BACCC asked all municipal candidates for their views on environmentally-friendly transportation options, presenting them with these three questions. Views expressed are solely those of the candidates and do not reflect the views of BACCC or its members. All responses have been reviewed to ensure appropriateness and relevance to the questions posed. We encourage you to make an informed decision by researching your local candidates.
Hamilton Ward 3 Candidate Nrinder Nann
From the recommendations in BACCC’s Options for Travel report, which would be your top priority to enact to ensure safe, reliable, convenient and equitable transportation options?
We can’t become the best City to raise a family if we don’t complete walk audits surrounding all schools to determine safety improvements for pedestrians, particularly children. This is a key deliverable I plan to tackle in a new term of Council for Ward 3 and city-wide. It will be key to track the number of improvements flagged and completed over time. I also believe that from an overall perspective, it is important for the City to commit to open data, wherever possible, and update these data sets regularly. This transparency of information enables analysis and collaboration both within the City and with our community and institutional partners to help find solutions.
If environmentally friendly transportation options are not convenient, residents will be less likely to choose those options over driving.
What steps would you take to ensure environmentally friendly transportation options are convenient?
Investing in transit, safe cycling infrastructure and safe walkability ensures better neighbourhoods everyone is proud to come home to. One of the ways I plan to achieve this is by ending the Area-Rated Transit funding formula to expand public transit access across the city and prioritize building out the remainder of the BLAST network and fulfill the 10 year transit strategy. Sidewalk snow removal removes barriers and increases accessibility for residents to choose public transit over driving. This new service enhancement I was proud to win for Hamiltonians will need to be measured and provide real time data for people to know when the sidewalks have been plowed. I would like to focus on improving connectivity of existing cycling tracks with new ones and enhance safety features to provide the infrastructure needed for more folks to use a bike to get to where they are going.
Environmentally friendly transportation needs to be perceived as safe in order to be viewed as a viable option.
What steps would you take to ensure all users feel safe when using all transportation methods?
There are many great recommendations in the Options for Travel Report that I look forward to City staff providing an implementation plan for to ensure all users feel safe when using all transportation methods. I think it is necessary to complete audits of all city bus stops to determine safety improvements for transit riders, including items like lighting, seating, emergency call buttons. I also would like all transit staff to be trained in how to respond to incidents of hate on transit. And I agree we must track the number of improvements flagged and completed over time. The DARTS program needs an overhaul with a safety and equity lens. Hamilton has a dense population of persons with disabilities. And yet, the way the service runs now has inefficient routing that is disrespectful of people’s time and contributes to emissions.
