Quote:
Originally Posted by matt602
You couldn't possibly be more wrong about like, all of that, especially in reference to Toronto and Hamilton. The reason the HSR's ridership basically dropped off a cliff from the 1980's until the present had to do with underfunding and later, area-rated funding, which stems directly from the car culture that you're trying to insist doesn't exist. There is also a very deep urban/suburban divide in Toronto, regardless of how much the city has invested in safe streets compared to a place like Hamilton.
Go watch a few Not Just Bike's videos on yt and get back to me about this "car culture doesn't exist in Canada" thing.
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Suburban Toronto is way less car dependent and has far greater ridership than even the oldest parts of Hamilton. HSR ridership is inferior even to MiWay and Brampton Transit ridership, let alone TTC ridership in Etobicoke, North York, and Scarborough. To blame Hamilton's poor transit ridership and massive ridership decline over the years on the "car culture" of rest of Canada is just ridiculous. What is going on in Hamilton is unique to Hamilton. What has happened to Hamilton's transit system and to Hamilton streets is happening in Hamilton only. Let me post the transit ridership per capita stats again:
Code:
Municipality 2003 2008 2013 2018
Hamilton 47 45 45 41
London 50 63 63 61
Waterloo 29 33 50 45
Mississauga 38 44 47 53
Brampton 22 27 35 50
Major urban-suburban divide in Toronto? You think TTC ridership drops off a cliff and car dependence skyrockets as soon as you cross Victoria Park Ave into Scarborough? You're no different from those guys on UrbanToronto who got angry at me because I dared to put transit ridership of Mississauga and Brampton on a similar level and I dared to disagree with the notion that transit in Brampton "runs circles" around that of Mississauga. Even to put Mississauga and Brampton together is too much for some people, because Brampton has a real downtown or something.
People like you and Not Just Bikes and UrbanToronto who are obsessed with divisions and drawing boundaries are the ones who get in the way of urbanism more than anyone. More division and boundaries, that is suburbanization by definition. Urbanization by definition is about increased connections and reducing distances (e.g. higher density, increased permeability). You want to keep distancing yourself and Hamilton from its suburbs and suburban residents, you are only part of the problem. That obsession about dividing and increasing your distance from other people is the suburban attitude more than anything. It's like the City of Toronto's ban on 905 transit systems operating within its borders. Are the 905 politicians really the ones that have getting in the way of urbanization in City of Toronto?
You want Hamilton to be more urban? Then first step is to accept that all those suburbs as an extension of Hamilton. They are a reflection of Hamilton as much as anyone, as much as you are. If downtown Hamilton is to become the most urban place again, then by definition it must be the most connected place, so all those people in outer parts of Hamilton must be a part of Hamilton too. If you continue devote so much time and energy to exclude and differentiate them, it will only make inner Hamilton less connected, and thus less urban. To focus on increasing connections, that is the first step toward urbanity. To focus instead on entrenching existing boundaries and creating new barriers, that is exactly the mistake the City of Toronto made over the years, and sad to see Hamilton doing the same.
Of course, Hamilton does have a natural boundary and major natural barrier to connection with the escarpment, which interrupts all the north-south transit corridors, so the transit network will always be held back severely, so I cannot be too critical about Hamilton's efforts. There are some unique challenges here, and THAT is what you should be addressing. To blame the "car culture" of the rest of Canada for Hamilton's deeper failures to connect people compared to the rest of Canada, or even ignore that those failures are deeper than the rest of Canada to begin with, that is to ignore such unique challenges that Hamilton has and I think that does not help Hamilton in any way. Hamilton's failure has been in connecting people, so of course to focus on dividing people is not helping either.
The escarpment: that is the biggest barrier to transit and cycling and walking in the City of Hamilton. The escarpment cutting the city in half, preventing people from being able to travel in a straight line, increasing the travel distances of Hamilton residents, pushing them toward the car, that is the biggest barrier to Hamilton's urbanity. That is what creates such a divide as you see within Hamilton. How much do you want to continue to entrench that divide instead of finding solutions to mitigate it? We in Toronto always talk about the Gardiner Expressway being a barrier to the waterfront, but it's nothing compared to the escarpment. Even the political boundary along Steeles Ave might not compare to the boundary that the Hamilton must try to overcome with the escarpment.
I say this as an neutral outsider, as neither a lower city resident nor an upper city resident: all of Hamilton needs to come together instead of being divided yet even more.
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