A downtown Hamilton, Ont., intersection, the site of a fatal collision last week, is set to undergo a review after staff revealed it is in one of the areas most prone to road incidents.
That check of James Street North around York Boulevard was spurred on by a motion from downtown Ward 2 Coun. Cameron Kroestch, who is also seeking more studies on having a no-right turns on red protocol and expanding the use of leading pedestrian intervals — giving walkers a head start prior to a signal turning green at an intersection.
A bicyclist was killed after being struck by a cement truck in downtown Hamilton on Thursday afternoon.
Police say the fatal collision happened around 4 p.m. when a male cyclist travelling eastbound on York Boulevard approaching James was hit by the vehicle turning right onto James from York.
“I’m asking for some expediency around this intersection, which has an extreme angle to it … when you’re going in the east-west direction,” Kroetsch explained.
“You can see how difficult it is to see down the street to be able to make any assessments on a red light about turning.”
Kroetsch is asking for a review that would come back to council before the end of the year.
He went on to say recent construction in and around the area of James and York has also worsened pedestrian safety.
“There’s already a limited pedestrian realm there that used to be more extensive and provide more protection by being able to walk through the underpass into the city centre, which has gone,” he said.
“So there’s a bunch of things happening here that weren’t existing before and that are making this intersection more dangerous.”
The city has seen 11 traffic-related fatalities, so far in 2023, including the one cyclist.
In 2022, there were 16 fatalities from some 1,144 collisions that involved injury.
Over the last four years, injury collisions have trended downward by 8.3 per cent between 2017 and 2021.
During the same time frame, collisions involving pedestrians declined 3.3 per cent as did incidents involving a cyclist, down 7.9 per cent.
The annual city collision report also revealed the intersections most problematic are the same ones that have been topping the list year after year.
Main and John downtown had the most crashes over the last four years with 28, a number that was exactly the same between 2017 and 2021.
Barton and Centennial was second on the list with 26 between 2018 and 2022, then Main and Wentworth at 25.
Meanwhile, a stretch of Queenston Road between Nash Road and the Red Rose Motel Plaza continues to be a high-collision area with some 18 crashes in four years.
A pair of locations on Upper James Street were number two and three on the list — Lotus Avenue and Mohawk Road — followed by a plaza entrance near Regina Drive and Stone Chruch Road.
Of the two major expressways in the city, the Red Hill Valley Parkway and the Lincoln Alexander Parkway, the latter did have a slight increase in collisions compared to the last non-pandemic year, 2019.
There were 3.9 per cent more crashes in 2022 on the Linc compared with 2019 and 31 per cent more collisions with reported injuries.
The Red Hill Valley Parkway saw about three per cent fewer collisions over the same period with 60 per cent fewer injury-related collisions.
Over the last four years, the Linc has had no traffic-related fatalities. The Red Hill Valley Parkway has had two.
As of the end of 2022, public works estimates there’s a collision every 65 minutes in the city with at least one related injury occurrence every eight hours.
Collisions involving pedestrians typically happen every two days while cyclists take a hit every three days.
Fatal collisions are estimated to happen every 23 days.
Carolyn Ryall, Hamilton’s director of the transportation division, characterized the city’s Vision Zero initiative — a goal to eliminate serious injuries and fatalities citywide — as “positive” with “more work that still needs to be done.”
Vision Zero work began in 2019 and continues to establish more community safety zones, including areas with multiple speed cameras and red light cameras.
Main Street East, which has three locations identified as problem spots on the top 10 list, has seen several changes over the last year via reconfiguration initiatives to safely slow traffic from Highway 403 and provide a “relief valve” during construction of the city’s light rail transit. It includes work to make a stretch between the Delta and Dundurn a two-way street by adding a westbound lane.
Mike Field, manager of traffic operations, said additional work needs to be done from a provincial level to update the Minimum Maintenance Standards in dealing with cycling corridors.
He said that at present, the regulation bases pothole repairs around how they affect vehicles on a given roadway, without consideration of how it might affect a bike.
City staff are looking into enhancing inspection protocols for bike lanes since riders deal with different hazards than those experienced by drivers.
“From the user perspective, even having leaves collecting in a bike lane is slippery for a cyclist that’s not slippery for a car,” Field said.
“So as a municipality, we’re looking at kind of those types of things that we can do immediately to look at how we’re monitoring those and repairing them.”
Ghost ride Friday starts at West Harbour
A ghost ride to remember the cyclist killed near James and York will be held this Friday night.
Chris Ritsma, a Hamilton cycling advocate, says there are a lot of good things happening when it comes to bicycle safety, but concedes more needs to be done.
“Especially in spots like this where I think the danger is kind of obvious to those who use it on a regular basis, but maybe not obvious to those who don’t ride a bike regularly<‘ Ritsma said.
Riders will meet at West Harbour GO at 6 p.m. for the start of Friday’s event.
It will leave that location for the crash site soon after.
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