Raise the Hammer

IMHO, Hamilton must do several things first before another LRT attempt.

1. By some means you have to start a process which leads to some kind of fair and stable area wide transit funding that is similar in your suburban and urban areas. Rural areas will have to decide how much funding/service they really want to pay for.

2. Establish an area express bus system, please don't call it BRT, its not. Bus only lanes are a must for an Express Bus system! They are used in most cities in North America, they have never harmed business and by concentrating riders they provide more foot traffic for street front businesses, cars never do! Cars have been shown in most environments to reduce foot traffic and to actually harm street front businesses. Where ever you have large busy on street express bus stops/stations you have busy stores.

3. Use transit as a way to tie development and density in key urban and suburban areas.

4. Alter your BLAST network to include more frequent connections to GO Stations.

5. Link bicycle commuting and transit at many levels. The first or last km of the transit trip. Have neighborhood or area bike travel corridors linked to area traffic generators and HSR bus layover stations. Establish a real city wide segregated bike lanes that link major transit and traffic nodes.

6. During the entire process develop a list of passenger assisting technologies and ideas that can be easily and cheaply implemented. Paper and digital maps that are actually pocket size, (Ex. TTC'S Ride Guide). Frequency mapping of transit routes, being able to tell how frequent service is just by the size or color of bus route on the map. Paper and digital schedule information everywhere not just on transit properties and major transit points like malls. Buses actually painted different colors for different types of routes (many examples of this world wide). Encouraging local business links so you can combine all or the majority of bus stops with food and other service amenities as much as possible. Have the public encouraged to input new ideas and actually implement them.

7. Use local historic organizations and local transit geeks to provide materials that establish a real history and community involvement in transit. Provide a corporate and community history project involving transit and a physical places or marketing tools to show off the results using available public markets and festivals. All of this is designed to raise the awareness of the HSR in the community and the awareness of the community to the HSR.

One more thing, make sure the next LRT attempt has a starter line which not only serves local passenger attractors but neighborhood ones and GO stations as well. One problem of the BLAST NETWORK maps is that they don't show area and important local locations that each line serves. This is implied but never is made clear on maps that the public have seen. This means the starter line might be more than one line at a time but key portions of two or three with an affordable capital cost. Be prepared to pay your 1/3 share of LRT capital costs from the beginning. Save no less than 50% of your yearly gas tax funding into a future rapid transit account this will added with other priority funding plans, build up a 1/3 funding slice rather quickly. Even the attempt at this shows senior levels you are really serious about this. Lastly this has to made clear to everyone that this next starter line no matter where it is, is the beginning of a network not a single one off line. Your area will be serviced it might not happen in phase 1 but it will happen, it sounds stupid but its crucially important that everyone understands this.