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 5 Candidate Bob Hurst
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?
“Improve the frequency of public transit routes, with more consistently timed service.” While this may seem to be the easy answer because it is at the top of the list, I think it is a very important one. Being able to get around the city in a clear and effective way is a big part to encouraging more use of transit. With the upcoming LRT line, we have an opportunity to examine our current routes and determine how to make them more effective and reliable for our residents. We also need to expand our transit system to the outlying areas to provide value for their tax dollars.
For cycling routes, the bike share infrastructure should be expanded to include more areas throughout the city.
For walking routes, safety audits and following up on them is key.
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?
Frequency of available transit is key to making sure that people will see transit as a viable option. If someone only has a chance to catch the bus once every 30 minutes, they may be less inclined to wait. By providing more frequent buses, transit users can rely on the bus to get them where they need to go more regularly.
Online data can also be very effective in making sure people know when the bus will arrive, so that they can plan accordingly. Some routes end up having multiple buses arriving back-to-back because the first bus is running later and the next one is running earlier.
Bike parking expansion can make biking to work or other destinations more attractive.
Major walking routes or destinations could have distances labelled on how far it is to key locations.
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?
Use of on-vehicle security cameras and quick response to any unsafe situations is key to making transit users feel more comfortable. Cleanliness of buses also goes a long way to making people feel more comfortable that the buses are safe.
For bicycle and pedestrian safety, laying out key routes with mapping would be beneficial for those using the routes. Also, use of pedestrian advance crossing lights would be very helpful (ie, the pedestrian crossover allows them to cross before traffic is allowed to begin driving).
