Raise the Hammer

I don't mean this comment as a criticism of Ryan -- he's the reporter, not the decider -- but I am disturbed by the continuing south/west end bias of Hamilton's active transportation improvements.

The Cannon St. cycle track is a huge step forward for the north-central part of our city, but it only happened after the biggest grassroots campaign Hamilton has ever seen regarding active transportation infrastructure. That's a tall hurdle to overcome.

The centre of mass of the bike share map is somewhere around Locke/Queen Street. There are more stations in Westdale (including McMaster) than in all of Ward 3, and no stations east of Gage.

Otherwise, we've got a paved path through a golf course in Kirkendall, bike lanes on York, speed humps in Kirkendall, and a crosswalk at Hunter and MacNab. That is, four projects in the south and west ends.

Hunter and MacNab certainly needed a crosswalk; it is 400 m between the pre-existing crossings of Hunter at James and Bay. It's also 600 m between the crossings of Cannon at Wentworth and Victoria (with no signalled crossing at Smith Avenue, on which St. Brigid School is located), and 500 m between the crossings of Main at Gage and King (opposite Gage Park).

Some justifications that will be proposed for this state of affairs will be "Wards 1/2 have better councillors", "The neighbourhoods in the south/west end have active neighbourhood associations who have been lobbying for these improvements for years", and "North/central/east end neighbourhoods have bigger priorities."

These arguments are a form of victim-blaming. The north/central/east end neighbourhoods have been treated as a sacrifice zone for generations, which has led to political disenfranchisement. That these neighbourhoods have other urgent issues should not be an excuse for deferring investment in their physical environment.

It is time for this city to commit to equity between neighbourhoods in its active transportation investments. This will require a catch-up period for neighbourhoods along King, Main, Cannon, and Burlington Sts. East.