Calls to convert one-way streets
November 23, 2006

If Hamilton is to be a walkable city, then its streets will have to be redesigned to provide less space for cars and more for walking, cycling, and public transit. That was the “shared pedestrian vision” of about 100 people who participated Monday in a workshop organized by the city’s public works department.

Dan Burden, a Florida-based urban consultant, was the workshop’s keynote speaker. Ward one councillor Brian McHattie also addressed the workshop. He is pushing for a Pedestrian Charter for Hamilton, along the lines of one adopted in Toronto in 2002.

Attendees at Monday’s workshop felt that freed-up street space should be devoted to wider sidewalks (preferably lined with trees), bike lanes and, in some cases, right-of-ways for bus rapid transit.  Importantly, some, perhaps all, of the city’s major one-way streets will have to be converted to two-way.

Attendees agreed with Burden that fewer, narrower lanes for cars will slow traffic and enhance safety for pedestrians. Many expressed the need for continuous bike lanes along main streets to encourage cycle commuting.

Roundabouts, outdoor markets located on roadways, outdoor cafes on sidewalks, and fewer lanes devoted to cars were among other proposals favoured by the attendees.

However, it was not clear whether the city was entirely in sync with this vision. Mary Lou Tanner, manager of strategic and environmental planning for public works, said the current plans are to convert King Street to two-way but to leave Main Street one-way.

After “voting” for their vision with sticky dots on sheets of paper stuck to a wall, delegates sat at tables and identified “priority projects” to realize their vision. Several tables identified two-way conversions as a priority. Such conversions could include, in addition to Main and King, other east-west streets such as Wilson and Cannon in addition to the major north-south streets such as Queen, Bay, Wellington, Victoria, Wentworth, and Sherman.

One table said substantial car-lane reductions were also in order for major east-west and north-south mountain thoroughfares -- all of which are now two-way. However, a more cautious opinion emerged from a table whose spokesperson was Ed Switenky, the acting manager of traffic engineering and operations. He agreed with Tanner that Main Street would have to remain one-way due to the heavy volume of traffic it carries —40,000 cars a day.

Hamilton’s major streets underwent a major conversion from two-way to one-way during a single night in October 1956. The move was immediately greeted with a strong protest from small businesses in the downtown core whose owners complained that one-way streets had had a strong negative impact on their revenues.

The protest, however, was to no avail. Today, many of the stores these businesses occupied are empty; some have had no tenants for as long as a decade.

In the 1990’s efforts to rehabilitate the downtown core resulted in architectural charrettes, meetings, and other forums. Conversion of one-way streets back to two-way was a prominent theme in those discussions. In addition, a citizens’ committee lobbied strenuously for this objective at the same time.

In 2003 the Hamilton Spectator reported on a survey of car accident data for Main and King Streets. They found that segments of those streets that carried two-way traffic were significantly safer than the one-way stretches. This data indicated even higher rates of accidents on one-way stretches when pedestrians and cyclists were involved. The city responded with the conversion of James Street North from one-way to two-way in 2002. The remainder of James and John Street followed last year. 

New businesses have sprung up along both sides of the northern reaches of James Street. Artists have moved into apartments above stores along the street. There are also signs of rejuvenation on James south of Main. The executive director of the Chamber of Commerce, a former opponent of conversion to two-way, recently acknowledged that James Street businesses had benefited from the change. After some initial rough spots the conversion of John also appears to be working well.