Raise the Hammer
The King Street Transit Lane is an important step toward saving the lives of 112 of Hamilton's citizens every year.
By Kevin Love
Published January 20, 2015
I am thankful to the four city councillors who consistently support keeping and improving the city's transit-only lane, as recommended by Hamilton City staff. Their leadership is an important step in building a safe and livable Hamilton for all its citizens.
The City of Hamilton has embarked on several projects that have the capability of transforming our city. These include the light rail transit (LRT) project, the Cannon Street protected cycle lane, Hamilton Bike Share and many other projects to make the transition toward achieving a city where walking, cycling and public transit is the fastest, easiest and most convenient ways of getting from A to B.
To those City Councillors who are not sure whether to support the bus lane, or who have opposed it, my greatest concern is the profoundly disturbing situation that exists today in which motor vehicle operators poison and kill 93 people in Hamilton every year.
Of particular concern are the fine particles in car pollution. The smoke from a car's exhaust is made up of thousands of these fine particles. Each of them can be regarded as a lottery ticket in a car driver's death lottery.
Everyone who breathes in one of these fine particles is playing the car driver's death lottery, and there are 93 grand prize winners every year in Hamilton.
In addition to 93 people being poisoned and killed, there is also a ten-year average of 19.2 people per year being crushed and killed by motor vehicle drivers. This gives a total of 112 people killed by drivers every year. What a horrific pile of dead bodies!
Fortunately, these deaths can be prevented by changing Hamilton's transportation infrastructure to make walking, cycling and public transit the fastest, easiest and most convenient ways of getting from A to B.
The King Street Transit Lane is an important step toward saving the lives of 112 of Hamilton's citizens every year. Please support it.
This article is adapted from letters to Hamilton City Council.
Please add your voice to the Support Hamilton Transit campaign to keep the bus lane.
By Tybalt (registered) | Posted January 20, 2015 at 14:55:34
Thanks Kevin, I agree that avoiding death is something our council should be interested in.
I do believe that these public health issues were considered in forming the current Transportation Master Plan, which calls for more-than-tripling HSR ridership by 2021. Something we have to do, I'm afraid.
By Pxtl (registered) - website | Posted January 20, 2015 at 15:13:46 in reply to Comment 108067
I, too, will support the apparently controversial opinion that death is, in fact, a bad thing.
By More TOLs! (anonymous) | Posted January 20, 2015 at 15:15:03
We also need a Barton St. TOL from Stoney Creek to the new GO station, ASAP. Some of these councillors are lame ducks.
By Yesss (anonymous) | Posted January 20, 2015 at 15:16:02 in reply to Comment 108069
Yes, forget talk about cancelling the existing lane... we need to have more of these and for greater stretches, yesterday!
By jason (registered) | Posted January 20, 2015 at 16:44:18 in reply to Comment 108070
where possible along Barton, Main, King, Upper Wentworth and our highway shoulders: Linc, 403, RHVP
By rednic (registered) | Posted January 20, 2015 at 16:51:45
Of course the real solution if your concerned about the quality of air downtown is to move to Ancaster... by cab. A councilor told me so.
By KevinLove (registered) | Posted January 21, 2015 at 08:13:23
Ryan did an excellent editing job in seamlessly putting my letters together to create this article.
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