"Is the LRT a dream come true, or the nightmare on King street?" GHTA News Update and Commentary, June 4, 2023
Where do all the cars go that will be displaced by the LRT lane?
I recently had a discussion with a longtime Hamilton resident who attended an open house hosted by the City to tell everyone just what Hamilton’s East/West traffic will look like when LRT is up and running.
He told me that his major concern was not about a shiny new LRT running crosstown, but instead, where do all the cars go that will be displaced when Main and King Streets are shrunk to one lane each way in most places.
Some of the LRT advocates will tell you that many people will likely leave their cars at home and use LRT, but I think we all know that isn’t going to happen for a long time.
What will happen is all of that crosstown traffic will spill on to every other East/West route which will mean much more traffic congestion on those streets, none of which are built to handle the extra load.
Mountain residents got a sneak peak at what that will look like a couple of weeks ago when the Linc was closed in both directions for the weekend.
Concession, Fennell, Mohawk , Stone Church and Rymal all had significant increases in traffic volume and frustrated drivers and those roads are much more able to handle increased traffic than the East/West downtown roads.
This is not to suggest that LRT be abandoned; we’re likely too far down the road to open up that debate.
But will it be and dream come true, or the nightmare on King street?