Comment 37406

By jason (registered) | Posted January 25, 2010 at 22:16:04

Here goes: Hamilton's lower city is among the densest urban spaces in Canada. People will walk from Kensington Market to the Eaton Centre/ Yonge St area without blinking an eye in TO. That's 1.5km. In Hamilton we've become so car-dependent that most folks would consider it outlandish to walk from St Joes Hospital to Jackson Square, yet it's only 0.8km. My point? Hamilton is actually closer and more dense than we realize sometimes. If the walkable streets aren't yet in place to create an exciting landscape along which to walk, someone would surely see the convenience of hopping on a stylish bike like 'they do in Paris'.

Downtown you've got high density neighbourhoods in Durand and Corktown. Perhaps stations could be placed near St Joes, the GO Station, Jackson Square at various entrances,Gore Park, new transit terminal, the library/market, Hamilton Place, Copps, AGH, City Hall, King/Ferguson, James North around Mulberry/Armouries, the waterfront parks - Bayfront/Peir 4/ Pier 8, Dundurn Castle, Victoria Park, HAAA grounds, Locke South, Hess/King West, Dundurn Plaza and finally the General Hospital and Beasley Park/new school, rec centre.

The critical mass of attractions, venues, shopping, dining, recreation in the downtown area is quite sustainable. I realize many of the destinations I mentioned are in spitting distance of each other (which is more reason to think a bike share would succeed here - the more destinations, the better).

Finally, tourism especially in the summer would be a no-brainer. I'd love to have bike rental options along the waterfront.

I think it would be well-used downtown and would hopefully grow as more people get used to the concept and slowly continue to embrace urban living once again. We've got the bones of a great urban city, now we just need to breathe some life back onto them with well-designed programs like this. A few stations won't cut it. If we do this, we need to do it right and make it easy and convenient for tens of thousands of residents and then expand throughout the city from there. Paris is a great model to follow, obviously on a scaled-down version.

Comment edited by jason on 2010-01-25 21:17:55

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