Raise the Hammer

Can council reallocate funds from within the roads envelope?

Is it four lanes of traffic, with no parking lanes? How do those businesses stay open without any curbside parking?

The first fix would be to restore curbside parking. That alone will make the street more inviting to pedestrians, because there will be a protective barrier of parked cars between the sidewalk and the moving traffic. Then, since parking lanes are narrower than driving lanes, you could probably get three lanes out of the remaining space: one in each direction, plus a shared center left-turn lane. Or if you don't need a turning lane, maybe two traffic lanes plus bike lanes?

If you haven't read it already, I highly recommend the book "Walkable City" by Jeff Speck. He basically explains all the things that are well known to destroy walkability, and the relatively simple and inexpensive ways to fix them.

How do those businesses stay open without any curbside parking?

They have their own parking lots, or they don't.

I work in a old cotton mill at 270 Sherman. I'm constantly caught by trains that can create a 5-7min delay. I have never heard mention of this as a complaint from the trucking interest. I only hear that business will grind to a halt if two way traffic is imposed and the timed lights are removed, yet for all the lane capacity in the world if you're stopped by a train you aren't moving! In fact the only bridge between Ferguson and Kenilworth is Birch, which is one way. Would you not think these truck would prefer to have the option a two way street would offer?

one thing we all learned years ago - the trucking industry doesn't care about Hamilton's economy or business health one bit. Just their own. I'd like to know how many of their CEO's and managers live in the lower city near one-way streets.

Comment edited by jason on 2013-04-09 21:23:16

Ryan,

Well done article. The same could be said for Main Street especially.

While I know that many of you folks were against the RHVP I think that the RHVP helped reduced the need for one-way streets in the lower city. Time for council to take action here.

Most east-west lower city streets can go back to two-way. The dt looks very dead and unwelcoming (especially at night) when one is staring at an empty, dark stretch of road.

By the way, by two way, I mean an equal number of lanes going in the opposite direction. What they did on York street was completely useless. Very few cars go west on that dt stretch - what was the point of it?

Capitalist

Yes. The York two way conversion was horribly implemented. It currently offers little improvement over the old design. The street should have two lanes going in each direction. The west bound lane should not stop at Bay but keep going westward. One should be able to turn west bound onto York Strret from James North.

The shelved Perimeter Road would do wonders for downtown and greatly reduce the need for the Cannon, King and Main St expressways. I 've always felt that cancelling this road was one of the worst mistakes that Hamilton councils ever made. We need to put this road back on a priority list!

would do wonders for downtown? Is that why Boston, Portland and Pittsburgh got rid of their waterfront/downtown freeways at huge expense, and Toronto is considering doing the same? Doesn't sound like waterfront/downtown freeways have 'done wonders' for those cities.

Boston, Portland, and Pittsburgh have eliminated minor sections of their urban expressway systems. In Boston's case they buried the expressway at great expense. They hardly "got rid of" their waterfront/downtown freeways as you imply. I'm not a fan of urban expressways, road expansion, or the current configuration of Cannon, King, and Main, but we should try to represent what other cities have done accurately.

Two-way conversion of York/Wilson wasn't useless in principle, although the implementation was very poor.

As a Beasley resident, I am very happy with the improved connectivity of the street grid in my neighbourhood. Wilson - York - Swiss Chalet parking lot - Napier is now by far the best westbound bike route through Beasley and Central. Being able to drive westbound on Wilson also makes it easier to reach my house on Mary when I'm coming from the east end. (Since Mary is one way northbound, I used to have to overshoot Mary, take Catherine to Wilson, and then make two left turns to get back to Mary. Now I just take Ferguson down to Wilson and make two right turns.)

There is hardly any congestion in the eastbound lanes, so the switch to two-way traffic doesn't seem to have hindered motorists very much. I certainly don't notice any change when I drive eastbound on Wilson.

The big problems with this conversion are (1) Wilson doesn't need two westbound lanes east of John, and (2) the single westbound lane on York doesn't connect to anything. (It basically forces you to take Bay north to Cannon). The city should turn the second westbound lane into paired bike lanes (or widen the sidewalks), and convert Bay St to two-way traffic. That would actually turn Wilson - Bay - King into a useful westbound route, an alternative to Cannon - Queen - King and the James/King intersection.

Actually, trying to park on busy one-ways can be a near-hazard, especially if you're trying [gasp!] to back in. I know how! As well, when parked on the "proper" side (right side), you're often trying to exit the car into a WHOOSH of traffic that makes this driver in a converse way sympathetic with what bicyclists often have to deal with.

My point is that two-way is safer for drivers trying to park, to use local businesses, e.g. (it does happen).

Just a couple of observations/questions on this interesting article:

1. The last picture exemplifies what the street could look like without the forest of hydro poles shown in the other images. We no longer need the poles to carry the wires for the trolley buses which disappeared many years ago. I suppose it would be too much to expect that some money could be budgeted to bury some more of the electrical infrastructure.

2. Would the walking tour be open to everyone or would the councillors be expecting only people who live in the area? The audit of the street might be interesting to others, especially those who live along streets that would benefit from similar improvement, such as Queen Street.

I guess cannon street's name is different when it's ward 3. Not one picture from east of Wellington. Perhaps the powers that be have told RTH to keep west of Wellington, I don't know. But you obviously love ward 3 as much as it's councillor.

There is street parking on Cannon along the one-way portion. I have cycled it a few times. Interestingly, it is a very busy street in the morning with kids and parents crowding the sidewalk while heading to school. One can sense that the street, if properly designed, could immediately spring back to life once converted from a freeway.

Yes, I've noticed this every afternoon when I'm on Cannon. I shudder at the idiots roaring in the curb lane to pass cars in the centre 2 lanes (who are all doing 60km). Kids are going to get killed here if we don't turn this into a complete street ASAP.

There are great little variety stores, markets, offices, and of course tons of residential along this entire street. It could absolutely spring back to life and become a hub of activity for all of it's surrounding neighbourhoods.
I for one would LOVE to see a city budget filled with funds for these sorts of complete streets projects. Enough of pothole filling and suburban roundabouts eating up our budget every year.

The examples of desolate gaps between traffic and no cars for blocks illustrate how a one way street can be easier to cross than a two way street for pedestrians and for drivers. Anyone who says they can't drive across a few lanes of traffic because Cannon is too busy isn't patient enough. It's much easier and safer to do this on a street like Cannon than it is on a two way street.

Actually it's much easier to walk along, cycle on, and cross Locke, James North, Hess, Ottawa, Concession, Augusta etc.....

Your observations are nuts and taken out of context! I am a cyclist,live in the downtown and work for City of Toronto in the traffic engineering department. Anyone can take pics showing very little to no traffic. If you change these streets to two way you may actually discourage people from driving downtown. Do you have any studies that prove otherwise? What is the average annual daily trip rate (aadt) for Cannon Street.

I've come to the conclusion that people who work in 'traffic engineering departments' are the only ones who love streets like Cannon. However, I've yet to meet a traffic engineer who lives on, or near such a street.

While the tilted camera pictures add drama to the essay they also set this work up for rebuttal and discredit. The pictures of the gaping, empty street followed by waves of traffic are powerful enough to win your argument, adding the sensationalism of skewed perspective actually weakens the work. All I am saying is try to minimize your opponents opportunity for effective attack. This is a great study and article.

Yes, I noticed that too. Not necessary to artificially create impact.

I just spent two days in my studio - in a building along Cannon - doing macro photography. Even on a tripod I would have to delay opening the shutter if I felt that familiar rumble and building-shake coming, as the vibrations create a blurry photo. For the most part, I suppose, I'm used to it, like anyone who lives or works along the street, which is pretty sad.

Are you serious?? This is the way to get from the East end to the West end if you have to commute across the city for work and what-not. You want to take that away from Hamiltonians? Then you'll have to sit in traffic, light by light, or take one of the two long stretches of highway around the outside of the city.
What you are preaching is ridiculous and very much overembellished.

Also you state in the one caption: "Pedestrians have a long distance to cross on Cannon" ....

Do you expect that turning this street into a two-way cluster-f is going to REDUCE the distance pedestrians have to walk across the street??... the statement makes no sense.

Good luck bud.

This is one of the most selfish posts I have seen from any troll on here.

OMG! You mean, if we convert Canon from a four-lane, one-way, high speed expressway that guts the downtown and endangers pedestrians into a reasonably balanced urban street, drivers may have to sit in traffic and stop at lights?

The horror.

They won't even have to do that if they take the ring roads we paid 100's of millions for, and were supposedly designed for that purpose.

Good luck indeed! Our downtown neighborhoods have to stop being convenient gutters for cross-town commuters. Really, it takes five more minutes to drive through Burlington or down the Linc, and you those routes don't cut through anyone's front lawn.

Before moving downtown I drove Cannon westbound every day - what the pictures show is absolutely correct but what they don't show is the excessive speed you can get away with. It's a four lane racetrack and offers nothing to the businesses or residents who live there.

Ryan - there's not need for talk on this one. I'll bring the yellow paint and see you at Cannon & Victora tomorrow morning - its as good a place to start as any

I'm not going to argue that Canon's one way nature is a determent to the street. It is certainly a contributing factor to the streets inhospitably. It, unlike Main and King St. is not an extension of highway 8 and I am for it's conversion.

However, what I would like request is that an explanation be given as to why Barton St. exists in a state of similar/even worse decay then Canon. A street which runs a single block parallel to Canon, is two way, heavily signalized throughout it's entire scope and even has explict traffic design between Wentworth and Victoria.

I have my own thoughts, but I would certainly not lump one way streets as the primary cause, especially considering how the area between King and Main St (two one way streets) seem to be undergoing several new beneficial developments (the Federal Building, Staybridge Suites, The Blanchard Development, the McNab transit terminal, the Sanford Development, New Grocery store in Jackson Square, new Convention Centre investment/bidding, new medical building and hopefully the Hamilton Grand/Connaught soon) and is becoming healthier every day. I will agree some may be in lieu of the others, but the point is development is happening on these one way streets.

People are desiring to build/open business along these streets suddenly, and I would say because the realization that density makes for feasible business operations, something that Barton and Cannon lack as they remain stuck in the three floor, ground floor (vacant) storefront paradigm, backed by generic two floor, single family housing that do not provide enough density to make smaller storefronts viable.

Comment edited by -Hammer- on 2013-04-14 03:41:03

All good points worth considering.

Mr you must be kidding me, do you really know what fear is in the eyes of a child (they are pedestrians too)trying to cross a four lane one way highway, as cars and trucks are changing lanes, while barreling at you..Crossing a two way street, the opposing cars, tend to stay away from the dividing line, making it safer for pedestrians to cross, once they hit the middle ground..Same with two way two lanes running two way, again you are safer, than four running right at you..If you want to come right down to it, cars and trucks fear each other, as they will do more damage to them than you will, so there is a safety factor here..Bill Simone....(PS all streets are safe when empty)

Really? A raceway? Whether it's four one-way lanes or two two-way lanes, it's still four lanes. Empty sidewalks? What has that got to do with one-way traffic. Those pictures of empty roads must have been taken on a Sunday afternoon, as I rarely see those roads that empty. As far as curbside parking, there always seem to be cars parked when I'm driving down that street. So, you think making changes to Cannon Street similar to what was done to Barton Street will make it a booming business, thriving street like Barton? Oh, wait a minute, Barton Street is as dead as it's been for years. First things first. Until there is free parking downtown like all of the other malls, who is going to go to Jackson Square/City Centre if they have to pay for parking. Get rid of the LCBO at the corner of James and King and clean up the area of beggars and drunks that intimidate people trying to go to work or shop at the market.

First off, the Eaton centre in Toronto doesn't have free parking and it's doing quite well for itself.

This is because the Eaton Centre is in a city core with a high amount of density and pedestrain traffic/infrastrucutre bellow it and linking subway, rail & bus routes to compliment it's car access.

I will agree free parking certainly helps a commercial development, but given that free parking cannot and will not occur in Hamilton as too many speculators own the majority of the private lots and they have no incentive to stop charging, and the city certainly isn't going to stop if they aren't going to.

So the solution goes back to the Eaton Centre. Subsidizing higher density development in the area, pedestrian initiatives, better public transit and still leaving at least one major through way for cars to utilize (after all it's still very close to the Gardiner and the very large University Ave. so leave Main/King one way, although an LRT lane along main I would be completely behind).

Comment edited by -Hammer- on 2013-04-19 22:16:10

it's nice that every once in a while Lloyd Jackson comes back to life to remind everyone of his brilliant city building plan.

Canon looks like that all the time. NASCAR, zombie movie, over and over again. Walk along it.

If we switched it to two-way, widened the sidewalks, and added trees and bike lanes, cars would slow right down.

The sidewalks are empty because 1) it's freaky walking along a raceway, and 2) local stores have a hard time thriving when situated along a raceway.

Why do you think providing free parking, closing the LCBO, and kicking the poor out are the first things to do to revitalize the downtown?

"Why do you think providing free parking, closing the LCBO, and kicking the poor out are the first things to do to revitalize the downtown?"

Honest answer: "I'm a driver that doesn't go downtown and wants to short cut through the city as fast as possible, and those things either don't hurt me or will actually help me even though they won't do anything to help the downtown."

Actually "Honest Answer", I work downtown. I have worked downtown for 34 years and have seen many changes. I am speaking from experience. Maybe you should know your facts before you are putting down "Honest answers" for someone else.