Transportation

Celebrating 51 Years of Carnage

By RTH Staff
Published October 22, 2007

In today's City Log, the Hamilton Spectator continued a tradition by celebrating a list of reasons to enjoy one-way streets on the fifty-first anniversary of Hamilton's one-way conversion:

  • Head-on collisions are eliminated.
  • There's no bottlenecking from left turns going into oncoming traffic.
  • The moment you finally understand the one ways, you feel like a true Hamiltonian.

Happy anniversary indeed.

Hooray for one-way streets!
Hooray for one-way streets!

At the risk of sounding like grouches on such a festive occasion, here's a list of reasons not to enjoy one-way streets:

We believe it's well past time to make Hamilton's streets two-way today, "true Hamiltonians" or not.

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By Frank (registered) | Posted October 22, 2007 at 10:21:47

LOL Gotta love council. They need that one way street to get in to the office in the quickest amount of time. Of course if the streets were two way and transit was any sort of priority that wouldn't be an issue since transit would probably be quicker than driving...

That'd require a change in thinking though. Not likely. If transit was good, there'd be less cars and more pedestrians and cyclists meaning less head on accidents (unless you're not looking where you're walking) anyway. Nothing like backwards thinking!!!

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By jason (registered) | Posted October 22, 2007 at 10:45:21

ya for us! I'm so proud to be a Hamiltonian. I'm glad we aren't one of those crazy, backward cities like this:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=...

Or this:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=...

Or this:

http://www.flickr.com/photo_zoom.gne?id=...

Hamilton is sooooooo cool.

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By Genghis (anonymous) | Posted October 22, 2007 at 14:57:22

YEs, no cyclists or pedestrians are ever hit on 2 way traffic streets( roll eyes)

Just because a road is all one way does not correlate into more deaths because of speededing.If cars are speeding they will speed if given ample room regardless of street configuration

I dont ever recall hearing that one.. anyone not walking along a main street because "cars" are too frightening..

I would agree with that last point.An inordinante amount of time is spent making turn after turn to get where you need to be if you are going the wrong way or a road is closed.

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By peter (anonymous) | Posted October 22, 2007 at 20:50:04

can't argue with genghis over cars and roads. by the way, you can add king, cannon, york and several others to the list of frightening highways bisecting this town. sucks to be a pedestrian or cyclist in the hammer.

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By Genghis (anonymous) | Posted October 24, 2007 at 17:40:13

Ryan.

Speeding and road configuation ..2 separate issues.People increase speed if they can get away with it and have ample room to do so.

"(i.e. fatality rates rise exponentially with vehicle speed). "...Well I dont need a PHD to figure that one out


Does a 4 lane 1 way "compel" someone to speed.. perhaps, but 4 lanes either way if doing the speed limit should be of no consequence to a fatality rate.

More lanes reduce congestion if no bottlenecks occur.
Putting your foot down harder on the gas pedal creates speeding.

For the record.I dont like all one way streets when navigating around the city, but to get through the city is does help.

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By jason (registered) | Posted October 24, 2007 at 17:55:13

speeding and road configuration are absolutely interconnected. try speeding through Hess Village or on King William Street. Then turn the corner and see how fast you can go on Main St or Wilson before becoming a complete danger to everyone around or being pulled over. You can speed 24 hours a day on those streets. Design is a huge factor.

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