Raise the Hammer

I get why the Clairmont access hasn't gotten reworked, if it ever happens it will be a large expensive project. A million dollars of concrete jersey barriers. The city hasn't even bothered to fix the retaining wall because the traffic doesn't need it - that says a lot about the Clairmont.

But so many of these aren't. So many of Hamilton's problems could be solved with paint and knockdown-sticks and signs. They don't need to be gigantic epic projects.

Ryan and I disagree a bit on the buffered lanes on York and Victoria North that have no protection and double as a right-turn lane for cars - he dislikes them, but I see them as an incredibly easy fix for so many roads. Those things are perfect for zero-effort pilot projects. They're the spike solution for "lots of road with no parking on right-hand-side, no bike infrastructure, slap them down". They don't need planning hours, they don't need concrete or new signs or new traffic lights, they don't need long expensive consultation - just use cheap paint and try it for a year. Every one-way-street greater than two lanes wide in the entire city should have one. Are they my favourite accomodation? Of course not. You take nothing from drivers - not even right turning or pulling over for pick-up/drop-off - other than a little lane-capacity on a road that doesn't need it. In exchange for some breathing space for a cyclist.

But because of men like Whitehead, everything in Hamilton is a huge fight. Which means "low effort" solutions are still "high effort". If it takes as much fighting to get York-style lanes as it does to get a concrete bike-lane added to the Clairmont?

Screw it, let's get concrete on the Clairmont.

edit: aside, I shouldn't blame Whitehead too much for this, because I work at the General, and I see up-close a ludicrous example of the city's approach when it comes to cycling accomodation:

When the pipes under Victoria alongside HGH were torn up, the city did a stellar job. Parking bump-outs and a new buffered bike-lane in a place nobody even ever thought to build one. And then the Cannon track appeared! Great, a commute right to the general!

Except that between Cannon and Barton, there is no bike lane. There is no parking allowed on the right-hand-side of Victoria, so we're not taking away that service. And Victoria north of Barton carries almost as much traffic as it does South of it on 2 lanes instead of 4, so traffic isn't the reason for leaving that connection out.

The bike-lane North of Barton is used as a combined right-turn pick-up/drop-off and bikes lane. That means I have to stop often when biking on it. It isn't my favourite accomodation, but it's a decent compromise that works for everyone.

It's just paint, so cost isn't a reason. It's an obvious low-hanging fruit with no visible downside. You bring up a map of Hamilton's bike lanes and it's just staring at you.

This leaves me no other option than the obvious: Hamilton's cycling office is intensely lazy. Arranging for 1 block of paint is just too much trouble to bother with.

Comment edited by Pxtl on 2015-12-03 10:52:22