Raise the Hammer

As your photo shows, there also needs to be a pedestrian crosswalk across Queen from the north sidewalk of Herkimer.

We need a pedestrian crosswalk for the one pedestrian (I guess technically 3)? So they are clearly delineated for the...one, two cars I see in the pic? Let's get some better evidence than that.
I believe there's a crosswalk just south of this pic that leads to the island...that would be more appropriate and provide a refuge area.

I live on Herkimer ten doors down from that intersection and cross (read: jaywalk) that intersection almost every day (while my commute home from work by bus is down Beckett, and stops on Hess at Herkimer). I see many people dashing across Queen at Herkimer. Since an engineer apparently needs more data than anecdotal evidence from local residents, how about you sit on that island for a day and count.

All it needs is a zebra crossing from the north sidewalk on Herkimer, pedestrian crossing signs, with lights that flash when a button is pushed, so traffic will stop until the pedestrians have crossed.

As a pedestrian who has lived downtown for many years one way streets are ALWAYS easier to cross. There is always a very long break in traffic due to the timing of the lights that affords as much time as a cross walk. Also not an issue is the one-way on Bay St. S. and that even has a school on 2 one-way streets (Bay St. S. and Hunter St.). That has never been an issue.


Lets stop wasting money on things that aren't a real problem.

For example, would anyone here dare try to walk across Upper James (any stretch south of Mohawk) during the day nevermind rush-hour. Compare that to walking across the one way at Queen.

POSSIBLE SOLUTION: Why don't we just poll the people who cross the street for a week( the actual pedestrians who use that area) what their thoughts are on the need and also present the cost to tax paypayers for the options. Money would be better spent.

And how do you poll those pedestrians that avoid the area because they feel it is unsafe?

Hunter St. was only made 40 km/h from James to Bay (IN FRONT OF THE SCHOOL!) after a pedestrian was struck and killed at Park St. a few years back.

Why don't we just create complete streets everywhere in Hamilton for all Hamiltonians?

Well, the Durand Neighbourhood Association has done just that over many years, and found massive continuing support for pedestrian-friendly infrastructure improvements.

Even more to your point, just this August 1024 ward 2 residents voted on how to spend $1 million on a variety of infrastructure investments and many of the successfully funded initiatives were indeed to improve conditions for pedestrians (including a new pedestrian activated light on Hunter at MacNab).

So, your solution has been implemented, and the results are in: most residents DO want these sorts of improvements!

I'm not sure if you have children at Central, but last year I did and you should know that Bay did not even have a school zone until late last year! It was added after pressure from the School, Durand Neighbourhood Association, parents and residents. And crossing Bay IS a problem for the elderly and those with young children: the traffic is going too fast to cross safely and during rush hour the gaps are too short.

Although you might not agree, the residents have spoken in a variety of ways (including formal polling) and DO support this infrastructure. You might think it is a waste of money, but the majority do not.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2013-10-30 11:05:47

Yeah. Don't worry about the kids that have to cross this street sans Crossing Guard (unless they feel like trekking to Aberdeen or Duke) on their way to school everyday. Maybe we just need to drop the legal driving age to 5 and get them all cars.

Given the the position of the island and off set of the streets, the island does not provide an effective refuge, especially as the "exits" from Queen North and South to Herkimer going east are designed for high speeds (not a right angle intersection).

This view shows how what should be an intersection designed for a dense urban neighbourhood with lots of pedestrians and cyclists has in fact been designed like a mini freeway interchange with large radius off-ramp style exits north and south:

https://maps.google.ca/maps?q=google+map...

This design greatly increases the crossing distance and the position of the island makes it useless as a refuge for pedestrians crossing either Queen St or Herkimer street. And allowing motorists to turn without slowing down appreciably is terrible design for an urban neighbourhood!

I live just around the corner, and can confirm that this intersection, even in its dangerous and inconvenient state, is well used by pedestrians. It does need to be reconfigured as a proper intersection with right angle turns and crosswalks.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2013-10-29 13:28:52

I saw a postie sprint for her life across it today. I'm surprised you still get mail delivery in the neighbourhood!

Don't get carried away with yourself Ryan. I mean, look at all the traffic in your pics. How could that mess squeeze onto a 2-way street?

Queen may be the least essential one-way street in Hamilton.

Challenge accepted.

Queen connects Cannon Street's terminus to King and Main. During this stretch it actually sees a lot of traffic as it effectively functions as part of the westbound highway - drivers going to Burlington continue onto York Boulevard, but drivers heading to Westdale or the 403 Westbound take Queen. Likewise, it allows drivers coming from York Boulevard to get to King/Main without slogging up Dundurn. Notice that this leg of Queen is part of the truck route.

Further, South of Main we have the Beckett Drive mountain access. Queen quickly carries traffic from King/Main to Beckett. That said, the 1-way problem forces Westbound traffic to cram onto Aberdeen instead of heading to King, much to the frustration of Kirkendallers.

Now, north of York/Cannon? Completely pointless. They're only leaving it that way to avoid the nuisance of reconfiguring the Queen/York/Cannon traffic light.

Now, I'm not saying this kind of usage for the street justifies it's 1-way nature, but it definitely is not the "least essential". I mean, cramming 18-wheelers onto that leg of Queen results in that beautiful accident photo you posted here a while back. And I'm sure all the kids walking to Ryerson would like to be able to do it on a normal street. So yeah, there are plenty of entries on the "con" column, but it's got a few in the "pro" too.

But I'm sure we can come up with a dozen streets that better-deserve that title. Heck, I could come up with a dozen streets that deserve that title in Durand alone, and another dozen in Kirkendall. I mean, for pity's sake look at this:

https://www.google.ca/maps?ll=43.252408,...

That's insane.

Comment edited by Pxtl on 2013-10-29 12:01:25

your pro's are con's. the city doesn't need a "westbound highway" running through the city. that's what our actual west bound highway is for. everyone else can drive at a reasonable speed through a diverse network of multiple east west routes to arrive to local destinations

The only part of queen that your point applies to is between york and king - for vehicles who want to get from cannon to king in order to catch the 403 westbound.

But Queen only has one lane turning onto King anyways - and it's three lanes wide. So it could indeed be two way through that stretch and STILL give a dedicated turn lane onto king - if the traffic data justifies it.

I think if we studied the numbers we'd find that every N/S one way is a non-essential one-way in terms of traffic carried.

I'm pretty sure it's two right-turn-lanes now, actually.

This point is always forgotten by safe streets opponents (idiotic that we have so many in our city) - Queen is 3 lanes southbound from York BUT the right lane turns rights and the left lane has parking for 21 hours a day. That means that for the most part, only 1 lane is going south through King St. One lane. I would like to see one of these two cross-sections for Queen:

Parking on the west curb, bike lane southbound next to the parking lane, then one southbound car lane and one northbound car lane. Or,

Parking on the west curb, one southbound car lane, then a 2-way protected cycle track. This bike track could be continued all the way along Stuart St to Bay by removing one of it's 4-lanes (I'd love to see traffic data for that street. Brand new, paved, 4-full lanes for a few hundred cars a day probably). A two-way cycle track here would effectively connect Bay St near Bayfront Park and the new GO Station all the way to Queen and Aberdeen. It could link seamlessly to the Cannon cycle track by turning one of the two left turning lanes from Cannon to Queen into a cycle-track lane. It would also connect to the hopeful Napier Greenway someday, the Hunter 2-way protected lanes and the Charlton/Herkimer proposed lanes.

Personally I prefer the 1-way Queen with two-way cycle track cross section, but either option would be better than it's current configuration.

"Last year, Council approved a one-way-to-two-way study group for Queen and Cannon Street."

I wonder how that's going...

We are about to do an on-line survey for input http://www.hamilton.ca/NR/rdonlyres/195F2427-0FF4-4163-9AB6-3F8B058EBB44/0/Oct0291.pdf The Data collected from the Study Group is posted on Farr's and Mchattie's web sites

Cannon http://www.jasonfarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Cannon_Audit_Report_June.pdf

Queen http://www.jasonfarr.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Queen_Audit_Report_June.pdf

Hey - with apologies to Matthew Sweet - Change Doesn't Happen Overnight!

Haha. Well played sir.

This is whole website is a trolling magnet. I wonder what is more entertaining, the school girl bitching after the article or the article itself.

So true, so true...

Wow, this is an ambitious conversion! Kudos to the traffic dept for forward thinking.

Sorry for the dripping sarcasm but the City traffic guys totally deserve it.

I'd argue that the purely residential Herkimer, Stanley, Homewood, Charlton, Chatham, etc could be made two way tomorrow and slow traffic considerably while allowing more flexibility to get around while driving less distance.

One ways like Canada and Jackson make more sense since they are narrow enough to slow traffic. But really no problem making them two way also.