Speed cushions (previous I said speedbumps) are on virtually all inner neighborhood side streets. No

Astonishingly, comfort inn suites boston airport west mountain Councillor Terry Whitehead spoke against the plan: "It's important that any decisions the city makes don't add to commuting time for motorists. The challenge for my constituents is gridlock." Yet even Councillor Whitehead voted in favour of it.
Indeed, Councillors seem to be more or less united in agreeing that Hamilton streets should comfort inn suites boston airport be safer for the most vulnerable comfort inn suites boston airport people using them - pedestrians, and especially children and senior citizens. (Of the past six pedestrians killed comfort inn suites boston airport in Hamilton, five of them were seniors.)
With the recent report that Hamilton is one of the most dangerous cities in Ontario for pedestrians and cyclists, the City has its work cut out for it. The good news is that city staff already started making long-awaited improvements earlier comfort inn suites boston airport this year.
After a series of tactical urbanism activities in May and a city crackdown galvanized public support for a stronger commitment to safe streets, the City Manager's office pressured the Public comfort inn suites boston airport Works Department to see the tactical urbanism campaign as an opportunity to engage citizens and make incremental improvements.
Capital budget money was made available for pilot projects to paint zebra crossings, create bumpouts and install knockdown sticks to slow traffic and improve pedestrian safety at under-served and high-risk intersections.
St. Peter's Hospital and Adelaide Hoodless School sit across from each other on Maplewood Avenue a few blocks west of Gage Park. They now have a safer walkway between them, thanks to painted bumpouts comfort inn suites boston airport and knockdown sticks:
Bay Street South is two-and-a-half lanes of speeding one-way traffic with narrow comfort inn suites boston airport sidewalks right next to the street, and children have to brave it every day on their way to and from Central comfort inn suites boston airport School at Bay and Hunter.
This summer, staff painted zebra crossings on Cannon at Elgin, Smith and Wentworth, to varying comfort inn suites boston airport levels of success (the crosswalk at Smith is uncontrolled, which means most drivers don't think they have to stop for pedestrians comfort inn suites boston airport . (The bizarre staff proposal to put up signs telling pedestrians that vehicles are not required to stop won't help.)
One of the tactical urbanism locations was the Delta, where Main Street and King Street meet up and the highway-style intersection makes pedestrians feel decidedly unwelcome. Staff have helped by installing knockdown sticks near the curb and painting zebra crossings:
The intersection of Locke and York is brutal comfort inn suites boston airport for the very long distance comfort inn suites boston airport pedestrians need to walk to get across York. The "pedestrian refuge" island in the middle of the boulevard is scant compensation for a light cycle that is too short for children or seniors to get across, but the new zebra crossing will at least alert motorists that pedestrians are allowed to cross.
Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a programmer, writer and consultant. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail , a citizen group dedicated to bringing light rail transit to Hamilton. Several of his essays have been published in the Hamilton Spectator , and he occasionally blogged for OpenFile comfort inn suites boston airport Hamilton . Ryan also maintains a personal website comfort inn suites boston airport and has been known to post passing thoughts on twitter .
Good news all around except for one aspect. Speed bumps. As an emergency services worker I can say without a doubt they are not helpful. Testing done by the IAFF and major fire services and other emergency services in North America have concluded that each speed hump adds between 6 and 8 seconds comfort inn suites boston airport to the response time of an ambulance comfort inn suites boston airport or fire truck responding to a scene. So 10 speed bumps on a street adds 1 FULL MINUTE to a response time. This can mean the difference between someone living or dying.
If emergency vehicle response time is really an issue (i.e. if there is no alternative to reach a destination but take a route that requires crossing many speed bumps), the city could install "speed comfort inn suites boston airport cushions":
Of course, the argument against speed bumps can equally be made against traffic lights: emergency comfort inn suites boston airport vehicles must slow down (even more) to go through a red light. Similar for stop signs and other traffic control devices.
Proper ring road around the city. Many roads have dedicated comfort inn suites boston airport bus lanes, even if narrow - each direction one bus lane and one car lane. Cyclists and disability taxis are allowed to use the bus lanes. There is definitely rush hour congestion. But you can take the tram, train, or bus, all with excellent service (I got here from Manchester airport comfort inn suites boston airport via public transit)
Speed cushions (previous comfort inn suites boston airport I said speedbumps) are on virtually all inner neighborhood side streets. No stop signs, all yield signs - but it is very safe because you couldn't speed down a side street if you wanted to. No speed bumps at all on any main or secondary roads. Ambulances are flying around - presumably they use main roads to the closest side street.
We need to think through where we put them, but high risk crossings like Charlton and Wentworth are well suited for raised crossings (the fire truck or ambulance is slowing down for the railway tracks anyway!)
Greg, that's something I'd never considered before, and a valuable point. But wouldn't you agree that traffic-calming measures like these also quite literally mean the difference between someone comfort inn suites boston airport living and dying? And it certainly decreases the number of pedestrians and cyclists hit by motorists that ESWs like yourself have to rush to save.
The problem with standard comfort inn suites boston airport speed bumps is they don't really impede the progress of a car, but a heavy duty large wheeled vehicle going over them at any kind of speed can result in spinal injuries for everyone on board. It's more about where they are installed. And again there are traffic calming measures comfort inn suites boston airport that are zero impact that work just as well.
I can't speak to Hamilton but in Toronto there was a stampede comfort inn suites boston airport to put speed bumps in everywhere, with only a petition of 5 signatures on a street required to be put on the installation list. It got out of hand, there was no coordination, and I question the end result. There are areas that need traffic calming and those that don't . The goal is to properly identify them.
As someone who lives on Charlton, the speed humps are a most welcome addition - without them the Queen to Locke stretch is one long raceway with a stop sign at Kent that is ignored comfort inn suites boston airport by many drivers. If there are other effective traffic calming measures that wouldn't slow down ambulances, comfort inn suites boston airport I'm all for it, though I can't fathom what would slow down regular traffic comfort inn suites boston airport but not ambulances.
Changing Charlton to two-way is a non-starter. Unless you eliminate the on-street parking, it's not wide enough for two lanes. And eliminating parking would be a disaster - there's already too little parking to service Locke St. overflow and sports teams at HAAA Park.
Sure it is. It's not wide enough for two lanes of fast through traffic , but that's the traffic we're trying to control. It is absolutely wide enough for curbside parking on one side and slow, respectful two-way traffic.
comfort inn suites boston airport As someone who travels on Kent on a daily basis I cannot tell you how many near misses I've had from people barreling up the street as I'm making the left from Herkimer or people turning from Charlton on to Kent. For some reason people traveling south on Kent seem to treat it as if it is a one-way street and seem genuinely surprised when they encounter a car coming in the other direction.
I'm quite embarrassed about the number of times I've turned left off Main or King onto an empty two-way street and realized I was driving in the oncoming traffic lane because I'd assumed it was 1-way.
This probably has more to do with Kent's surroundings than Kent itself - when every other street in the area is high-speed, you're going to keep that speed when you pull into a quiet street where that kind of movement is inappropriate. Look in an older area that's heavily 2-way and while you'll still have a the occasional maniac, most drivers will be already acclimated to the environment when they pull into a tight squeeze and will be careful.
This is illegal comfort inn suites boston airport in TO, but the practice is alive and well in Hamilton. comfort inn suites boston airport Our neighbourhood just saw 3 grand old trees come down the past month for mini-parking comfort inn suites boston airport pads. All of our little comfort inn suites boston airport side streets are two way. None have parking on both sides because there's no space.
Current zoning laws actually reinforce the parking pads. Renovations to residences often trigger a site plan application which, due to increased area, triggers additional comfort inn suites boston airport on site parking. One house in my neighbourhood was renovated comfort inn suites boston airport and the City required an additional 2-3 spaces for a single family dwelling. Zoning by-laws need to be reviewed and brought in line with a modern vision of our City.
I could see that argument maybe made for the region running past HAAA where it's narrowest, but the rest of the road? Bond Street in Westdale North is of a similar width and sports parking comfort inn suites boston airport on both sides of the street. It's close to Churchill comfort inn suites boston airport Park and GRAllan school, comfort inn suites boston airport so similarities abound. Drivers have to be courteous and careful passing comfort inn suites boston airport each other, but they manage. Through traffic would take Herkimer which is wide enough to have those cars pass comfortably, just like Westdale North does with Longwood (which bears a dividing yellow line).
Although comfort inn suites boston airport I guess by that metric, the speed hump is by the HAAA, so yeah, go speed hump, objection withdrawn. But on the other-other-hand, if traffic throughout the neighborhood was slowed-down by 2-way traffic, the single solitary 1-way stretch past HAAA probably wouldn't see people accelerating that much. Drivers get "velocitized" from fast areas and then keep the speed often as they enter slow areas, so 1-way Charlton-by-HAAA would still fare better if it was surrounded by 2-way streets.
To be fair, the bottlenecks do see some back-ups at rush-hour. For example, Garth gets pretty snarled up between the Linc and Limeridge, and then gets snarled up again at Fennel when Beckett Drive mountain access was open. T