Comment 111930

By mdrejhon (registered) - website | Posted June 02, 2015 at 13:49:48 in reply to Comment 111927

That's an interesting concept to route the LRT around IV, but that dramatically slows down an LRT. In Toronto, streetcars turn very slowly, and turning LRTs are more difficult to traffic-prioritize, especially with pedestrians crossing the crosswalks.

My prevailing opinion is to turn IV into a pedestrian-only place (LRTs and pedestrians only) and solve IV parking by making a BIA contract with Denniger's parking lot to provide free customer parking to the whole BIA (upon providing IV receipt). I don't even currently pull over my car in IV because of cars racing behind me, makes it dangerous to pull into the bumpouts sometimes, and I've often overshot 3 blocks past IV, or suddenly decide to drive into Denniger's parking lot (but only to visit Denniger's at the moment).

I want to use the LRT to commute to Toronto. Don't slow commute by adding turns to the LRT. I work in Toronto daily. Catch LRT to GO station (once GO increases service), catch GO train. Spouse can keep car. Currently I drive to Aldershot since the train schedule in Hamilton downtown doesn't fit me, and I often unexpectedly work past the last train. Catching the GO bus, to a no-longer-running B-Line, is no fun, so I never use the B-Line (at current no-evening no-weekend schedule) but if a BRT/LRT runs 19.5+ hours a day, 7 days a week, and there's allday Hamilton GO trains, I'd commute to Toronto by LRT+GO since it will be equally as fast (or even faster) as driving to Aldershot and catching GO.

If there are four turns (turn off king, turn onto main, turn off main, turn back onto King) in the LRT that slows it down by 5 minutes (because of peak traffic), that actually doubles my commute between home and GO station -- TTC detours "U" shaped in streetcars are extremely time-consuming due to lack of traffic-signal-priority being easily possible for LRT turns without upsetting lots of car traffic. Traffic signal priority for LRT is much simpler and frustrates the car lobby far less, if there's no turns, since traffic signal priority during turns can means blocking the whole intersection to through-cars, depending on how it's laid out. It can often take more than 1 minute for a streetcar to make a turn through a peak-period intersection. And you're talking about FOUR turns. That might make LRT feel annoying as I get within 1 kilometer of GO, and then annoyingly it suddenly slows down by having to do multiple turns just before IV, especially if I am running tight to the GO train schedule. It then feels slower than car, and less appealing. McMaster students may also agree, trying to commute through downtown, as well, etc. So, I say, send the LRT as a straight beeline (pun intended, B-Line).

I have been in Hamilton near Gage Park for more than a year, and repeatedly drive to Mulberry Street Cafe on James Street (but how wonderful if I can predictably LRT/BRT sometimes instead, so I can drink a beer without worrying about driving) but have not yet gone to Café Oranje (in IV) yet. I know, I'm ashamed, I often don't turn my head left/right in IV because I'm so focussed on keeping my slot between the car ahead/behind me, and then I realize I overshot some nice places and can't turn back easily because all the surrounding streets are 1-way. UGH. LRT would actually increase IV business dramatically, even for carowners, as most IV businesses are served by pedestrians, not cars. As long as there's an LRT station in the middle of IV (or two stations; at each end of the IV).

TL;DR: Make IV a pedestrian-only section. Turn Main and some surrounding into 2-way streets. Create a quid pro quo BIA (funded) agreement with Denniger's parking for free parking for customers of whole IV BIA.

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2015-06-02 14:00:24

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