Friendly Streets Hamilton

Friendly Streets: Working together towards more walkable, bikeable neighbourhoods is a collaborative initiative between Cycle Hamilton and Environment Hamilton designed to engage community stakeholders in securing safer cycling and walking conditions in urban Hamilton. The project  has worked across Hamilton neighbourhoods, in the area surrounding the Hamilton General Hospital and the Beasley, Riverdale, and Gibson-Landsdale neighbourhoods.  We aim to promote transportation justice since targeted neighbourhoods include residents who depend on active transportation to move around. We are also focusing efforts on women, seniors, and young people, as these groups are grossly underrepresented in the sustainable transportation conversation.

Pilot Phase: January – December 2017

In the year-long pilot, we will explored innovative ways to involve residents of all backgrounds, abilities and age groups in assessing current challenges and barriers to active transportation and re-imagining neighbourhood streets as places that are enjoyable for walking and biking.  We aligned project outcomes and recommendations with municipal transportation planning processes in order to influence the design of the neighbourhood streets to best serve community members. By project end, we built a strong network of community partners, as well as a “tool kit” that identifies the most effective tools to engage and empower people in the creation of more walkable, bikeable neighbourhoods through dialogue, collaboration and action. The year-long pilot project was made possible by the generous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Continued Efforts in 2018

After a successful pilot phase, our project will continue in 2018 to support local leadership for friendly streets in our pilot neighbourhoods of Beasley and Gibson-Landsdale, as well as advance our efforts in the area around the Hamilton General Hospital. We will continue to create a stronger network of community partners who are working together to make our streets safer and more vibrant for people who walk and bike.  We plan to build upon the Friendly Streets toolkit by including more resources and to use this tool to help neighbourhood-led working groups in addressing current challenges and barriers to active travel. In addition to working with Hamilton General Hospital staff to create a “Hospital Zone” that provides safe and accessible travel routes for all community members, we will also explore alternative pathways for walking and cycling to the hospital and Barton Village BIA. The goal of this “mini pilot” is to look at ways that we can use existing space in the city, like alleyways, for healthier active travel routes. In this next phase, we’ll be integrating air quality data collection as a new component of the street audits that we’ve been doing in our project area. Community members will learn about urban air quality challenges in the downtown core and measure PM2.5 along roads that are frequently used by people who walk and bike. We’ll also be inviting community members to explore and map active travel routes with better air quality. Our continued work is made possible by the generous support of the Hamilton Community Foundation and Clean Air Hamilton.

Friendly Streets Toolkit

The Friendly Streets toolkit is a resident’s guide to creating safer and vibrant streets for walking and biking in Hamilton.  The toolkit is a living document that describes the most effective ways to empower and engage residents in creating friendly streets.  The toolkit is local to Hamilton and contains 14 modules with engagement tools, resources, activity templates, fact sheets, and advice for residents who want to start their own efforts to improve walking or cycling. The toolkit can be accessed here: https://www.cyclehamont.ca/resources/