(12-19-2019, 07:34 AM)MidTowner Wrote:(12-18-2019, 10:11 PM)jeffster Wrote: I still think Hamilton should take some of the burden, but that city be looking for freebies only. And at that, the majority of people were still against it. Seeing the reaction to my friends in Hamilton and they're all praising Ford, a dude they normally hate.
I imagine the hatred is based on this: The original city of Hamilton, is about 330,000 - roughly. You probably have 140,000 living "Up the mountain" so 190,000 people living "down the mountain". I would guess that those from Ancaster, Dundas, Stoney Creek and "Up the Mountain" have little interest in this project....not to mention the rest of Hamilton which butts up against Cambridge and the 401.
What I have never understood, much like I don't understand the people of Woolwich, why do you care? Not your cash, technically.
nms is right in what he says that about many people viewing spending like this as zero sum, and seeing projects serving "others" as projects that will not happen to serve them. In Hamilton, though, another consideration is that the stroads moving traffic quickly through Hamilton's downtown serve suburbanites well, and their councillors are loth to support anything to fix them. LRT was seen as not only not benefiting suburbanites, not only spending that could have been spent elsewhere, but tying up suburbanites' roads through Hamilton with construction, and then lane reductions.
In 2015, the City (using Metrolinx's "quick wins" pot of money) installed a pilot bus lane for about two kilometres of King Street.
The lane was successful in terms of improving transit performance, minimally impactful on private vehicle speeds, and paid for with money from Metrolinx, but when the time came to keep it, the suburban councillors voted against. Wards one through four (one and two being where the thing was actually located) were in support, and the others (who, viewing the map, have nothing to do with it) opposed. It wasn't even a matter of anyone's commute in a single occupant vehicle being lengthened, just the idea that it could be, that led to the opposition.
OK. So I never gave thought about just how easy it is to travel through Hamilton (down the mountain). Having lived "on the mountain" a part of me was always jealous on how easily you could travel up Main Street or down King St, right up to Gage Park or from Gage Park right to the highway. In thinking of that, you realize just how much people would be inconvenienced during a build that would last several years.
In KW, we're used to slow moving traffic, nothing like Toronto, but we're used to it. Even the worst of times you can escape The Hammer really quickly. That makes sense why there is very little appetite for this LRT, including the downtown and surrounding area.