Business impact to bus lane

The bus lane that runs along King Street through Hamilton’s downtown core has been up and running for 10 days now. In that time, a number of business owners on the street say the gridlock is stopping people from coming downtown. As Kate Carnegie reports, one business is closing and others are worried what the future holds.

Mid-afternoon and traffic on King Street is crawling. Hillbilly Heaven has had a controversial year after backlash over displaying a confederate flag. Now the business is closing this weekend and owner Cameron Bailey says one reason is the increased traffic on King Street: “Come September we were excellent and then the bus lanes came and business tailed immediately. We went from a $250 average lunch to less than $50 for 7 straight day. It’s not sustainable.”

He says he isn’t forced to close but sees the writing on the wall.

And Cameron Bailey says he may be the first business to close up shop but he says he won’t be the last. And he certainly isn’t the only business owner who isn’t happy with the new bus lane on King Street. Louis Petrou owns Leathers: “I think it’s a catastrophe. And everyone i’ve talked to feels the same way.”

Leathers has been in business on King Street for over 40 years. They attract a lot of out of town customers. “They are coming in saying it took me 40 minutes to go from point A to point B. That doesn’t encourage them to come back.”

Gord Thompson’s Jewlery and Pawnbrokers shop has also been on King for over 40 years: “You’ve gotta make it easy for the cars to come from Ancaster, Dundas, Stoney Creek, the mountain and when you create this gridlock they avoid it.”

But not every business owner is against the bus lane including Melanie Amato of ‘Modify Your Closet’: “We’ve got a lot of new clients and I do ask a lot of people how they heard of the store and a lot of people say they are slowing down because of the traffic and coming in because of it.”

Jason Farr is a City Councillor: “Their opinions matter to us and obviously all of that is part of how we measure this pilot project. But when all is said and done, we are very early in this project.”

And this is just the start of change for the street. The long range goal is to get a light rail transit line on King Street funded by the province. Something that will likely create a whole new debate.