General Road and Highway Discussion

[MidTowner]

I actually lived in lower Hamilton, (we just called it Hamilton, everything above was called the Mountain) and we appreciated the one way corridor. The lights were timed and the speed was constant, not a drag strip because you would escape the flow. After anything at Copps, the area clears quickly. Flow is east-west, with very few one way streets north-south, so access isn't difficult.

Hamilton does not have the luxury of having land to create an expressway in the city. The Linc on the Mountain was built, because there was land to do it. It isn't a matter of one or the other. A few one-way streets east-west to alleviate the cross city flow, while the expressway works on a north-south access.

I don't want to derail this thread my discussing Hamilton (though I do think it's a great example of how devestating one-way streets can be). I've lived near Victoria and Main, and near Dundurn and Main, and had a very different experience with the one-ways as you. I expect the difference is that my perspective is usually from on foot- I don't drive that much. Victoria and Main were both very unpleasant to cross because of their sheer width- I take your point that it doesn't advantage drivers to exceed the speed limit, but enough did that a walk down those streets (I would not choose to walk along Main or King if I had a choice) means being occasionally buzzed by loud cars going too fast in lanes with no separation from the sidewalks.

This to say nothing of streets that are purely residential (like Herkimer and Charlton in the west end; Sanford or something similar in the east) that are one-way streets, and so traffic never encounters any need to go anything but as fast as possible.

I also beg to differ about the expressway. With the Red Hill Valley Parkway now, Hamilton has a complete ring road (albeit a big one- RHVP, Linc, 403, Skyway), and there is no reason to facilitate traffic getting through the core as fast as possible.