2 years of Pedestrian Accident Locations Mapped in Open Data

Open Government Data Initiative

2008-2009 Pedestrian Accident Locations in Hamilton ON

cycling update: Burlington

Burlington Councillor Rick Craven reports that delayed improvements to Northshore Blvd will be completed in the spring 2011:

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North Shore Boulevard Improvements

The plan to improve shoulders on North Shore between Eagle and Glenwood has been delayed. The work, aimed at improving pedestrian and cycling safety, was scheduled for the fall. The delay results from an opportunity to add federal/provincial infrastructure dollars to the pot allowing the city to completely resurface the road at the same time we do the shoulder work. Unfortunately, we still have not received word from Ottawa about these additional funds. Now, it’s too late to do the shoulder work this fall, but it will be done in the spring regardless of whether we receive the additional money.

The Novice Cyclist Series: Commuting 101 – McMaster to Harbourfront

What: The Novice Cyclist Series: Commuting 101 – McMaster to Habourfront
When: Friday Nov. 12 @ 12pm (noon)
Where: Meet in front of Wentworth House

View 101 Bike McMaster to Harbourfront Hamilton in a larger map
Learn how to get from Point A to point B on your bike! This friendly afternoon bike ride will show you how to get from McMaster University to the Hamilton Harbourfront on two wheels. Meet in front of Wentworth House at 12pm (noon). We will start at Mac, go east on Sterling, east on King, north on Longwood and take the Harbourfront trail to the Williams Coffee Pub (maybe grab a bite there too!). Before the ride, we will review sk...ills such as riding within traffic, signaling, stopping at stop signs, changing lanes, and making left turns. This is the first ride in the Novice Cyclist series. Beginner cyclists are especially welcome, but experienced cyclists are also encouraged to come out to help facilitate learning.

Presented by TLC (Transporation for Liveable Communities), The Novice Cyclist is a series of bike rides in Hamilton that is meant to foster learning. The ultimate purpose of these rides is to get more cyclists on the road and promote cycling as a viable method of commuting to get to work, school and other destinations. Participants will learn and practice essential skills (such as following traffic rules, changing lanes, and signaling) to break myths and fears associated with cycling on the road.

sifting through shifting gears

View SHIFTING GEARS CYCLING PLAN in a larger map

Getting There with Google

The excellent HSR and Google Maps partnership to provide trip planning is disabled until Friday, May 8, 2009.

After Friday, try it if you haven't yet. It gives you the next three available trips to your destination including walking, waiting/transfer times, and allows you to choose the day and time of arrival or departure.
The only problem I've had with it is seasonal routes show up as year round (ex. Rock Gardens), but otherwise a very excellent tool. (It should make the HSR's horrible online trip destination tool obsolete.)

Arbour Road multi-use path link

An important link across a highway for cyclists and pedestrians - check it out at www.hamilton.ca/ArbourRoadCrossing.

PUBLIC INFORMATION CENTRE
The following PIC will be held to provide further information and to receive public input:
DATE: Thursday February 5, 2009
TIME: 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
LOCATION: Michelangelo Banquet Centre, 1555 Upper Ottawa Street, Hamilton

Bus and Hike: Dundurn to Gage Park on the Bruce Trail

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A roughly two hour hike along the Bruce Trail with spectacular views of the City from the Escarpment, and no need to worry about parking at either end of this hike if you use the bus service (details in the map).
This route follows the Main Trail of the Bruce Trail, and then the Gage Park Side Trail.

TLC encourages and promotes Bus and Hikes as a way of lessening our ecological footprint when engaging in outdoor activities. Integrating transit at even one end of a hike allows hikers to bus back to their car, cutting the use of cars in half (it is fairly common for two or more hikers t0 use cars at each end of a hike, leaving a car at one end of a trail, and carpooling in a second car to the trailhead); as you will see, many of the routes in the Hamilton area can be managed without needing a car at all.

Check out the Dundurn to Dundas (ON) map at dundaswalks.blogspot.com

google goes transit

check it out tomorrow!

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You can now ride the HSR with Google TheSpec.com - BreakingNews - You can now ride the HSR with Google

There will soon be fewer excuses to be late for class or for work.

The city of Hamilton's public works department has been working with Google programmers for the past few months to add local transit routes to the popular Google map interface.

It means that, in addition to the best route to drive between point A and point B, you can also find out what bus to take and what the transfer points are if it's more than one bus.

The service goes live tomorrow. The illustration above uses a Vancouver to-from example to show how it will work.

Hamilton is the fifth city in Canada to receive this treatment. Ottawa, Montreal, Vancouver and Fredericton were first.

How did Hamilton get the service before Toronto?

Google spokesperson Tamara Micner says the city of Hamilton was "very co-operative" in the partnership.

In a separate, unrelated announcement yesterday, Google publicized an interactive component to its Google Earth service that allows you to stroll through the streets of Ancient Rome.

car free week mapped

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2009 cycling

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Jawing over Joe's

Next TLC meeting TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2008, 6:00pm at My Dog Joe Cafe, 1020 King Street West, Hamilton (Westdale) Free hot drink, on TLC!


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CAR FREE HAMILTON 2007 MAPPED

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counting on cootes

Some analysis on stats from previous article:

185 vehicles recorded
108 travelling below the 50 km-h speed limit
63 at 50-59 km-h
8 at 60-69 km-h
6 at 70-79 km-h

As Percentages

• below or at 50 km/h 58%
• above limit (up to 59 km/h) 34%
• 10-19 km/h over limit 4%
• 20 to 29 km/h over limit 3%

Note from article:

"Because the auxiliary officers and speed sign are highly visible, drivers tend to lower their speed at a Speedwatch site."

So it's probably safe to assume that these numbers are low. The location is also not as likely to get high speeds compared to Cootes further east, where the roadway becomes more of a divided expressway (i.e. no businesses or driveways, or intersections, just woods and marsh). The police were only clocking eastbound vehicles at Thorpe Street, so prior to the 80km/h zone).

Just past Thorpe Street (148 m) is a traffic light, which may also help to account for the vehicles going slow (under the limit).

If we take traffic count estimates for Cootes (27,000 according to latest City estimates) and extrapolate these very conservative numbers of speeders going 10 to 20 km/h over the limit (7%), we can see that Cootes has at least 1,890 speeders each day.

Now back to the reason for watching the speeding: the large number of pedestrians and cyclists using the level crossing at Sanders Blvd/McMaster University.

So the question becomes: are we willing to slow down and make the streets safer for other users (people using sustainable modes of transportation, the kind of people the city purports to encourage)? or are we addicted to speed at any cost?