Raise the Hammer

Glad to hear it's been fixed. Thanks to RTH, the DNA and Jason Farr for making it happen. But, yes: Why? Why?! Why?!!!! ...was it designed to be broken in the first place?

While I understand the concept, what I don't understand is...if cars can wait for a light to change green, why cannot pedestrians? As someone who walks to work and uses the above mentioned crosswalk, I noticed the cars stopped this morning. While this may seem great from an advocacy point of view, what about that car that is stuck in the intersection of Hunter and James due to the amount of cars stopped at the MacNab light? Yes, the volume may be low on Hunter, but was peak times ever taken into account? Stretches like Aberdeen and Kent make sense for pedestrian activated...but I still fail to see the usefulness of pedestrian activated light switches on Hunter.

This crosswalk goes a little way to addressing the longstanding problem that many streets in Hamilton have many block stretches with no crosswalk or signalized intersection.

Since motorists have forgotten that they are required to stop for pedestrians crossing at a so-called "uncontrolled crosswalk" (and pedestrians must wait for a large enough gap so motorists can stop safely), it means pedestrians have to risk darting across traffic or wait (often a very long time) for a gap so large motorists don't even need to slow down. Or they have to walk (often many hundreds of metres) to the nearest crosswalk.

A good example is Dundurn street, which has no crosswalks or signalized intersections between Herkimer and Main, a distance of 750m!

A pedestrian activated light is great, but at $150k it is not a solution for most locations. We should move to a simple "painted lines and signs" crosswalk standard such as that used in western Canada or most other countries.

That's correct: at an uncontrolled crosswalk (i.e. an intersection without stop signs or traffic lights) a motorist does not have to stop for a pedestrian just standing on the sidewalk.

However, once a pedestrian is engaged in crossing (i.e. takes one foot off the sidewalk) the motorist must yield.

This was discussed in great detail here:

http://www.raisethehammer.org/article/19...

However, the pedestrian only has to wait for a gap large enough that the motorist has time to stop safely. This does not mean that the gap should be so large that the motorist should not have to slow down or stop.

As an example, for a motorist going at 50km/h a safe stopping distance on dry pavement is about 25m (including both reaction time and braking time). So if the motorist is about 25 m away, that should be a safe gap.

Unfortunately, anyone who has tried crossing at uncontrolled crosswalks in Hamilton knows that even when you are in the middle of the street most motorists won't take their foot off the accelerator, let alone brake and stop. You are expected to run if you don't want to be hit!

I had several experiences like that at this precise crosswalk, before the lights were installed. And Hunter isn't even a busy street like James or Main or King. Try asserting your right to cross those streets safely!

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2014-10-03 13:30:50

Drivers failing to slow down is a "feature" of Hamilton psychology.

When I lived in Woodstock, cars driving on Dundas Street downtown (i.e. Highway 2 & 59) would stop if they even saw me just approach the curb and stand there. Drivers were very polite to pedestrians and there were no "pedestrian signals" needed.

I don't know what you can do to change the mentality in Hamilton, other than perhaps demanding severe prison sentences for hitting pedestrians... which would probably still take years to have any effect on safety.

Slowing down the traffic is all that it takes. If I'm going over 50, it takes a lot more to convince me to stop than if I'm going 30. Especially since you'll be passed the pedestrian in an instant so they really don't have to wait long.

Once you slow down traffic, it won't feel like such an imposition to wait for somebody to cross and courtesy will come naturally over time. That's a reason why Hamilton's fast streets are more than just bad when you're on them, they screw up the psychology of driving when you get off of them too.

For local side-streets like Dundurn South, the "Yield to Pedestrians" median-line sign/knockdown-sticks we see on-campus at Mac could be the answer.

I'm not saying that this is not possible the appropriate solution, but I do have to point out that Dundurn at this point is not a local side-street. It's an arterial and traffic there is pretty steady at certain times of the day. It’s very common to see people waiting for breaks in traffic in order to cross.

Thank you for raising Dundurn- it is kind of odd that it has such a long stretch with no safe place to cross. I wouldn’t know if it a light is justified for that cost (I’m with you- it would be more efficient for people to simply yield to people crossing), but I’m curious about how that would be assessed on a stretch like this, and maybe someone can clarify.

When the Aberdeen-Kent light was installed, staff evidently went and counted how many people crossed there. Did they count specifically there, or over a wider spanse of Aberdeen? On Dundurn, people cross outside of crosswalks (because there are none) over 750 meters, as you say. If a crosswalk existed at Melbourne (or wherever on this stretch), they might well walk to that point to cross.

But if someone from the traffic department were to go and assess how many people currently cross at Melbourne, I presume it would be a low number if they do not capture the number of people who cross at Jackson, Hill, Chatham, in front of the beer store, or else wherever they happen to be when traffic allows them to. I’m curious as to whether they would say “a cross walk is not justified at Melbourne- only x pedestrians cross there per day” or “a cross walk is justified somewhere on Dundurn because x pedestrians cross somewhere in this 750 meter stretch.”

It's time for the City Manager to start taking names of people involved in this stuff. At this point it's just belligerence. City employees are being openly defiant of our elected representatives and democratic process. Who the hell do they think pays them?

I was in Niagara Falls yesterday (arguably a VERY pedestrian centric area) and came across a pedestrian activated crossing. After several presses of the button by people with no change in the light, they crossed when it was safe. Seems that they have the same concern for pedestrians there too.

imagine if citizens weren't keeping up on every. single. thing? Imagine how much more could get done if we cleaned house at city hall and got staff/managers who actually traveled once in a while and learned to bring the worlds best practices back here instead of acting like the 50's-70's are going to come back in style someday?

While they are at it, how about finishing Hunter? We don't need two lanes from John to Bay. Finish the bike lanes and this will still allow for a right turn lane onto John, a left turn onto James and a right turn onto Bay. That's all that is needed.

And I would still love to see them move the parking to the south lane to act as protection for the bike lanes along Hunters entire length. Would become a very useful and safe piece of cycling infrastructure.

Speaking of which, I see the painting has begun on Charlton and to nobody's surprise, cyclists get the privilege of protecting the parking lane. Again.

Why do we continue to install out of date, dangerous bike lanes, when a simple shuffling of the parking/bike lane can bring some of the safest design possible. One of the reasons NYC beat out Portland as the #1 bike city in America this year is due to it's network of protected bike lanes.

We could be doing this on Charlton and Herkimer:

http://b.3cdn.net/bikes/c41dd61bbc7cc0ab...

Instead of this:

http://noimpactman.typepad.com/photos/un...

"imagine if citizens weren't keeping up on every. single. thing?"

That's what citizens always have to do. At least in these times citizens have organizationa and institutions (like this one right here) to allow them to coordinate their engagement!

Why do we continue to install out of date, dangerous bike lanes, when a simple shuffling of the parking/bike lane can bring some of the safest design possible.

I really don't understand why city staff can't get this thought their heads. Perhaps they're worried about dooring? It's simple, the same price and far better for both the bikes and the pedestrians to put the bike lane inside the parked cars. Hell, you might not even have to put bollards (which I think are an eyesore in neighbourhoods like Durand).

I live in Durand. On Park Street near Durand Park.

In my opinion, the biggest eyesore in Durand is all the parked cars.

Fair enough. Sadly cars exist and the ability to park them has an impact on local livability. They're likely to continue existing in the foreseeable future, in some form or fashion, especially here in our sprawling country. So I think our best option is to figure out how to live together.

In my example here, I'm simply suggesting an easy win. Not a best case. The bollards are better than nothing but I'd prefer planters/medians. Cars would protect the sidewalks, look at the change in Locke Street once they allowed parking on the East side of the street. Opened up a whole series of businesses. Like that place that makes the cupcakes...Bitten?...mmmm..whoopie pies.

I've given up on expecting anything other than 1950's status quo from city staff. In fact, I was at city hall recently asking about a building development proposal and upon asking why so many variances were needed for a simple project, the response from behind the desk was "that's how the bylaws were written in the 50's". And no, he wasn't saying it while rolling his eyes like 99% of us would. He was saying with gusto and confidence as if it was a good answer. I don't think they care. They just do what the book says from 1950. Period.

No, actually. Charlton and Herkimer are residential streets. Cut-through traffic should be restricted to walking, cycling and public transit traffic. Cars should never be allowed to cut through residential streets.

This is very easy to do with security bollards, which can be make retractible to allow passage for HSR buses.

I will add that the Durand Neighbourhood Association has been asking for this since (sigh...) 1976!

Comment edited by KevinLove on 2014-10-04 11:58:14

I still think most of Charlton/Herkimer's problems could be fixed with simple 2-way conversion - same as the rest of Durand's wider streets. As a cyclist I don't feel unsafe biking around Westdale's streets, most of which don't have dedicated bike-lanes, because they're slow 2-way mixed traffic local streets. Herkimer and Charlton could look like Longwood North.

That is exactly my point. Cut-through car driving has been eliminated from Longwood North. The Desjardins Trail is cycling and pedestrian only.

I agree with you. Herkimer and Charlton could look exactly like Longwood North if security bollards are used to eliminate cut-through car driving.

I also agree that bike lanes are not needed when cut-through car driving has been eliminated. Please see this video for details.

Whats with the Steam Whistle bikerack/sign on Locke Street?

Permanent gift from the Steam Whistle company to encourage cycling. It's a bike rack and bike repair station apparently.

From reading the descriptions of improperly functioning crossings (eg PBs that don't work, poor cycle timings) above, it's obvious to me that the real problem is that there are too many people in the city's traffic department who have no clue how to program a traffic controller.

The city will never send someone out to fix a controller's timing program unless there are complaints, so make sure you keep their phone number handy. Don't worry, it's not a reflection of anti-pedestrian policy: it's just people at the city not having a clue how to do their jobs properly, no surprise there.

I wonder why no-one at City Hall has been fired or sent home for a few days for deliberately NOT installing the required traffic control systems. We'd have less of this going on if there were penalties attached to not doing the job you were asked to do.