Quote:
Originally Posted by Keith P.
I would suggest that those cities are not afflicted with old, chronically narrow main streets like Halifax is. Even a place like Boston does not have its main downtown streets as narrow as Barrington, Hollis and Water.
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Yes, it`s true that all our wider inner-city streets converge into a (very small) cluster of city blocks that are entirely narrow, around our own small “financial district.” But that’s typical of many old cities. As I’ve posted before,
here’s Broadway in NYC’s financial district. Or here it is again, a
few blocks south and even narrower. The widest street in that whole area is Water Street, which is still only four blocks wide and skirts the edge of the district. This is a much larger financial district, covering a much larger area, with overall narrower streets.
It’s hard to compare NYC and Halifax given the huge scale difference, but that fact that NYC has that much more crushing traffic volumes should suggest how comparatively easy we have it, traffic-wise. And outside of the very small cluster of blocks between Cogswell and Sackville, Water to the CItadel—easily navigated on foot or by public transit, or a very inexpensive cab ride—our city centre overall has plenty of roomy streets. People talk as if some tragic, Halifax-specific lack of civic foresight has saddled us with an out-of-date street grid, but, well, no.
Since driving on Barrington is such a pain anyway, here’s an idea: Run a tram or something like it all the way along Barrington, jogging west to Gottingen/Novalea in the North End. Close Barrington to all motorized vehicles except emergency traffic between Cogswell and Morris Street, so the tram can run unimpeded through the narrowest portion.
If the thing ran fast, and had connections to cross-peninsula bus routes, it’d be a ridiculously effective commuter option. And might then reduce auto traffic.