visible green lanes and bike boxes at intersections.

Toronto follows on the heels of Ottawa, which recently opened a separated lane on Laurier Avenue with more to come, as well as bold, green lanes and bike boxes.

It's great to see Ontario cities finally catching up to the North American leaders on this vital infrastructure. Seeing this design makes a lot of sense, with raised curbs to separate cyclists from drivers and the green painted lanes through intersections.

One word of caution already coming out of Toronto this week since these lanes opened: the rounded curb edge is allowing drivers to feel comfortable about hopping over and blocking the lanes.

A cube van blocks the Sherbourne bike lane (Image Credit: Now Magazine)

Adjusting the car-dominant culture in Ontario will take some time, but using higher, straight curbs and adding more bollards like we see in Ottawa would help:

Curbs and bollards on Ottawa's Laurier Avenue separated bike lane (Image Credit: West Side Action)

Ottawa has a bicycle traffic counter on Laurier Avenue, which carries on average around 2,000 cyclists a weekday from the months of May through October (or 1,171 cyclists a weekday averaged year-round).

Looking west for inspiration, Jennifer Keesmaat, Toronto's chief planner, just suggested on twitter that Toronto could separate bike lanes with some of the small planter boxes like we see through Vancouver:

Dunsmuir separated bike lane in Vancouver (Image Credit: canadianveggie on flickr)

Keesmaat wrote, "you can't drive over them + they are not over-engineered. True separation."

Personally, I love the simplicity and ease of this design, which could be interspersed with curbs like the ones in Ottawa:

Planters and parked cars protect Vancouver's Hornby Street bike lane (Image Credit: Paul Krueger)

I know we are planning separated lanes on Hunter Street. This is the chance for us to learn from other cities and use the best ideas, including real barriers cars can't cross, affordable planter boxes and painted bike boxes like other cities are using.