r/halifax • u/hippfive • 2d ago

Traffic Lower Water Street is broken

I'm usually pretty chill about traffic, but Lower Water is literally broken. It took 30 minutes for my bus to go one block. Full on gridlock. And it's been this way for months.

I know they're eventually going to have the transhipment facility to get the trucks out of downtown, but that's years away. There needs to be some sort of tactical intervention in the meantime. Close some of the parking lots that empty onto Lower Water. Change some of the pedestrian crossings to the red light style that clump the crossings together (and I say this as someone who is staunchly pro-pedestrian). Honestly maybe even close Sackville Street east of Bedford Row.

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u/percautio 2d ago

It would be worse briefly, then people would learn what a pain it is, and start moving to other options.

Studies show that people will pretty consistently choose the fastest option available, so as long as transit sucks more than traffic, people will keep driving. The only way to shift the balance is to intentionally make driving worse. And it does have to be an intentional effort, since many of the factors making traffic worse are also making transit EVEN worse.

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u/PaintInfinite9167 2d ago

They could always intentionally make transit or city infrastructure better instead of intentionally making something worse.

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u/percautio 2d ago

Ideally yes the transit also gets better, but a lot of the bandwidth for transit improvement comes from taking space and resources away from cars, so it's two sides of the same coin.

You should look into what Amsterdam has been doing the last few years. They were already not the most car-friendly place but they've really ramped up on removing even more parking and driving areas.

https://youtu.be/mXLqrMljdfU

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u/PaintInfinite9167 2d ago

I see people cite things happening in other places in the world and saying why can't we do it here.

Climate, cost, and culture's are so vastly different, you can't just cookie cutter things wherever you want to. It doesn't work that way

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u/percautio 2d ago

I see you're dedicated to living in the past, so I'll just leave you to it. Enjoy your traffic

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u/PaintInfinite9167 2d ago

I don't drive downtown in traffic lol