Advertisement

Bill Kelly Show: Hamilton city council needs to make decisions based on evidence

Hamilton city councillors should wait until they have the facts before making policy, writes Bill Kelly. Eye Ubiquitous/Rex Features

Yesterday’s public works committee meeting was kind of like a greatest hits of transportation concerns.

They talked about bike lanes and on-street parking, pedestrian safety and Aberdeen Avenue, but at the end I’m not sure they actually solved anything.

You see, earlier council had decided to wait until the overall Transportation Master Plan was in place before deciding what to do in areas like Aberdeen Avenue, but yesterday the committee decided to enact what they called “interim measures” to allay the concerns of some of the area residents.

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.

Get daily National news

Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Now, to be clear I’m all in favour of enhancing safety for pedestrians and motorists, but what happened to the plan to wait until council actually had data to formulate a plan?

You know, the LRT route is going to deflect a lot of traffic onto secondary arterial roads like Aberdeen Avenue, and we have to take that into consideration.

Story continues below advertisement

Why not wait until the traffic study report is due before making policy decisions? This fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants policy making has crippled the city in the past. Here’s hoping council hasn’t done it again.

I’m Bill Kelly.

Sponsored content

AdChoices