Comment 84635

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted January 02, 2013 at 14:47:16

Hamilton is supposed to be adopting a traffic planning hierarchy that officially places pedestrians at the top (Vancouver adopted this approach years ago). This is part of the proposed new official plan.

That is why it is so mystifying to hear Hamilton's traffic engineers complain that a 30 km/h limit would "penalize traffic" (i.e. motor vehicle traffic).

Once the new official plan is adopted, the traffic engineers will actually be obliged to "penalize" motor vehicle traffic, since it will be near the bottom of a hierarchy that places pedestrians, cyclists and transit at the top.

That is what having a hierarchy means: you favour some forms of traffic, which means effectively penalizing the others. Otherwise, what is the practical impact of placing pedestrians well above motorists in the hierarchy?

Of course, we currently have an implicit hierarchy that is the inverse of the proposed one, and I'm having difficulty imagining how the City is going to suddenly change their decisions and mindset to favour pedestrians over motorists. Which, if it means anything, means things like lowering speed limits and building more pedestrian crossings.

But then, why are they proposing this new hierarchy in the first place? I hope it is not just because it sounds nice.

Comment edited by kevlahan on 2013-01-02 14:48:14

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