So, I noticed a couple/few things while back in my old stomping grounds of Hamilton (aka the Hammer).
First, driving. Now, my personal opinion is that the quality of driving in general has been in a decline for several years just about anywhere I have been on this planet. Some places it is declining faster than others. It is also not exactly the same everywhere.
My opinion of Volkswagen drivers overall is well known. And I still stand by it.
However, Hamilton is going through some very odd declines. There was the fact that the Hammer had plenty of one-way streets and a reputation for very well timed traffic lights. People used to just cruise from one end of the city to the other for fun. I did it more than once myself.
Sadly, it appears they have recently been hiring city planners without brains though. Many of these one-way streets have been made in to two-way streets, in a very poor fashion I might add. Every time I drive down these converted streets I feel like I am heading in to a head-on collision.
As an aside, there is one little street in the heart of the Hammer that has been one-way, in both directions, two-way, and changed between the three options several times over the years. An odd novelty of planning to say the least.
If I recall correctly, it is Walnut Street North. I did not check it out this last time in the Hammer though. Currently, it appears to be two-way. However, I was stopped by a Copper once for driving down it the wrong way in one of its one-way iterations. I was picking up some Chinese food while visiting my brother. I played dumb and luckily I had recently updated my Driver's Licence address to my residence in Ottawa at the time from Hamilton shortly before and he let me off the hook assuming I was a foolish tourist.
The other major change in traffic flow, is that the planners have mucked with the timing of traffic lights. This appears to be a problem in most Canadian urban areas. But, as I mentioned above, Hamilton had great timing on the traffic lights. They were synced so traffic could move and flow. Now, it is set up to halt traffic in an unnatural way.
Truly sad, as the Hammer had awesome roads to drive when I young man who loved to careen through the streets like Steve McQueen in Bullitt.
From what I understand, this concept of de-syncing lights is to halt traffic and force it in to clumps to allow other traffic to join the flow from side roads and the like. All it really does, is piss people off, make them take much longer to get where they are going, and create bottlenecks in the flow.
Now I am not a road/city planner in real life, nor do I play one on television or in the movies, but really?! I am pretty sure a teenage kid could do a better job sometimes. I know the boy could.
My main beef though with driving in the Hammer is the drivers themselves. Many moons ago the worry was "old guys" on the road. There were variations on that too. "Old guys wearing hats", "old guys in big cars", especially Cadillacs and Lincolns. The worst being: "old guys wearing hats in big cars".
The "old guys in hats" has made a bit of a comeback for being a nuisance on the road, but that is not even the biggest problem in the Hammer. The thing that struck me was indecision. Drivers just seemed not to know what to do or where to point and move their cars. It is always a problem in parking lots, but this is happening big time on the roads themselves in the Hammer. It truly baffles me.
It is like everyone on the road is a lost tourist. However, the vanity plates, bumper stickers, and logos on their hats, tell me these drivers are local as well as dazed and confused. I really do not get it?! I kid you not, these drivers are stopping in the road and appear not to know where they are going. Or, they are about to execute a turn and stop, sometimes they end up turning in the opposite direction they originally indicated or they go straight through??
Anyway, back in the sticks of the Ottawa Valley and my biggest worry now is two good old boys in trucks, facing in opposite directions, and talking to each other. Hey, I do it myself sometimes.
Well, it is getting on and my other observation, which is two-fold, will need to wait until tomorrow. Sorry, it is nearing midnight and I need to get up early and get some "stuff" done. At least my first leg of driving only has two traffic light and a smattering of stop signs. blbbl
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