Hamilton: General Service Discussion

[salsa]

I know it's fun to bash Toronto, but let's be real. Sure, Toronto's Bike Share isn't as successful, but Toronto already has a large population of cyclists who own their own bikes and are perfectly fine with continuing to ride them. Did Hamilton? I don't know the answer to that, but I suspect that the cycling modal share was much smaller.

Occasionally I read a blog called Raise the Hammer, and as a Torontonian I have almost nothing to be jealous about Hamilton. I found out yesterday that Hamilton is the 2nd most dangerous city in Ontario for pedestrians and cyclists. The cycling infrastructure is woefully inadequate at best. The leadership at city hall does everything they can to support cars above all else, promote anti-smart growth, and sabotage it's urban revival. All the greatest things that have come out of this city have been made in spite of city hall, not because of it. One day I hope the citizenry will finally wake up from its car fume-induced coma and choose leadership that actually helps Hamiltonians. But until then, Hamilton will be about as appealing to me as an Ohio backwater city.

 

[mdrejhon]

Occasionally I read a blog called Raise the Hammer, and as a Torontonian I have almost nothing to be jealous about Hamilton. I found out yesterday that Hamilton is the 2nd most dangerous city in Ontario for pedestrians and cyclists. The cycling infrastructure is woefully inadequate at best.

And yet, we out-bikeshared Toronto.

Hamilton Mayor Fred is now calling for a SoBi expansion.
Hamilton Ward 3 councillor has echoed the same (see tweets below).

One day I hope the citizenry will finally wake up from its car fume-induced coma and choose leadership that actually helps Hamiltonians.

I voted for a new progressive member into Hamilton City Council, Matthew Green.
Many others in my word, did, too.
He won.

Matthew Green is working for our ward, and like some of my ideas:
Retweets of my tweets by @MGreenWard3:

So our citizenry, at least in my ward, is waking up gradually.

https://twitter.com/mdrejhon/status/621725490236231680

@cityofhamilton @MGreenWard3 #hamont
Plz find way to extend Cannon bike lane to Gage Park. Bike routes dangerous between Sherman and Gage
Retweeted by @MGreenWard3

https://twitter.com/mdrejhon/status/621537295351574529

@SoBiHamilton @MGreenWard3 @cityofhamilton Saw 5 SoBi bikes pass on Cannon bike lane ~10:48pm. Also 1st time saw more bikes than cars
Retweeted by @MGreenWard3

He even retweeted my Gage Park Gondola idea:
https://twitter.com/mdrejhon/status/622180580818612224

@MGreenWard3 I noticed Beckett gondola idea in Hamilton plan http://www.hamilton.ca/sites/...1508.pdf ... Maybe Gage Park gondola in 10yrs (with bike racks)?
Retweeted by @MGreenWard3

And the latest gem, he retweeted one of my UrbanToronto posts:
https://twitter.com/MGreenWard3/status/623545891811684353

An elected Hamilton councillor ... retweeting one of my public-transit-related UrbanToronto posts with a huge compliment!
Read that above sentence again, salsa.

So, accepting of progressive ideas. There are others, but I've highlighted that my Hamilton city councillor is more progressive, and he's successfully in the office just a few months ago, thanks to voters like me, my neighbours, my friends, and others.

Yes, the City Hall is a big place, and there's a lot of barriers. But every little piece help, and over 1/3rd of the LRT route goes through my councillor Mr. Green's ward -- he felt like he won the superbowl when his LRT work helped majorly. For the record, I know he has done a bit of LRT lobbying behind the scenes, so it's evident he helped nailed down our LRT despite our longshot chances.

Can you imagine how longshot it was -- and we still got it -- thanks in part to Mr. Green's behind the scenes work! That's a miracle not often see in city council (including Toronto's -- yes, a sportmansly nudge that we both have our own share of craziness -- the feeling is mutual).

Even you, salsa, can concede that it's an improvement (separately of finding my posts on UrbanToronto as being annoying). I have no plans to scale back my involvement on UrbanToronto forums, but I do take into account of some of my repetitive nature, and I'll dial it back a bit to a better equilibrium (Thanks). Occasionally, I'll need a reminder here and there -- but that's all you need to do. Other than that, let me help improve my city, please.

You can let people like me help actually improve Hamilton by not discouraging my posts, and only focussing your critique on things like my repetitiveness.

I love Toronto, but lay it off with your anti-Hamilton tripe, salsa, and hate on my repetitiveness instead (please). Otherwise you're being hypocritical as I am closer (than the average Hamiltonian) to the Hamilton citizenry you hope for. Even grudgingly, you'd agree.

[snip] ...One day I hope the citizenry will finally wake up from its car fume-induced coma and choose leadership that actually helps Hamiltonians... [snip]

I clicked "Like" on your post, because solely of this sentence. I agree.

I do my little bit.

Your honour, I rest my case.

 

[mdrejhon]

Never mind the silly decisions like the location of the Hamilton TiCats stadium (Sholda been at West Harbour), the past controversies behind the Red Hill Valley Parkway / LINC, the flip-flopping back and fourth on 1-way and 2-way conversions, the insistence of a set-back on Main for a condo development, and stuff like that. There are the Hamilton stupidities, and there are the Toronto stupidities. Yes, many worthy topics. I love Toronto, even if Hamilton's my permanent home.

I declare a truce on city sibling rivaly.

Fair advance disclosure: I've got an upcoming article for another site, about to be published about suggesting the switch to SoBi for Toronto. However, I'll make sure it uses respectful wording that illustrates that I enjoy Toronto.

 

[salsa]

I voted for a new progressive member into Hamilton City Council, Matthew Green.
Many others in my word, did, too.
He won.

There are others, but I've highlighted that my Hamilton city councillor is more progressive, and he's successfully in the office just a few months ago, thanks to voters like me.

I admire your passion for the city, and it's nice that ward 3 has a new councillor (how bad was the previous one?). However I'm more worried about the suburban and rural councillors. I have to mention just one example to prove my point: when council voted to killed the bus lanes, this is what the vote looked like:

As long as team regressive has the majority, the progressives like you who represent the lower city will not have enough influence. As a loyal Hamiltonian, your biggest challenge and opportunity is to help oust the rest of the idiots outside of your ward that votes against progressive initiatives, so that Hamilton can reach it's full potential.

I love Toronto, but lay it off with your anti-Hamilton tripe, salsa, and hate on my repetitiveness instead (please). Otherwise you're being hypocritical as I am closer (than the average Hamiltonian) to the Hamilton citizenry you hope for. Even grudgingly, you'd agree.

I prefer your city way more than the characterless sprawling mess that is Brampton, Vaughan and Mississauga. I wish nothing but the best for Hamilton, so me venting my frustration with the leadership at city hall does not make me anti-Hamilton, nor am I stopping you from improving the city. So please keep doing what you're doing.

 

[mdrejhon]

I have no disagreement about the silliness of erasing a bus lane.
That gives us a bad rep, and almost killed our LRT.

That said...

TL;DR:
Why should I have ever been earlier interested in the now-cancelled BRT lane? It was designed so badly. Even though I am pro-LRT, pro-pedestrian-mall International Village, and pro-2-way Main/King? That's how halfhearted the BRT lane get done. It was that bad. And I say this as a person who likes bike lanes, transit, and pedestrian malls.

FWIW, I can attest to the bus lane being poorly designed and done. So, no wonder somewhat-but-not-too-surprisingly not many objected (myself included) after it was gone. Sadly, it slowed traffic through downtown more than a Main 2-way conversion would have done! With the driver-hated 2-lane bottleneck through IV, throwing in a bus lane into the mix is hairpulling when the rest of the artery outside of downtown is 5 lanes wide. Once upon a time, IV was much wider, and we narrowed IV to the chagrin of drivers. Main is consistent width through downtown, while King varies a lot in width, so the bus lane plays havoc with the westward-commuting chokepoints.

Many, many, many things were wrong with the way the bus lane was slapped into Hamilton:
-- When I get off buses in downtown Hamilton for GO, I'm stepping off the bus where the BRT begins (beyond GO). It had zilch benefit to me, it didn't even extend eastwards. Boo.
-- Also, with the efficiency of 5-lane-wide Main beyond downtown, the bus lane didn't speed buses up much at all (less than the St. Clair renovations sped up TTC streetcars).
-- Today, bus schedules are currently running almost as fast as during the bus lane days! Even during peak!
-- And when I drove, the bus lane 'obnoxiously' almost took the center lane (lane #4 out of 5 lanes) through the busy James-King intersection.
-- Because of this, bus briefly moves OUTSIDE of its bus lane downtown, at more than one bus stop, to pick up passengers. No silly need (like there was) for bus to move outside of its bus lane to pull up to bus stops!
-- If it was done properly, why not make use the rightmost lane, and move streetside parking to left side. Open-up the Gore Park fence! Improve park ambience of a semi-dead park! Makes it safer for drivers to exit parked cars on a 1-way street! Make bus boardings easier, too.
-- And a favourite bus, that uses the bus lanes, is the B-Line Express bus -- a bus that doesn't run evenings and weekends! That bus services stops at 7:30pm.
-- Though, yes, I was voting to to keep the bus lane to protect for LRT.

But, heck, I might have even voted against this BRT lane if I knew it was going to be this badly-implemented people-unfriendly bike-unfriendly car-unfriendly bus lane design, and if I knew we were going to get LRT anyway. Yep. Fix the lane or give the lane back to cars, I say. It was that stupidly implemented. It was that bad.

A 2-way conversion (possibly with overhead direction arrows, to give 3 lanes towards 403 -- at least as an interim Mountain-satisfying measure) -- due to the poor bus lane implementaton -- could actually have actually SPED up peak-period cars during the morning commute.

Heck, I'm pro pedestrian mall for International Village (if/when Main Street becomes a 2-way) -- the Queens Quay treatment of dedicated cycle path, wider sidewalks, and LRT -- albiet only when the time is right (ala ~2025). But even as a Ward 3 resident, I don't miss the bus lane removal as much as I may have, except for my fear of LRT cancellation caused by that decision.

So, you see, I don't have much love for a bus lane that was "installed" in a way that made it worse than having no bus lane at all. This may not be the case, but: it is almost as if it was installed by city engineers (at that earlier time, at least) wanting to sabotage our desire for an LRT. Fix it or remove it (And we removed it -- and good riddance, now that I know we've got the LRT). The way it was done was a "don't bother" bus lane. And I say this as someone who loves Copahagen and transit-friendly developments and pedestrian malls, and appreciates a good, proper traffic-prioritized LRT.

 

[mdrejhon]

About making sure our LRT is liked by Mountain...

For that, all of us will work very carefully to make our LRT likeable by Mountain. They threw a massive bone to Mountain a GO station bundled in with LRT. Bundling a new GO station into LRT funding -- clever. This clever political move has successfully shushed a lot of mountain LRT opposition -- the new GO station is right off the mountain expressway route (RHVP/LINC) and benefits multiple mountain wards.

The Stoney Creek GO station begins construction 2017 when we tender for LRT. The Stoney Creek GO station opens when we begin LRT construction. The LRT is, this time, finally designed to overcome mountain opposition. The combined funding and phasing ensures more difficulty in backtracking the LRT plans by any future Ontario/Hamilton votes. We will keep an eagle eye that this stays on schedule.

In exchange for Mountain leaving our LRT alone and letting IV become a pedestrian mall, and giving us our 2-way Main/King, then I'll happily vote for a 6-lane LINC/RHVP widening (it's there, can't be backtracked, can't remove, might as well milk it). With a caveat added that they don't vote against LRT -- and they also get their GO station. Quid pro quo. Use creative funding methods -- toll the through-drivers to fund freeway upkeep, but keep Hamilton vehicles free.

I'm glad that, Ontario, imperfect as it is, is going to be responsible for building the LRT.

Incidentally -- improving mountain transit and mountain benefit of Lower City LRT -- is part of the reason I tweeted the (possibly-outlandish possibly-not) Gondola idea to @MGreenWard3, as the mountain can get to connect faster. It may not be doable, but at least we do have an escarpment Gondola being porposed in one of our master Parks plans (Even if nothing has been done lately about it...) but at least it's far more likely to happen, than say, certain Toronto transit lines. It's just only a cheap basic 4-person openbucket with tiny small-skihill-style chairlift-style stations -- a fraction of the cost of the inclinator that we let degrade, rust away & uninstall. No land except landing spots and maybe a single intermediate cable pole. For a Gondola only 3 million dollars plus install, a large Mountain neighborhood is within walking distance of the Lower City crosstown B-Line LRT.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

Never mind the silly decisions like the location of the Hamilton TiCats stadium (Sholda been at West Harbour), the past controversies behind the Red Hill Valley Parkway / LINC, the flip-flopping back and fourth on 1-way and 2-way conversions, the insistence of a set-back on Main for a condo development, and stuff like that. There are the Hamilton stupidities, and there are the Toronto stupidities. Yes, many worthy topics. I love Toronto, even if Hamilton's my permanent home.

I declare a truce on city sibling rivaly.

The city sibling rivalry is important IMO. It keeps each other in check and promotes innovative solutions. Look at the Minneapolis-St. Paul rivalry, or the Houstan-Dallas rivalry and how it encourages progress there.

Toronto can only benefit from a more vibrant, competitive and successful Hamilton. The success of SoBi might be the first evident way of how Hamilton positively influences Toronto planning in the near future, assuming we adopt a similar system one day.

 

[LNahid2000]

The success of SoBi says nothing about the modal share of cycling in Hamilton. It's been pointed out many times that bike share riders does not equal all bike commuters. I have a Bixi membership for convenience, but log far more kilometres on my own bike than on Bixi. Just because SoBi is doing well in Hamilton does not mean Hamilton has a higher modal share of cyclists than Toronto.

 

[Midtown Urbanist]

It doesn't, but I think it says something as a service when compared to Bixi.

Would a SoBi system in Toronto be much more successful than Bixi? I am leaning towards yes and I would like to see it tried. Hopefully the success in Hamilton spurs such a reaction in Toronto.

 

[mdrejhon]

Good point about city rivalry creating the "Keeping up with the Joneses" effect. Toronto gets all the attention, but we occasionally do some rather unexpected things now and then, like the SoBi surprise-success, the cancer vaccine human trial, little things like these. I was actually referring to out-of-bounds "city rivalry" that borders on insults, that is what I call a truce on.

Would a SoBi system in Toronto be much more successful than Bixi? I am leaning towards yes and I would like to see it tried. Hopefully the success in Hamilton spurs such a reaction in Toronto.

Since I had been repeating SoBi recently a bit too much --
To avoid repeating -- I'll just post links to my SoBi posts in the Toronto BIXI thread:

1. Hamilton out-bikeshared Toronto (5000 active members after just 4 months, versus 4000 active after 5 years).
2. Hamilton GPS-tracked bike usage heat map (goldmine for city planners for bike routes)
3. New $4.9M bikeshare grant to Toronto, can fund bigger 3000-bike SoBi system covering 6x to 9x area
(much faster membership capture per dollar, becuz of area amplifying effect of better area-efficiency/bike AND lower-cost/bike)
4. SoBi is less taxpayer waste than BIXI

Catch-up reading for those who haven't read my Toronto BIXI-vs-SoBi posts yet.

Related: Toronto should watch Ottawa; they switched from BIXI to SoBi (just started VeloGO SoBi system this month), they will be a great same-city case study on BIXI uptake versus SoBi uptake in the next 6 months.

 

[DC83]

I know it's fun to bash Toronto, but let's be real. Sure, Toronto's Bike Share isn't as successful, but Toronto already has a large population of cyclists who own their own bikes and are perfectly fine with continuing to ride them. Did Hamilton? I don't know the answer to that, but I suspect that the cycling modal share was much smaller.

When I think College St vs Cannon St, I can say there are way more cyclists on College, especially at Spadina (as compared to say Cannon & James).
Downtown Toronto's streets are way more friendly to cyclists than Hamilton's one-way expressways, which may explain why most Torontonians already cycle using their own bikes.

We may see Hamilton shift to that now that SoBi has given literally thousands of people a new transit perspective (me personally, I never cycled until SoBi came to town). I am contemplating buying my own bike once my Membership runs out.

Torontonians need to lobby any/everybody to sell off the old bixi stock and adopt the sobi model. You can use the same Membership/App/Website for both cities/systems, as well as Ottawa (just paying their respective costs).
I would absolutely get a Toronto Pay-as-you-Go, while maintaining my Hamilton Membership.

 

[mdrejhon]

We may see Hamilton shift to that now that SoBi has given literally thousands of people a new transit perspective (me personally, I never cycled until SoBi came to town). I am contemplating buying my own bike once my Membership runs out.

I own a bike but I use SoBi when I want the commute to be 1-way.

Like parking-and-forgetting at a GO station, when I don't know how long I'm staying in Toronto. When I work late, I sometimes stay the night in Toronto. And sometimes I return at a different GO station (e.g. Aldershot / West Harbour / Hamilton downtown). SoBi simplies the 1-way bike commute.

Certainly, you can do that with a pay-as-you-go membership once your annual membership runs out. Even as annual members graduate to a owned bikes, two or three members will probably take over your SoBi spot. Still shocks us that we got a bikeshare system at all, and apparently something superior to Toronto's.

I wonder when SoBi memberhsip growth rate plateaus (expirations balances out new members), right now it's currently a hockey stick.

 

[DC83]

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but could potentially pay off your SoBi Membership by returning bikes to docks.
Monthly: 23 returns
Annual: 127 returns

 

[Jody Thornton]

Is there anyone with updated Centennial Parkway Bridge pictures? I understand that they shifted the tracks to the new bridge last weekend, and I was hoping to get pictures of the demolition of the old one.

 

[mdrejhon]

Is there anyone with updated Centennial Parkway Bridge pictures? I understand that they shifted the tracks to the new bridge last weekend, and I was hoping to get pictures of the demolition of the old one.

I'll add this to an Aldershot drive itinerary (one of my drives from GO). I may also try a quick peek at the Lewis GO Train Yard near Grimsby to get pictures there, too.

Gimme a week or two or so.