Raise the Hammer

Just consider it the unofficial start of his 2014 Re-election Campaign. His pandering to the burbs has just begun.

Stay tuned. Next week - De-amalgamation II - The Sequel.

I think he'll find that boat doesn't float this time around.

I really, honestly, hope that is true. For some reason I feel those wanting a more livable, balanced Hamilton are greatly outnumbered by the 'burbs'.

Could someone put a "How Downtown Development Benefits the 'Burbs" pamphlet/website together before 2014 please? I suspect input and endorsements could be easily gained and funding to produce and distribute it could be crowd sourced. We need to add some meat to the pre-election discussion(s) that going to occur and neutralize the postal code pandering our politicos persist with before it derails our City for another four years.

All you hafe to do its look at all the great citys in North America or the World for that matter there downtown is awsome , thats if you have ever visited out side of Ontario or Canada for that matter

And I'm sure they got that way by tearing down all their heritage buildings in the name of 'progress', right 'Conrad'? Sometimes I wonder if you have ever travelled outside of Ontario. I don't believe for a minute that English is your second language.

This morning, I was on a GO bus that used the new lanes. Very nice. The bus was able to move freely. The bus driver also commented favourably on the new lanes.

The biggest problem was the lack of signal priority that forced the bus to wait at a red light.

Another problem was that the front bike rack can only carry two bikes. A third person who showed up was forced to wait 20 minutes for the next bus.

LRT has the capability to make Hamilton a much better city for all its people. Opposing it is truly irrational.

NONSENSE. LRT has the capability to make Hamilton a better city for the tiny fraction who use transit and making it a nightmare for all the rest of us who use cars.

A large number of people take the King/Main buses on a daily basis. A large number don't because they are painfully slow and unreliable (up until now). An LRT would transform this city and encourage the second portion to use transit instead of cars. The number of people driving is going down, the number of people interested in suburban-style living is also decreasing, it makes no sense to pin our future on car culture.

NONSENSE. LRT has the capability to make Hamilton a better city for all residents.

Opposing LRT helps no one in the long term. In the short term it benefits only those who drive through the core as a short cut, but the costs of catering to that group is astronomical and go a long way to explaining why we have a billion dollar infrastructure deficit.

Just because you don't understand it doesn't make it false.

Bratina saves his protransit noises for fluff pieces in the Toronto Star.

Bratina, elected mayor in 2010, makes no secret of his desire for a re-urbanized city. He supports public transit, cycling, the arts and Hamilton’s long neglected downtown. Indeed, he waxes wistfully about growing up that city’s East End and how his father rode to work at Dofasco on a bike.

In 2005, when Bratina moved back into the then grungy downtown neighbourhood of Corktown, it was known locally as Cracktown. Friends thought he was mad. Now it’s a neighbourhood many can’t afford.

“Downtown is the face of the city,” Bratina argues. “If you don’t have a viable downtown, you don’t have a city.”

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/10/...

Ugh, Bratina is infuriating. DO YOUR JOB!!

I was looking forward to the transit lane until I realized it is now taking almost twice as much time to get from Ottawa St to downtown on the B-line, all because of the traffic jam in the International Village. The bus-only lane definitely needs to be extended at least to Wellington.

agreed.

I have a very hard time believing that the bus-only lane is having that detrimental of an effect on traffic. Someone was complaining already on the radio the very first day that traffic was backed up as a result of this...except the lane hadn't been fully implemented yet, and the portion that WAS completed could't possibly have affected the location she complained about.

Keeping in mind that today (the 24th), there's a major event at the Convention Centre that was causing traffic on both Main and King to back up. Main was backed up right onto the 403.

EDIT: I should also mention that the Queen St closure is increasing the amount of traffic on King through the International Village, as some folks are now taking the Upper James/Victoria cut (which is the reason I abandoned King long ago as my regular route to the highway, and now take Hunter to Hess).

Comment edited by jonathan on 2013-10-24 18:56:38

Changing your route. What a novel idea lol. It takes some longer than others to break a habit. You are absolutely right about the Queen Street Hill, when it re-opens the Claremont traffic (that invariably heads to King) will be reduced substantially.

Unless one works downtown, one should not be coming down the mountain accesses during rush hour. The whole point of having the Linc is for mountain traffic to access west hamilton and beyond via highway to the 403. I have no sympathy for drivers who come down an inner city access and then get mad waiting in traffic to get to the 403. We pay a hell of a lot to have these highways, people need to start using them so we can stop paying a hell of a lot MORE to maintain a dozen other highways through lower Hamilton.

This is pure habit. The way we choose routes (As drivers) in Hamilton is insane. From Limeridge mall, we'll often choose to drive down the access and through downtown if we need to get to the 403 because going up 300 metres "the wrong way" to the linc feels "out of the way". It's like someone in downtown Toronto deciding to drive to the 401 via yonge street because detouring 3 blocks to the gardiner is "too far out of the way"

And if one works downtown and "doesn't have a choice", they still actually do have a choice. Don't want to sit in traffic? Choose to live downtown. It's not like we're in new york where a 300 square foot room is a million dollars.

Comment edited by seancb on 2013-10-25 08:53:26

Agreed. There has always been a (relatively minor) slowdown through international village, and the bus lane starts after that so it doesn't even create a bottleneck. It comes AFTER the pre-existing "bottleneck" at wellington (if you can even call it that - I call it "normal city traffic")

Haha. Normal city traffic in Hamilton is 65km an hour without hitting a single red light.

Let's all work positively toward an end.

I wanted to see what it was like and yesterday morning, purposely drove from Wellington to Dundurn St. Traffic moved very slowly up until Mary Street where the bus lane started. The buses moved very quickly and efficiently and traffic movement improved. From James to Dundurn traffic moved as if nothing had changed. I'm sure there were a lot of people who were unaware of the change and got caught up in this. They will no doubt change their route. Believe it or not, after ONE DAY, Councillor Whitehead said to council that we may have to revisit this before the one year period expires. Really? After one day!!!

it really says something about Hamilton drivers that they can't remember a 4 lane westbound highway is 2 blocks to the south. Hopefully they won't figure it out, I fear if they do it will used as reason to leave Cannon as it is. The real congestion seems to be the fact that the bus lane is 2 lanes at King and James.

We need to be a 20-minute city for transit commuters. Also, drove to Westdale yesterday and found it a little quicker, actually.

HSR Route 20 (A-Line) = 23 minutes from King & Hughson > Upper James & Rymal
HSR Route 10 (B-Line) = 32 minutes from McMaster University > Eastgate Square
Burlington Transit Route 101 = 30 minutes from King & James > Burlington GO Station

Then there's the last mile.

The last mile is what bicycles are for. Let's make sure that the coming bike share program is implemented properly.

I took the 1A bus at Queen this morning at 8am. Absolutely no congestion, in fact there were NO CARS in the block between Hess and Queen for one light cycle. Maybe traffic is much heavier westbound in the afternoon, but the morning rush hour was more or less unaffected. Which is not surprising as the curb lane already had many buses during rush hour, and so was not particularly useful for motor vehicles looking to travel quickly through the core.

If anything, drivers will probably appreciate not being stuck behind buses, or having buses pull out in front of the them.

Of course, the fact cyclists have been excluded and are now forced to ride in dangerously aggressive traffic is an completely unnecessary example of "friendly fire".

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2013-10-25 08:27:59

You raise a good point - the mandatory yield law to buses pulling away from the curb no longer becomes a bottleneck. I think we will witness things running much more smoothly once people get used to it. It may take a few weeks but it'll only get smoother

As far as bikes, frankly, I refuse to put myself at greater risk because of an absurd law. The economic risk of getting a ticket riding IN the lane is worth eliminating the physical risk of trying to ride between the lanes - like the bologna in a car-bus sandwich. I'll be interested to watch where the bike cops ride.

Yes, I tend to agree. I tried an albeit brief experiment, but riding a couple times in the non curb lane, I found that I was being aggressively passed on both sides (including use of the transit only lane) with little concern for my safety. Next time, I'll have to try the transit lane , and take my chances with a ticket. Seeing that car drivers will increase their convenience at the expense of the law and my safety, I'll have no choice but to increase my safety at the expense of the law.

I'll be interested to watch where the bike cops ride.

Not a fair comparison. I mean, who is going to scream, give the bird and run down a cop on a bike?? I've sometimes wondered if I could get my hands on a police jacket for when I cycle. Goes to show that car drivers absolutely know how to drive safely and be considerate around bikes. They just choose not to when it's you and I.

Comment edited by jason on 2013-10-25 09:49:00

They'll ride on the sidewalk like always.

9am Friday morning drive down King from the east end and there were no problems at all. Thankfully we didn't pressure wash all the lanes markings away after day 1.

The only trouble I had yesterday (at 8 a.m.) was between John and McNab where the buses effective are using all 4 lanes. Loading in lane one, dedicated lane in lane two, and then three and four to try and turn left into the McNab terminal. Once past McNab it was clear sailing.

I guess we should have put our transit terminal at the hunter street....transit terminal.

Don't need to go through downtown to cross the city. My son drives from home (King and Nash area) to McMaster via the RHVP, LINC, and 403.

Gets there faster.

When he has to take the HSR, I'm sure the bus lane will make that a better trip now.

I am with all the people pointing out that cars belong on highways, not as cut-through rat-runners downtown.

For example, the city of Vienna has the downtown divided into five sectors. People walking, cycling or on public transit can go straight from A to B. Car drivers going from one sector to another have to drive out to the surrounding ring road, drive around the city, and then drive back into the new sector.

This tends to make walking, cycling or public transit the fastest, easiest and most convenient way of going from A to B. So guess how people get around.

Please don't forget the people who live in the geographic center of Hamilton (from Victoria to gage). How do you propose we get west without driving through the precious core?

I guess it depends where you are going. You may have to drive through the core. And it may take 15 minutes instead of 8. And your life will certainly go on. Small bonus, you'll be living in a world class city instead of a mediocre one.

Unlikely to see Hamilton become a world class city from the creation of congestion, but as long as the cyclists are happy. Even if it takes 48 minutes away from my family and their needs.

I'm interested in the details of the route that you drive that cyclists have added 48 minutes to.

I drive king 6 times per day between work, recreation and the assortment of activities that come with having a family.

Here are some pictures I took of King Street on the 3rd day of the bus lane... at each one of these spots, king is down to 2 lanes. You are probably onto something, this kind of congestion is probably going to sink this city. All of the huge successes we've had downtown since the 60s are all going to disappear. This will probably force all of the businesses and residents downtown to move to Brantford.

Time stamp?

Time stamp?

According to the EXIF data in the images, they were all taken at more-or-less 11:00 am on Friday, October 25th. Not rush hour, granted. But that's a remarkably open road for the middle of the day on the main drag in the hear of a mid-size city.

Comment edited by moylek on 2013-10-27 00:03:26

Look like remarkably safe streets as well.

Yeah, looks like a "world class city" to me!

If by 'safe' you mean 'dead to all signs of urban social and economic activity'.

Comment edited by highwater on 2013-10-27 07:26:47

LRT, all day GO service and other public transit issues are presented on the survey posted at www.CivicLeague.ca. Be sure to register your opinions on these and many other important issues. Please encourage your contacts to complete the survey. The values & priorities identified through the survey will assist voters to evaluate decisions that have been made at City Hall and hopefully encourage residents to consider accountability when voting in 2014.

I wonder if Bratina will throw his support behind Hudak for the next provincial election. There's an article in the Globe by Adrian Morrow about Hudak's plans, if he's elected, to scrap all LRT plans for Mississauga and Hamilton and put the money into more subways for Toronto. Terrific.

Hudak is a douche, Bratina is not far behind. LRT is the way to go.

http://nextcity.org/theworks/entry/san-franciscos-eleven-year-bus-rapid-transit-project