TLC files Freedom of Information (FOI) Request to McMaster for release of TDM Report

For Immediate Release: Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Transportation for Livable Communities (TLC) Hamilton has been forced to file a freedom of information (FOI) request in an attempt to have McMaster University release a Transportation Demand Management (TDM) study initiated as a campus and community partnership in 2012.

The proposal to have McMaster create a TDM for campus began with a letter from TLC to McMaster University administration. TLC was then joined by the director of the highly respected McMaster Institute for Transportation and Logistics (MITL) at an initial meeting with McMaster VP Administration Roger Couldrey and then director of Parking and Security Terry Sullivan.

This meeting led to an agreement with McMaster to have MITL use their expertise to research and prepare a TDM plan for the campus.

Several years later McMaster has repeatedly refused to comply with TLC requests to have access to the final report, which was completed in 2016.

“We are frankly puzzled and frustrated by McMaster’s refusal to release the document that was clearly only undertaken due to our initial efforts to see McMaster take a proactive approach to its parking and transportation issues,” said Reuven Dukas, a senior TLC member and one of the initiators of the TDM study.

A respectful and open collaboration on this file between TLC and MITL, led at the time by the late Prof. Pavlos Kanaroglou, has been overshadowed by McMaster’s lack of transparency.

TLC’s numerous requests, in person, in phones calls, and in emails, over the past year to top McMaster officials have been repeatedly deflected or plainly ignored.

TLC was left with no other option but to file a FOI with McMaster to gain access to the final TDM report, which was filed today.

QUOTE:
Reuven Dukas (TLC):

“Working with Pavlos and his researchers was a rewarding partnership, and an expression of the spirit of community collaboration that Pavlos made central to his work with MITL. It’s a shame that McMaster administration have shown a complete lack of respect for the example Pavlos embodied each step of the way with TLC.”

LINKS

• TLC Hamilton: http://tlchamilton.blogspot.ca/
• Interactive Timeline of TDM Process: http://bit.ly/TLCTDMTimeline

Governing School Zone

Media Advisory

Transportation for Liveable Communities(TLC)

addressing school zone safety in Dundas

Dundas, ON-May 15, 2008-Transportation for Liveable Communities (Hamilton's sustainable transportation advocacy group) will be leading a Community Walkabout on Governor's Road from St. Bernadette's School to Sir William Osler School.

WHO: TLC, Staff from City of Hamilton (Public Health Services, Traffic, School Crossing Guards), staff from the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board and the Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board, parents and interested community members.

WHAT: TLC, in cooperation with Safe Kids Canada, wants parents to understand that most pedestrian injuries and deaths are preventable. TLC has received a grant from Safe Kids Canada to conduct a "Community Walkabout" as part of Safe Kids Week. The goal of the walkabout is to address school zone safety. This approach is effective because it brings everyone together at once to identify and address the issues and work on how to make the environment safer.

WHEN: Thursday, May 29, 2008

3:15 p.m.

WHERE: Walkabout participants will meet across the street from St. Bernadette's school at Governor's Road, Dundas. The group will proceed west along Governor's Road and end at Sir William Osler School, where there will be a brief meeting to summarize findings from the walkabout and identify potential solutions.

WHY: Pedestrian injuries are a leading cause of injury related death of children under the age of 14. In order to make our communities safer for child pedestrians, we need to change societal attitudes to respect the rights of pedestrians, make environments safer, and increase the knowledge, skills and practices of children and parents. Making communities more walkable is a best practice program to reduce child pedestrian deaths and injuries. If a community is walkable and safe for children, it makes the environment safer for pedestrians of all ages.

tlchamilton.org PO Box 19, 1280 Main Street West Hamilton ON L8S 1C0 tlchamilton@gmail.com

Alt Trans Axe Falls in Hamilton: Make some noise

For Immediate Release
Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Transportation for Liveable Communities PO BOX 19, 1280 Main Street West Hamilton ON L8S 1C0 905-525-9140 ext. 26026 tlchamilton(at)gmail.com

Transportation Advocacy Group says Hamilton is Driving Away Sustainable Transportation Options.
TLC opposes move to pull funding for cycling, walking and transit.

Since our inception in 2000, Transportation for Liveable Communities has been engaged in addressing a dysfunctional traffic system that prefers cars to cycling, walking and transit.

TLC's long awaited hopes for the city to take positive steps to improve infrastructure for alternatives to the private automobile have been devastated by the Committee of the Whole's decision to raise bus fares, drop the modest annual allocation for cycling improvements ($300,000), and to turn down a proposal for an alternative transportation coordinator position.

This is the second time in recent memory that the cycling budget has been dropped because previous year's money was not spent: TLC understands that the lack of spending has more to do with the absence of a staff position than anything else, since there is an obvious and urgent need for spending on a multitude of cycling projects.

In our experience, programs and infrastructure for cycling are continually falling years behind schedule, while frequent changes to city staff for cycling issues make follow through difficult. This situation leaves TLC with the clear realization that there is a strong correlation between the two. Hiring an alt trans coordinator would be the most efficient way to support cycling initiatives in the city.

The Transportation Master Plan, "intended to move the City towards the achievement of the objectives of Vision 2020 and are reflective of the 9 Strategic Directions to guide development decisions...identified as part of the GRIDS process, including Direction #6 - Expand transportation options that encourage travel by foot, bike and transit and enhance efficient inter-regional transportation connections," specifically states the need for a "permanent full-time staff position for Cycling and a permanent full-time position of Transportation Demand Management (TDM) Coordinator," as well as recognizing that "that planned population and employment growth over the next 30 years can be accommodated without the need for major new Escarpment crossings provided that viable alternatives to single occupant vehicles are fostered and developed"

By failing to pay the price in the budget (despite the fact the salary was to come from the annual cycling budget), we can expect more lip service to sustainable transportation when what we need is action.

Council's approach to the HSR: raising fares rather than taxes to support public transportation, hurts the city's potential to escape the jam we're in regarding traffic, air pollution, poverty, and pragmatic economic development in these global warming times. A serious look at area rating is long overdue. Making users pay the majority of the costs is not the answer.

In the big budget picture we're talking about small amounts, but amounts likely to deliver a huge payoff in terms of liveability and sustainability. For less than it costs to resurface a kilometer of four-lane road ($700,000) we could have the cycling budget and a staff position ($300,000) and still have half a million dollars to put toward transit; yet a majority of city councillors don't seem to recognize the value they would get.

By comparison, the City of Toronto has just allocated $3 million for next year's cycling budget.

"It's ironic that they made their decision to cut support for sustainable transportation during a poor air quality alert (March 28, 2007, Downtown Hamilton AQI 53), with pollution largely generated by roads and traffic" notes TLC. "We fail to see any logic in council's votes and we want the issues reconsidered."

Run Around the Bus

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, March 23, 2007
Local group says "Run for the bus, don't drive to Around the Bay Road Race"

Local advocacy group Transportation for Liveable Communities is encouraging organizers of the Around the Bay Road Race, City Police and local media to promote transit as an option for people traveling to the weekend race.

"Nobody wants to be stuck in traffic, but given the fact this is a race of runners, extra traffic can only add unwanted air pollution. Taking transit, car pooling, cycling and walking are all viable alternatives to private automobiles in many cases," suggests TLC's Randy Kay. "We just want people to explore the options."

TLC is suggesting the Race web site include a link to info about transit to help people avoid parking hassles, help keep the streets from becoming congested, keep the air cleaner for the runners/walkers, and help people consider alternatives to the car.

LINKS:
HSR http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/CityandGovernment/CityServices/transit/
Burlington Transit http://cms.burlington.ca/Page146.aspx
GO - http://www.gotransit.com/
Greyhound http://www.greyhound.ca
VIA http://www.viarail.ca/en_index.html

TLC hopes the police and media will suggest transit as an option to keep things efficient, clean and safe.

Transportation for Liveable Communities is an all volunteer working group of the Ontario Public Interest Research Group (OPIRG) McMaster. Since 2000, TLC has been active promoting and advocating for sustainable transportation options in the city of Hamilton.

Cootes Danger Designs

Friday, March 3, 2006

McMaster University has by far the highest concentration of pedestrians and cyclists in the city, yet the auto-centric infrastructure on Main Street West and Cootes Drive ignores this fact, posing serious barriers to their safe movement.

The recent tragedy on Cootes Drive only serves to highlight the ongoing conflict between cars and people walking and cycling in an environment where motor traffic dominates all other modes of transportation.

Transportation for Liveable Communities (TLC) is seeking structural changes to calm traffic on streets bordering McMaster University.

Speed is intimately linked to death, and speed is a recognized problem at McMaster. For instance: the report that preceded the installation of pedestrian lights on Cootes at Sanders Blvd where a 19- year-old McMaster student was struck and killed recommended a speed reduction strategy, noting that,

"Despite the presence of a posted 60 km/h speed limit, speed data recorded in the vicinity of the crosswalk indicates that vehicles significantly exceed the posted speed limits. The combination of excessive speed and the high pedestrian-bicycle crossing volume create a particularly hazardous situation." (Cootes Drive at Sanders Boulevard, Pedestrian and Cyclist Crossing Safety Review, City of Hamilton, Synectics Transportation Consultants Inc. October 2004 )

TLC believes that structural changes are needed to calm traffic on Main West and Cootes drive. For Cootes we simply point to the unfulfilled recommendations that were to accompany installation of the pedestrian lights:

"To address excessive vehicle speeds on Cootes Drive:

• Provision of horizontal deflection, in the form of lane narrowing;
• Provide increased police speed enforcement or use of a speed trailer; and
• Changing the roadside environment to discourage high vehicle operating speeds."
(Synectics)

TLC strongly feels that lane narrowing (by increasing the width of the centre median) should be implemented both north and south of the pedestrian crossing to address the speed of approaching vehicles, as well as flashing amber lights indicating pedestrian crossing ahead.

TLC would like to see the pedestrian crossing light more responsive to pedestrian needs by giving pedestrian priority (rather than traffic priority) to reduce wait times.

We also suggest replacing the current on-ramp from Main West with a right-turn lane at Cootes and Main, to discourage the "highway mentality" of drivers as they head north into the pedestrian crossing.


With regard to the recently re-engineered McMaster Front Entrance, TLC can only wonder why this was allowed to happen - and demand changes to allow safe crossing for cyclists and pedestrians.


Specifically, TLC wants the turning radius for cars decreased, the crosswalks aligned at the corner (rather than mid block) and the islands extended toward the centre of the intersection to allow safe and direct passage for pedestrians.

In order to calm traffic on Main Street West, a road entirely devoted to fast flowing traffic despite the presence of several schools, TLC advocates one lane in each direction be designated a "diamond lane" for the exclusive use of transit, cyclists and taxi-cabs; a reduced and enforced speed limit of 50 km/h; and adjustments to the traffic light synchronization to discourage speeding.

"The changes must be substantial to redress the current imbalance that marginalizes the thousands of people walking and cycling in this area," says TLC's David Cohen.

TLC representatives are meeting with City staff, ward one councillor Brian McHattie and others from the McMaster community Friday, March 3 to discuss these issues.

PARKING METER PARTY!

Transportation for Liveable Communities presents a  

Parking Meter Party
Monday July 16, 2001
11:30 am to 1:30 pm

Meet at King Street just west of James Street (across from Jackson Square by the CIBC bank tower)
Bring some grass (the kind you sit on), a lawnchair, food, drums, soap bubbles, boombox ,sidewalk chalk, and your sense of adventure as we reclaim some prime downtown street space in smoggy, noisy, car-infested Hamilton.

We will supply the quarters for parking spaces, which will magically transform into liberated car-free spaces.

There will be a free bike repair clinic, free lemonade and most importantly, some car-free space as we confront out of control auto-culture.

Bring your musical instruments, gas masks (for the smog), banners, signs, bikes, roller blades, wheelchairs, kitchen sinks and help de-pave the way to a car free future.

CALL YOUR CITY COUNCILLOR

 
Contact your city councillor and demand bike lanes on King and Main; ask them to support World Car Free Day by closing streets in Hamilton to cars, September 20, 2001.

Hamilton City Councillors can be reached by phoning (905) 546-2489, or fax (905) 546-2535, or write them at City Hall, 2nd Floor, 71 Main Street West, Hamilton Ontario, L8P 4Y5. Click here to find council contact info on the web

THE FRIGHTENING FACTS ABOUT CARS:

• Cars are the leading killer of children under 14 years of age in North America.
• Vehicles are the number one source of smog producing pollutants in North America (Ontario Ministry of Transportation.)
• There are currently no safe, direct bike routes (marked bike lanes) on downtown Hamilton streets (King and Main)
• According to the Canadian Automobile Association, there are now more than 2.78 million vehicles on highways per day in the Hamilton and Toronto areas.
• More than 40 pedestrians have died in traffic accidents in Hamilton in the past six years. Last year alone, 470 people were hit by cars. (Hamilton Spectator, March 15, 2001).
• Between 1990 and 1998, a total of 289 people were killed in motor-vehicle crashers, 77 of whom were pedestrians or cyclists. (Spectator, March 26th, 2001).
• Between 1986 and 1998, 6760 pedestrians and cyclists were injured by cars. (Spectator, Jan 30th, 2001).
• A single bus can take up to 40 vehicles off the road, save as much as 70,000 litres of fuel and keep 9 tonnes of air pollutants out of the air per year (Pollution Probe).
• The United States Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average person who cycles instead of driving alone saves (per mile) at least 24 pounds of smog-causing pollutants and 1.1 pounds of carbon dioxide.
• In Denmark, 20% of all trips are by bike. One third of all trips are made by bike in the Netherlands.
• Buenos Aires has a complete ban on private vehicles in the downtown district on weekdays.
• Bordeaux, France will shortly have 50% of its streets reserved for pedestrians and cyclists (Steve Nadis and James Mackenzie, "Car Trouble" 1993).
• Driving downtown in Oslo, Norway, costs $2 per trip (Environment Views p. 12 spring 1993)

To get involved in bringing about a breathable, liveable future of sustainable transportation, contact Transportation for Liveable Communities c/o The Ontario Public Interest Research Group, (OPIRG) McMaster: (905) 525-9140 ext. 27289 or e-mail opirg@mcmaster.ca

Cars are killing us

In Hamilton, between 1990 and 1998
289 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes,
77 of whom were pedestrians or cyclists.
Cars are the leading killer of
North American children aged 0 -14 yrs.

CARS ARE KILLING US.

But it doesn't have to be this way...
___________

Join us for a Memorial Procession for Change

Meet at 2:30 pm. Thursday MARCH 22, 2001
corner of King Street East at Wellington
solemn procession to Hamilton City Hall

A procession to remember the hundreds of cyclists and pedestrians who are killed and injured by automobiles in Hamilton each year.

Bring a flower to create a temporary memorial on the street.

Bring your bicycle, wheelchair, roller blades, walking shoes, skateboards, or scooters and join the struggle to make our city streets safe for children.

Practical solutions towards safer streets will be presented to a representative of the City of Hamilton.
Contact TLC - Transportation for Liveable Communities
c/o OPIRG-McMaster, 905 525-9140 ext.27289; opirg@mcmaster.ca

and later

SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION and Healthy Communities:
Visions for the New City of Hamilton

-a public speakers series-

________________________________

TOOKER GOMBERG

"Activism for Healthy Transportation"

Thursday March 22, 2001
7:00 room A
Hamilton Central Library