Raise the Hammer

That's exactly one of the reasons what the meetings are for -- get ideas, where the LRT advocacy team's workdshop is the residents modify the vision in various elements, e.g. add extra crosswalks, or suggest a safety fine-tuning near the new school near the stadium, etc. Or whatever. Quite open minded, mind you. The 2011 LRT plan templates aren't my vision, but it's a far better vision than what's out there today.

Again, I'm not Ryan. My impression is that you're unfamiliar with the majority of the people opinion along the reoute, as I attend the monthly community meetings here. I even said there are good kinds of 1-way streets, if properly done.

For example, there is always some disagreement on what happens to Main St but the vast majority along the route want to see a corridor taming of some kind (not my vision) go hand-in-hand with the LRT. Which may or may not include Main 2-way, although mathematically a King LRT tends to greatly raise the neighborhood favourability of that option.

Really; The LRT advocacy team isn't blocking options -- the job is to simply relay neighborhood feedback to the City/Metrolnx contacts regarding the 2011 LRT plans, many residents have never seen these plans -- this is all before the city's/province's public consultations that they will do themselves.

Main/King 2-way works incredibly well for cars; but with the LRT taking several lanes off King it no longer works well, and lanes of traffic needs to be somehow reassigned (whether King 1-way or 2-way and which/what sections, and whether Main 1-way or 2-way, etc).

What actually ends up happening may be certainly totally different from the 2011 LRT plans, but it's also the communities' interests to make sure the LRT also have the best social/economic benefits -- which, of course, means more jobs, easier transportation, easier walking, etc. Certainly can't deny that.

However, it's important to do the best that the LRT project continues with the best possible planning and concurrent revitalization (including improvements to other modes, like pedestrians) and is not screwed up with some Edmonton-style fiasco, and the opening of Ottawa/Waterloo's LRTs (both open within the next 2-3 years) will be a turning point. It's quite important to make sure.

I do not have a monopoly on LRT plans. But many, many, many people are agreeing on the importance on doing this properly and avoiding many cities' mistakes. For example, the "Citizen Jury" had a meeting and then the city artist wrote their deliberations into artwork, such as this one:

This is only one of many...from only one group. (one that I'm not a member of, even if I've visited their earlier open-to-public events)

(The Jury meetings were all open to the public, if you were following them.)

The bottom line is there are really many groups, our citizen advocacy, Fred's citizen jury, HCF, the hubs, etc, all vying to provide feedback on the LRT. No all are agreeing but there are many common theme: that when building the Hamilton LRT it should be built right -- not screw it up -- and that we have to get the best social/economic benefits out of it

Dozens and dozens of events and meetings have been held by many kinds of groups (not just ours), some of which we've attended.

(one of the slides of one of the PowerPoint presentations of the Hamilton LRT advocacy team)

Go to any of the events/community meetings (ours or other groups) and engage in healthy discussion. Bringing up ideas that many people disagree with, means you have to work hard to explain why your idea is good, with lots of references and experiences that are found in other cities.

And invariably, they will explain their ideas back to you, e.g. their story they are unable to ride a wheelchair on a section of King, or that they never cross King on feet because it's a 10 minute walk (for their old body) to the nearest crosswalk, or that they don't let kid walk outside unattended like they do in other parts of city, etc.

Many, many, people with an opinion, here and there, many for the LRT while, some against the LRT, and even those against the LRT, some of them are interested and concerned about optimizing the side elements (like better sidewalks which they like the idea of), etc.

One point of view is; recognizing that the LRT is coming and everyone wants to see the best possible outcome (socially/economically) even though there are often disagreements, or not liking all elements of it, etc.

Comment edited by mdrejhon on 2016-01-14 19:53:48