Comment 23161

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted May 15, 2008 at 15:49:02

City engineers say that there is plenty of spare capacity on EW roads to allow for a two-lane reduction on Main or King.

Remember:

  1. We're talking about two lanes on two roads out of the whole city. This is actually a relatively minor re-balancing of our transportation network.

  2. Separating transit and traffic can actually be beneficial to drivers (as your comment on buses pulling out indicates).

  3. It is impossible to significantly improve transit without impacting drivers to some extent. Rapid transit is about providing an equivalent or better level of service compared to driving. It is also about fairness: even in the richest neighbourhoods 30% of residents do not have the option of driving (those under 16, the elderly and those who choose not to own a car). In Hamilton, this percentage is significantly higher.

  4. Removing capacity does not necessarily lead to delays because of the intrinsic properties of networks (see Braess' paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braess'... and because people will change their travel patterns. This has been shown over and over (e.g. the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota and the removal a freeway in San Francisco did not increase congestion).

  5. Dedicated lanes have not lead to traffic chaos in other cities with much less spare network capacity ... I don't see why Hamilton would be the exception.

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