Two-way Main Street makeover could start next year

The days of quickly riding a wave of green lights across the city on one-way Main Street should end next year if council signs off on a design to convert the arterial to slower, safer two-way traffic.

But transportation planners are also pitching the future addition of a protected bike route along much of the length of the so-called Main Street Expressway where the car has been king since the 1950s.

Close to 300 residents tuned in online Thursday to hear about the city's preferred design to convert Main Street to bidirectional traffic between Dundurn Street and the Delta. Council voted for the historic change last year in the face of a slew of pedestrian deaths - including four crashes that involved cars climbing the curb on Main.

The big meeting takeaway: the city eventually wants to turn its busiest east-west arterial into a complete streets model" that is safe - and even an inviting place to hang out - for all road users, said transportation director Mike Field.

Think wider sidewalks, cycling-protected intersections, street trees, easy transit access - and long-term, a proposal to extend protected bike lanes from Sherman Avenue all the way into Westdale. That's a major change for a city that has never previously included any portion of downtown Main Street on its cycling master plan.

But the short-term goal of the initial two-way design out for public consultation is to make Main as safe as possible on a tight deadline. Ideally, before light rail transit construction starts digging big holes on parallel King Street.

In an ideal scenario, we could reconstruct the entire corridor from property line to property line to build a truly complete street," said Field in an interview following the virtual public meeting. But we wouldn't be able to do that within the timelines available prior to LRT construction."

Adding bike lanes up and down the Main corridor will likely wait until after the multi-year construction on LRT, he said, noting a two-way Main will be a very important" traffic relief valve when King Street is off-limits.

The long-delayed, $3.4-billion LRT project was at one point pegged to begin major construction on the King Street corridor next year - but so far, project manager Metrolinx has yet to even start what is expected to be lengthy procurement process.

That likely gives the city time to at least start making the momentous two-way change on Main Street next year, Field said, assuming city council signs off on a design this summer. (Completing all the proposed elements of the two-way traffic switcheroo may also be a multi-year endeavour, Field noted.)

The initial proposed changes include adding short stretches of bicycle lane, potential green boulevards, and strategic street parking designed to make pedestrians and cyclists feel safer.

But the big change - and the one likely to elicit both cheers from safety advocates as well as outrage from daily car commuters - is the two-way traffic conversion itself.

While traffic planners considered redesigning Main with two lanes of car traffic in each direction, the preferred option shows only one westbound auto lane, with between three and two car lanes (plus strategic turn lanes) eastbound.

Field acknowledged some regular car commuters are worried about the proposal - particularly in tandem with expected lost auto lanes on the LRT route. (A public design update for that project is expected in early June.)

But he stressed the inevitable slowdown of car traffic is both intentional and desirable" given Main Street routinely tops the list of most crash-prone intersections in Hamilton.

We don't want to maintain it as a highway through the city," he said. The days of cruising along west to east and hitting every green light across the city, that is not going to continue."

The city has posted design charettes on it website and is introducing an interactive feature that will allow people to add comments to a map of the proposed new two-way design.

But if you want to ask questions or offer comments in person, councillor from Ward 1, 2 and 3 along the Main Street route are hosting town hall events May 25 at city hall between 7 and 9 p.m. and May 29 at Bernie Morelli rec centre between 6:30 and 8 p.m.

Field said he expects to take public feedback and report back to council with a final design recommendation - and construction timeline - in July.

Matthew Van Dongen is a transportation and environment reporter at The Spectator. mvandongen@thespec.com