Quote:
Originally Posted by Beedok
Hamilton is majorly expanding its transit system. Both building an LRT line and increasing the bus fleet by at least 50%. GO is also improving regional transit around the Hamilton area, which is useful due to all the longer range commuting in the area. It’s turning things around.
|
Don't get me wrong, I like what Hamilton is doing now. They have right attitude and the right policies now. But it is an uphill battle now because of their past mistakes, even recently.
For example, the Lincoln M Alexander Parkway, replacing a concession road with a freeway, removing a potential transit corridor from the Hamilton Street Railway system. That is not the way suburbs have been built for decades. Compare that to Brampton building Williams Parkway and Sandalwood Parkway, Mississauga building Glen Erin Dr. and Bristol Rd., Markham building Bur Oak Ave.: building new corridors from scratch in-between existing concession roads for new transit routes, to reduce the walking distances to bus stops, that is one of the principles of TOD. Hamilton did the complete opposite of TOD with what they did to Limeridge Road, and the lack of a Limeridge transit corridor will always be an additional barrier to achieving high transit ridership in Hamilton.
This is a real city with a huge and vibrant core, but since the 90s, Hamilton might have been more deliberately pro-sprawl and pro-car and anti-urban than any other place in North America, certainly more than any other place in Ontario. Even after 2003, after the removal of the Conservatives and the election of the Liberals and Dalton McGuinty and introduction of new provincial funding for transit, the ridership of Hamilton Street Railway continued to stagnate, while transit ridership in the rest of the province started to grow. It has baffled me how little attention or criticism that Hamilton's blatant pro-sprawl policies have gotten over the years, and now people suddenly hold Hamilton up as the leader in terms of stopping sprawl, even creating a thread for it?
Hamilton was THE one place still stuck in the 50s while other places in North America were implementing TOD measures and new urbanism everywhere. For New Urbanism especially, Oakville and Markham are certainly the leaders here. But even the continuous greenspace along Ajax's waterfront stands in stark contrast to Hamilton's new expressway along Red Hill Creek. Hamilton is no leader, they are the one who is still catching up.
Code:
ANNUAL RIDERSHIP (linked trips, millions)
System 2005 2012 2019
Hamilton 20.9 21.8 21.7
Mississauga 28.1 34.8 41.2
Brampton 9.0 18.4 31.9
London 18.3 23.5 24.6
Winnipeg 39.9 48.9 48.8
Prev
Linear Mode
