Hamilton - Main St. E. redesign

[Sunnyside]

Problem was never one-way streets, but a wide road with no parallel parking to calm traffic and provide a buffer between the traffic and the sidewalk.

Rue Ste-Catherine in Montreal is one-way.

I’m slowly coming to the same conclusion. Hamilton’s geography and density lends to one-way streets, and one can easily cherry pick those that work (most evidently those in Durand).

Of course, theory is different from practice. King and Main suffer with their designs. Though that is not only because they are one-ways. Like Barton, they are too narrow to have as many active traffic lanes as they do and also be lively urban streets. Diets are needed more than conversions in most cases.

I think this should be acknowledged more openly, because streets like Victoria and Wellington should probably always remain one-way, even if they get lane reductions. Their efficiency does indeed help keep some industrial traffic out of downtown.

Main is going to be interesting. I really hope it becomes pleasant enough for genuine foot traffic. How much is to be determined.

 

[innsertnamehere]

The City has no plans to convert Victoria or Wellington beyond what they have already done AFAIK.

Even here, Main is going to remain primarily an eastbound road. I think it's necessary in the lens that the LRT is basically going to delete most traffic capacity on King St - Main St needs to absorb some of that westbound traffic.

 

[BrenWilson]

One-ways are fine in single lane applications, like herkimer and charlton. Once you get into multi-lane set ups the perceived safety and actual safety go down. I wouldn't even consider most 2 lane one-ways a viable solution. You are right however that the main thing isn't the one-way/two-way choice, but the general distribution of road space and priority to car lanes. The initial paint-only design proposal was abysmal for this, and in many areas actually made pedestrian safety worse, it was like WSP or the City lost the plot on why they were actually doing this. I hope the final design is greatly improved.