Raise the Hammer

Good to see some progress being made.

These enhancements should be mandatory at every intersection bordering a school, hospital or long-term care home -- along with extended cross times.

BTW, I still don't understand how an intersection can merit the hard-wired expense of a red light camera:

• King & Dundurn http://goo.gl/maps/fdrAL
• King & Locke http://goo.gl/maps/LYzYK
• Main & Dundurn http://goo.gl/maps/4VEYr
• Main & Bay http://goo.gl/maps/QRg0l
• Cannon & Hess http://goo.gl/maps/rz8YQ
• Cannon & Hughson http://goo.gl/maps/LODFJ
• Cannon & Kenilworth http://goo.gl/maps/InTi7
• Upper James & Brantdale http://goo.gl/maps/iqR7u
• Upper Sherman & Queensdale http://goo.gl/maps/RcPl5
• Stone Church & Upper Wentworth http://goo.gl/maps/q3KHr

...yet not be considered a priority for high-visibility zebra crossings.

I assume that drivers' habitual disregard for these intersections precipitated these camera placements. (Or, as in the case of Upper Gage/Fennell, that a red light camera will soon follow the installation of zebra crossings: http://www.hamiltonnews.com/news/safety-concerns-spark-upper-gage-mohawk-changes/) If that's true, how does the City explain the lack of urgency around improving pedestrian safety at these same intersections?

This is a great improvement for Hamilton!

Particularly for Herkimer Street. There is a reason why people like me who live here call it "The Herkimer Racetrack."

A particularly bad stretch of Herkimer is between Durand Park and St. Joseph's Hospital. Violent, dangerous and aggressive car drivers can see the traffic light turn to green all the way back to Durand Park. Then these dangerous drivers say to themselves "I've got to accelerate to 80-100 km/hr to get to James Street before the light turns red." Then they do just that!

I have complained to Hamilton Police numerous times about these violent, dangerous criminals. The Criminal Code of Canada says that reckless, negligent car drivers are guilty of the criminal offence of Dangerous Driving, punishable by up to 5 years in jail. But instead of arresting these criminals and putting them in jail where they belong, the police do nothing about these violent, dangerous criminals.

A cheap short term fix would be to put some sort of shade or awning on the traffic light so that car drivers could not see what colour it was until they were close to it.

But the real permanent solution is to use bollards to eliminate "rat-running" cut-through car traffic from all residential neighbourhoods in Hamilton, not just Herkimer.

I would like to see raised crosswalks similar to what they use in Vaughan installed in places such as this.
There are a series of them installed, with dramatic "Pedestrian Crossing / 30km/hour" warning signs, along a stretch of Islington in front of the McMichael art gallery. Given that it's a straight flat thoroughfare there, it would probably be a drag strip without them.
See www.vaughan.ca/services/residential/traffic_services/traffic_calming/Pages/faq.aspx for more info.

Thanks Ryan for this information, great work, very interesting and enlightening. I lived near Upper Gage and Fennell for nearly 10 years and I witnessed a lot of people speeding. With a liquor and beer store there, well, people are in a rush and you also have a Metro and Freshco there, busy corner.

Kevin: A major issue with that stretch is that more than half of the traffic from Queen St (including all down-bound traffic from Beckett Drive) is redirected to Herkimer for no apparent reason. Reverting Queen to 2-way traffic along its length would go a long way to fixing the traffic issues in Durand.

Brendan:

Although reverting Queen to 2-way traffic is certainly a good idea, there would still be the "Herkimer Racetrack." Having less cars on Herkimer would enable those who remain to go even faster.

The solution is to completely eliminate rat-running cut-through traffic on residential streets. This can be done through permeable neighbourhood connectors that allow cycle and pedestrian traffic to go through, but prevent car driving. For two examples in Toronto, see:

http://g.co/maps/wkvnh

and

http://g.co/maps/qpkwe

I completely agree with you, and we should be doing this on every "short cut" street. Cumberland immediately comes to mind.

Another tactic is to have stretches of streets where the one-way direction changes so that you can not drive the full length of it through a neighbouhood. Local traffic learns the rules and they find efficient routes to get to the main streets without having to battle through traffic in their own neighbourhood. - and the neighbourhoods are immeasurably more pleasant to live in.

http://goo.gl/maps/2LCSy

We need to get rid of the useless strings of stop signs that do nothing to curb through traffic speeds, and put the kinds of filters you are describing -- everywhere!

Yes, I entirely agree. Cumberland is an excellent example. That is part of my commute route to work every day. Although it is signed as a bike route and used by a lot of cyclists, it is rather horrible to use.

There are far too many rat-running cut-through car driving criminals that engage in aggressive, violent and dangerous behaviours. The worst is illegal passing.

This street is clearly marked as "no passing" thoughout its entire length. And I do my best to underline this by cycling properly and exercising proper lane control to send a clear "do not pass" signal. Yet all too frequently some criminal car driver will illegally pass 1-2 other cars as well as myself, pull right in front of me and then slam on his brakes because he is, of course, now right in front of a stop sign.

Frequently I have seen the illegal passer almost hit a pedestrian, cyclist or even another car driver. At, of course, a very high rate of speed.

And when I take the licence plate number and telephone in a criminal complaint the Hamilton Police do... nothing. Even when the Dangerous Driving criminal offence took place right in front of the school and the school crossing guard is a second witness to the crime scene. They do nothing. Child safety? What's that?

By eliminating cut-through car drivers, concrete and steel bollards would stop these criminals from committing the criminal offence of Dangerous Driving. It would also stop them from adding to the rather high body count of people that they have already killed and seriously injured.

And it would save money, because it would no longer be necessary to employ no less than three school crossing guards.

Great improvements, and would love to see more on the mountain.

Mud St & Winterberry - Drivers coming off the Linc/Red Hill are driving 90+ as they exit the off ramps and drive down Mud (which is a 70) and there is a new(ish) shopping centre around the corner with a number of pedestrians and cyclists crossing Mud.

Mud St & Paramount - One intersection down with Valley Park Community Centre right on the corner. The intersection has a red light camera, dedicated left turn signal phase and yet still has a high collision rate.

Zebra markings at both these intersections would help make drivers more aware and (hopefully) slow down at these intersections.

More zebra-style crosswalk markings are going up at Mountain intersections this month as councillors continue their push to improve pedestrian safety.
The highly visible markings will soon be installed on Mohawk Road at Mall Road and Upper Wellington, and on Upper James at Fennell, said Coun. Scott Duvall (Ward 7, central Mountain).

Mountain councillors began pushing for changes after a senior was struck in the spring while trying to cross a busy east Mountain intersection. Vivian Web, 83, was hit May 15 by a vehicle making a right turn on a red light while she was crossing Mohawk at Upper Gage. She later died from her injuries.

Zebra-striped crossings, also known ladder style when they are bordered by existing perpendicular lines that mark pedestrian crossings, have been used in Europe for decades. The most famous zebra crossing in the world is probably the one in London, England, on the cover of The Beatles’ 1969 Abbey Road album.

“They’re new to us and we’re experimenting with them,” said Ron Gallo, the city’s senior project manager for signals and systems. “We’re being selective where we’re installing them so we can evaluate them at some point.”

Upper Gage and Mohawk was a good place to start, he said, because of the significant pedestrian traffic volume and number of seniors living in the area.
Gallo noted several changes, including a red light camera, extending walk times and banning right turns on red lights, were requested at a July 4 community meeting called by Duvall and Coun. Tom Jackson (Ward 6, east Mountain).

The red light camera was already planned for Upper Gage and Mohawk and should be installed by fall. City staff are looking at banning right turns on red and other changes at that particular corner.

“It was made very clear to us that the residents want to prohibit those kinds of movements,” said Gallo. “We can do that, we just have to be careful not to over-restrict movements and create more driver frustration.”

Duvall said he applauds the efforts to improve safety and he’d like to see similar changes at other busy intersections in his ward. Pedestrian crossing times have been extended in the past at Mall Road and Upper Wentworth at the councillor’s request and could be lengthened again.

“I’m asking for a followup,” Duvall said. “If we need more time then we should be getting it.”

The councillor also suggested extending the zebra stripe format to school crossings on busy roads, such as Our Lady of Lourdes on Mohawk, but the city and a McMaster University traffic expert don’t believe such markings would help.

Nikolaos Yiannakoulias, who is currently studying pedestrian safety in Hamilton, said the pavement markings aren’t likely to be effective.

“I’m reluctant to look at that as a solution to the problem,” Yiannakoulias said. “Traffic controls have a better record of working.”

“What you really want to do is get the cars to behave properly,” he said, and signals and police enforcement can help achieve that.

Reducing speed is the best way to reduce injuries, he said. The severity of pedestrian injuries corresponds to the speed of the vehicle that hits them. Under 50 km/h, a person who is hit will likely survive, perhaps with only minor injuries, unless they are a young child or frail senior.

“Once they go over 50 km/h, the risk of fatality goes up very quickly,” said Yiannakoulias. “At 60 km/h, if you hit somebody they are probably going to die, or suffer very serious injuries.”

The city is planning to roll out more designated school zone areas this fall with flashing yellow lights and 40 km/h speed limit, said Gallo.

Coun. Terry Whitehead (west Mountain, Ward 8) said all safety improvements and ways to make neighbourhoods more “walkable” have to be evaluated. He said he believes there should be more pedestrian crosswalks, which use red lights to stop traffic, between main intersections.

“We have to look at them for pedestrian safety and pedestrian ease,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense when they half to walk half a kilometre just to get to the church across the street.”

http://www.hamiltonnews.com/news/safety-changes-focus-on-pedestrians/

I agree that the Mud st. and Paramount intersection is an issue. It is nice to see that there are some good bike lanes in the area, but Mud St. is still a de facto expressway. I recently did a bike ride from Winona to the escarpment rail trail via the mountain, and the Mud St. /Paramount intersection was the easily the most frightening part of the trip.

Very excited about these improvements, especially after many years of pedestrian activism in the Kirkendall neighbourhood and the community being told that our concerns about speeding cars did not warrant these kinds of interventions. Herkimer Raceway indeed: we have spent many summer evenings on our front porch watching people blaze past the stop sign at Herkimer and Kent without stopping, despite the fact that this is a heavily used route for people walking to the HAAA grounds. That more people have not been hurt is a miracle. Lesson: persistence and direct citizen action gets the goods. ps: Slightly disappointed that the Herkimer and Locke bump out isn't wider... Ryan, do you know why this is?

The reason for the size of the bumpout. Is to not interfere with the turning radii of E.M.S. vechicles. The longer it takes a Fire truck to Navigate the corner could be the difference between life and death.

Which is why people are dropping like flies in the car-free zones of major cities around the world. Including the car-free Toronto Islands.

People in NYC are dropping like flies because traffic is preventing fire and ambulance from getting to the scene fast enough. I heard they are going to build a raised street network above the current one just for ambulances and fire trucks!

These EMS "concerns" are total red herrings.

It's classic concern trolling.

Perhaps we should send city staff on a field trip to any of the gazillion cities with large bumpouts and slower turning radii. I'm sure people aren't all dropping dead due to firetrucks making normal city turns everywhere else or they'd all be going with the urban 'highway ramp' design we love here.

Maybe they were leaving room for new pylons. ;-)

It would be an excellent idea for the city to also install signs at the zebra crossings saying 'motorists must stop for pedestrians in crosswalk' as they have done at McMaster.

Although this should be obvious, motorists in Ontario (and especially Hamilton) seem to have forgotten long ago that they are required to yield to pedestrians crossing at any intersection, with or without a marked crosswalk. Having signs emphasizing this duty, would be a good step in reintegrating 'stopping at crosswalks' into normal driving behaviour.

Here's some signs from New Jersey: http://www.nj.gov/lps/hts/pedestrian.htm...

remember it is already provincial law that motorists must stop, the signs would just be a reminder!

agree totally! We have plenty of great spots for those signs to be installed, and your idea is fantastic to include them with zebra crossings. The public would figure it out very quickly. In fact, the day the Hunter/Locke zebra was painted I observed cars in both directions all stop while a couple of pedestrians nervously looked back and forth almost stunned that everyone was stopping for them. I've also seen this recently on James North at Robert. When crosswalks are done properly, it feels correct for a car to stop. Adding in these signs would make it a snap to change behaviour.

For a reminder, how about Hamilton Police laying charges.

I do not believe that what car drivers need is "reminding." These people know full well what the consequences are of their reckless, dangerous, aggressive and negligent behaviour. What they need is punishment to deter the behaviour and (most important) infrastructure that prevents the behaviour in the first place.

Eliminating rat-running cut-through traffic from all residential neighbourhoods would be a good first start.

Another improvement in the works is a traffic signal at Herkimer and Caroline. From the looks of it I can only assume this will be a pedestrian-activated signalized crosswalk. It's close to Locke, sure, but this is in Ward 2. Nice to see some progress being made.

Traffic signals are expensive and unnecessary in these residential neighbourhoods. What we need is proper road scale and real traffic calming measures - planters, chicanes, bump-outs, bike lanes, wider sidewalks, etc... how many of these could we buy for the cost of one light? Whenever that light shines green to the west, we'll still have a racetrack...

Once Locke & King and Locke & York are completed, roughly 1/3 of Locke Street’s intersections will have been tamed by crossings.

To receive comparable treatment from the City, Cannon Street would require something like 20 zebra crossings in addition to the one at Cannon & Elgin.

Indeed. While I appreciate the City's recent interest in pedestrian safety, it would be nice to think that it was evidence-driven, rational and nuanced. As it stands, it seems like it's designed to counteract negative social media buzz -- visible in other post-Dialogue Partners shout-outs to the "dotmocracy" -- and create the semblance of a policy. Zebra crossings risk becoming the latest variant on the city's famous one-size-fits-all approach.

Once again, I entirely agree with Sean.

A couple of other suggestions.

1. Expand Durand Park by turning the two car parking lanes on Herkimer and the other surrounding streets into parkland. Durand Park is too small right now and this gives about 25% more parkland.

2. Use bollards to allow pedestrians and cyclists to go straight through, but eliminate rat-running cut-through motor vehicle traffic from Herkimer and all other residential streets. The only exception will be a signal-activated gate to allow the HSR bus through.

How about a zebra crossing or pedestrian operated light on Dundurn between Main and Herkimer? It's impossible to cross in that area during high traffic times, and the issue is complicated by the incessant Beer and Liquor store traffic,

Here's a question: who is the "pedestrians cross at herkimer" sign near the LCBO on dundurn speaking to exactly?

If a driver parks in the parallel parking spot across from the LCBO, are they supposed to walk up to Herkimer, cross at the light, and then walk back down to the LCBO? And then do the opposite carrying a 2-4 of beer back to their car? (Yellow Line)

Or are they allowed to cross from their car directly to the store and back?

In which case, is that sign only for pedestrians who didn't arrive to the immediate vicinity in a car?

And how far away from the LCBO do you have to park before you are considered a pedestrian rather than a driver?

Or is the sign aimed at those who don't own cars?

And what about the four completely legal (yet unmarked) crossings between the LCBO and Herkimer? (green lines)

Who is allowed to use those?

After some consideration of this, I'm left wondering which street you would propose as an easterly route to James Street from Queen and west Kirkendall? Herkimer has historically been the route and, from what I understand is actually wider than most of the parallel streets because it once had a trolley system that served this purpose. I'm all for traffic calming measures on that stretch but don't see it as a candidate for bollards whatsoever. It is, and always has been, a vital corridor for travel in that part of the City.

Then put the trolley system back in.......it would surely be better than the Indy time trials that go on every morning rush that go on your "vital corridor for travel in that part of the City". !

Whoops, the Herkimer Questions were suppose to be in reply to Kevin's 8/19/13 11:24:48 comment above.
Sorry.

I propose a Dutch-style solution for all of Hamilton. Which I am gradually picking away at writing an article on. I have tomorrow off work and will try to complete it.

Still not sure what these Zebra Stripes do, are drivers supposed to stop for them, if a pedestrian is crossing?

A driver is ALWAYS supposed to stop for a pedestrian waiting to cross at a crosswalk. The zebra stripes just make the crosswalk more visible.

And a "crosswalk" does not have to be marked. By traffic act definition, any place on a street where a sidewalk intersects it is legally considered a crosswalk wether it's painted with stripes, lines, or no markings at all

Bebra crosing at Cannon and Elgin

oh he meant "Bo-Bra" crossing

Not to be nit-picky, but why are so many of the zebras a gross, faded colour and very uneven lines??

Is it really hard to do this? http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pi...

Reconstruction of Broker Drive is running on schedule, says the councillor for the area.

Work should be completed by Thanksgiving, said Coun. Tom Jackson (Ward 6, east Mountain).

Once the road is resurfaced, two new safety features will be put in place, he said. Zebra-striped markings for pedestrian crossings will be put down at the intersections of Broker and Brentwood, and Broker and Kingsley.

There is a possibility of other changes being implemented, Jackson said. Some residents have asked for traffic-slowing speed humps to be installed on Broker and they would like an all-way stop at the intersection with Fay Avenue.

The city traffic department is looking at the requests.

http://www.hamiltonnews.com/news/speed-humps-possible-for-broker/