Dear Daryl,
Thank you for your response to our request to work with the City to
find a solution that provides safe pedestrian crossovers in the Durand.
We are extremely disappointed that after waiting five months for a
response, you have not addressed our concerns and have simply repeated
the City's official policy. You have also ignored our request for
a face-to-face with City staff.
This response is especially disappointing as you attended the Walk and
Bike for Life Workshop, which demonstrated why a pedestrian friendly
neighbourhood is important, and what needs to be done to achieve this
goal. Safe pedestrian crossings are a minimum requirement and are
taken for granted in most communities!
The City's current traffic policy is not serving the rights of
pedestrians, which is why we need to help the City develop a new
policy. As we suggested earlier, the Durand is happy to host a
pilot project to test this new policy.
We understand that the City considers IPS as the preferred solution,
and we respect this expert opinion.
However, we do not accept that only extremely high volumes of
pedestrian traffic justify an IPS.
We know that an IPS was rejected in 2002 for the intersection of
Herkimer/Caroline despite the fact it is adjacent to two stores, a
church, two apartment buildings and several group homes! This
shows that the current IPS policy is interpreted in a way that makes
safe pedestrian crossings a rare 'luxury': this is dangerous and
unacceptable.
The 2002 Durand Neighbourhood Traffic Study found that over 40% of
vehicles travel at >50km/h on minor arterial streets and more than
200 vehicles a day travel at >65 km/h! In addition these minor
arterial streets are all one-way, and a 2000 study showed that one-way
streets in Hamilton have 2.5 the child injury rate of two-way streets.
These speeds make crossing lethal for seniors and children: we will no
longer accept this risk.
The City's official policy is to drastically increase the number of
pedestrian trips. Therefore, the decision on whether to install
an IPS must be based on the potential (not actual) volumes of
pedestrians and on pedestrian safety.
Durand has the highest population density in the City, with many
seniors, children and group homes. Durand's very high population
density and high speed one-way minor/major arterial streets mean that
IPS are justified at ALL (unsignalized) intersections.
(The only other option would be to introduce severe traffic calming to
reduce vehicular traffic to a safe speed of less than 30 km/h.
Given the current designation of these streets, we feel the City would
not accept such a change.)
For your information, here is a list of intersections that require IPS
crossings, in order of implementation priority. None are currently
signalized.
Short term:
1. Herkimer at Park (adjacent to Durand Park Playground)
2. Charlton at Park (adjacent to Durand Park Playground)
3. Hunter at MacNab underpass (high speed street adjacent to YWCA/City
Hall/Whitehern/underpass).
4. Herkimer at Caroline (adjacent to shops/apartment
buildings/church/group homes)
5. Charlton at Caroline (adjacent to shop/church/group homes/apartment
buildings)
6. James S at Augusta (adjacent to shops/access to Augusta)
7. Bay at Bold (near school, very high population density along high
speed street)
8. Hunter at Park (near school, high speed street).
Medium term:
9. Bay at Duke (near school, very high population density along high
speed street)
10. Bay at Robinson (near school, very high population density along
high speed street)
11. James S at Robinson
12. Queen at Markland
13. Queen at Herkimer
14. Herkimer at MacNab S (near apartments and old age home and hospital)
15. Herkimer at Hess S
16. Charlton W at MacNab S
17. Queen at Robinson
18. Queen at Bold
19. Queen at Jackson
20. Bay at Jackson
We formally repeat our request a face-to-face meeting to discuss our
request and work on a solution to this important issue for the 11 000+
Durand residents.
Yours sincerely,
Nicholas Kevlahan
Vice President, Durand Neighbourhood Association