christiesplits
Senior Member
Very troubling. Speaks to many issues like underfunding, lower/upper city divide, etc.
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Hamilton: General Service Discussion
- Thread starter mdrejhon
- Start date
Very troubling. Speaks to many issues like underfunding, lower/upper city divide, etc.
mdrejhon
Senior Member
Yes, this is an issue, and my spouse did a 5-minute presentation at City Hall on the importance of the Rapid Ready plan being implemented on time for LRT start. There was an equivalent of an "open mike" day for public/businesses/groups/advocacies/etc to come visit to present to the council on transit issue.
My view is that the LRT should help change this mindset, but we should not wait until after it is already built!
Markster
Senior Member
Because data is fun!
Here's an expanded chart, showing a bit more of how Hamilton compares. This is sorted by Ridership per capita.
Big % increases in some cities don't really correlate to "performing better than Hamilton". York, Durham, and St. Catharines are still underperforming.
Mississauga and Brampton are clearly doing well. Their networks are getting straightened out, the cities are filling out, getting more dense, and more people are taking the bus as a result. Though a lot of Brampton's growth is almost certainly due to Brampton itself growing.
I don't know the situation on the ground in London, but that's looking pretty good too.
Waterloo is doing well, but a non-trivial part of that increase is due to the universities adopting a U-pass.
The assessment that Hamilton is stuck in Neutral is... not undeserved. Hamilton has the problem of a mature buildout of the city and a mature transit network... and needs to find a way to spark a perception change if they want to attract more.
Here's an expanded chart, showing a bit more of how Hamilton compares. This is sorted by Ridership per capita.
Code:
2006-2014 2006-2014 2014 2011 ridership
change % change ridership population per capita
Mississauga 7,585,829 26.10% 36,650,308 713,443 51.37
London 5,080,542 27.20% 23,759,005 474,786 50.04
Waterloo 6,852,097 49.90% 20,583,754 477,160 43.14
Brampton 10,258,263 101.20% 20,394,887 523,911 38.93
Hamilton 1,068,214 5.00% 22,432,494 721,053 31.11
York 5,337,239 31.20% 22,443,774 1,032,524 21.74
Durham 3,849,276 55.40% 10,797,428 608,124 17.76
St. Catharines 1,031,919 21.70% 5,787,306 392,184 14.76Big % increases in some cities don't really correlate to "performing better than Hamilton". York, Durham, and St. Catharines are still underperforming.
Mississauga and Brampton are clearly doing well. Their networks are getting straightened out, the cities are filling out, getting more dense, and more people are taking the bus as a result. Though a lot of Brampton's growth is almost certainly due to Brampton itself growing.
I don't know the situation on the ground in London, but that's looking pretty good too.
Waterloo is doing well, but a non-trivial part of that increase is due to the universities adopting a U-pass.
The assessment that Hamilton is stuck in Neutral is... not undeserved. Hamilton has the problem of a mature buildout of the city and a mature transit network... and needs to find a way to spark a perception change if they want to attract more.
Amare
Senior Member
And that trend will continue unless the city starts getting serious about the HSR. Each one of the aforementioned municipalities have made strides to significantly improve service (Mississauga with the transitway and express service, York Region with the BRT, Waterloo with the iXpress and ION, etc..). The only municipality which hasn't is of course Hamilton, which maintains the status quo.
mdrejhon
Senior Member
This is partially true but there are suburbs with no HSR bus service at all because of the stupidly-out-of-balance area rating syste and other factors. We could still easily have been a 30% laggard instead of 10%. HSR does not even have its own dedicated website, does not even have a Twitter account. We can do better.
doady
Senior Member
These are not the correct population numbers so the per capita riderships are wrong. For example, Mississauga population was around 740,000 in 2014, so Mississauga per capita ridership is too high here. Hamilton's population is for the CMA, not for the actual service area population of HSR, which is around 500,000, so the ridership per capita number for Hamilton is way too low.
Please refer to the chart I posted on page 11 for accurate numbers:
http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/hamilton-general-service-discussion.21120/page-11#post-1079270
I compared 2003 vs. 2013 because 2003 was the year the Liberals came into power in Ontario and started restoring subsidy to transit (the gas tax). The federal government started to share gas tax not long after too.
I got the data from each municipality's MPMP reports. I just fixed a mistake and added Peterborough to the list as well.
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mdrejhon
Senior Member
Thanks.
It does appear Hamilton looks even worse in your numbers.
Negative HSR bus growth.
nfitz
Superstar
Partially because you also need to look at the 2001 versus 2011 population. Hamilton has had very slow population growth compared to many other centres, where the growth of transit is similar to the growth of population.
doady
Senior Member
The numbers I posted were per capita ridership. I don't think HSR ridership actually shrunk, just stagnated while population grew which suggests lack of investment in transit. Municipalities across Ontario have used the gas tax money from the province and federal government to improve their transit but it seems like Hamilton has not.
nfitz
Superstar
You corrected the 2006 to 2014 % change for the 2006 and 2014 populations? There hasn't been much population growth in Hamilton - especially compared to York, London, Mississauga, Brampton, etc.
doady
Senior Member
You are referring to Markster's chart not mine. I also told him the population numbers are not correct in post #186.
The chart I made was 3 weeks ago and it is here: http://urbantoronto.ca/forum/threads/hamilton-general-service-discussion.21120/page-11#post-1079270
Btw, the City of Hamilton's population grew by 3.1% between 2006 and 2011, so yes population growth is a factor in the decline in per capita ridership of HSR.
Why do you think the % change numbers Markster posted are wrong? They seem right to me... the only thing I see wrong is the 2011 population numbers, which are not for service area, and 2011 numbers can't be used to calculate 2014 ridership per capita anyways.
Markster
Senior Member
Using 2014 ridership with 2011 population can calculate an estimate of ridership per capita, which was all I was going for.
The ridership increases and % change in ridership were taken directly from http://hamiltoncatch.org/view_article.php?id=1403
I calculated the 2014 ridership from those numbers.
Nothing is normalized for population growth, as I wasn't doing any before/after comparisons. All my data is posted, so anyone is welcome to pick it up and work further on it.
doady, where did you get your population numbers from? And what are they? You seem to have left them out of your chart. I frankly just went with best-effort googling of the municipalities.
The ridership increases and % change in ridership were taken directly from http://hamiltoncatch.org/view_article.php?id=1403
I calculated the 2014 ridership from those numbers.
Nothing is normalized for population growth, as I wasn't doing any before/after comparisons. All my data is posted, so anyone is welcome to pick it up and work further on it.
doady, where did you get your population numbers from? And what are they? You seem to have left them out of your chart. I frankly just went with best-effort googling of the municipalities.
mdrejhon
Senior Member
Nonetheless, all charts mutually yell "Hamilton has stagnated" and "Hamilton can do better" from a transit perspective.
doady
Senior Member
They are official ridership numbers taken from each municipality's MPMP reports. In addition to ridership, the reports have population numbers too, among other things. You can find the reports here:
http://csconramp.mah.gov.on.ca/fir/MPMP Multi Year.htm
DC83
Senior Member
Random yet logical thought on the L-Line (Waterdown to Downtown Hamilton)...
Isn't Metrolinx planning a Hwy-5 BRT? Why not get them to extend the BRT through Waterdown, down Hwy-6 to West Harbour GO via York Blvd?
This would allow the City of Hamilton/ HSR to use those funds towards the rest of the B_AST network, as Metrolinx would be funding their BRT.
Isn't Metrolinx planning a Hwy-5 BRT? Why not get them to extend the BRT through Waterdown, down Hwy-6 to West Harbour GO via York Blvd?
This would allow the City of Hamilton/ HSR to use those funds towards the rest of the B_AST network, as Metrolinx would be funding their BRT.