Built Environment and Infrastructure

Where do the MacChangers themes come from?

The MacChangers themes are based on four  "Our Future Hamilton"  themes. “Our Future Hamilton” is a 25-year vision created by the City of Hamilton in consultation with the Hamilton community. Approximately 55,000 Hamilton community members were consulted through focus groups, mail lists, vision cards, and pop-ups across the city to collaborate on this shared vision. “Our Future Hamilton” co-developed a  Public Engagement Charter  that outlines the City’s responsibility to involve and engage citizens to problem solve and plan for the future of Hamilton. 

What is the intended use for this guide?

This guide is meant to introduce you to community-informed challenges in a way that reflects the needs of the community as identified through interviews with various community members. The MacChangers Program greatly values lived experiences, hence, you may notice limited stats or references in this guide as many challenges are born from the lived experiences of community members. Furthermore, this guide is meant to provide you with context, inspiration, and a place to kick start your research. We suggest you bookmark this site and use it frequently to assess if your project aligns with the needs of the community, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the project's expectations, and the laws and regulations of the City of Hamilton.

At MacChangers, we strive to align ourselves with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG). During the course of the program, you will be identifying and aligning your project with UN SDG targets. Watch the video below to better understand the UN SDGs and why they are important.

This years questions are outlined below! Each question contains a context paragraph, some media for inspiration, and links to jumpstart your research. As you follow the process for human centered design, your group will narrow and refine your chosen question. 

Note: Below is not hyperlinked to an article as this information was gained through consultation with City of Hamilton staff. Furthermore, the term ‘equitable’ is meant to address sidewalk and road sharing accessibility; the term ‘sustainable’ is meant to address the long-term viability of the E-Scooter Program. 

Electric Scooters, or E-scooters, have gained a lot of attention and traction in the transportation ride-share space. Hundreds of cities like San Francisco, Boulder Colorado, Ottawa, and Windsor have already incorporated E-Scooters in their cities and are used widely. E-scooters are not only cost effective but are a low carbon alternative to traditional cars. They also have the potential to reduce short car trips, traffic, as well as boost public transport by completing the ‘last-mile’ problem in transit. While E-Scooters boast many benefits, they also pose some problems. After all, adding in another transportation mode complicates already busy urban landscapes! The City of Hamilton’s Sustainable Mobility Office has been addressing E-scooter parking concerns, creating embedded speed limits on E-scooters, and equity concerns for E-scooter use. The Sustainable Mobility Office has identified three challenges that MacChangers students can use as jumping off points to consider some of the difficulties of integrating E-scooters into our local transportation networks:

1.  A significant challenge facing the integration of E-scooters into urban landscapes are sidewalk riders. Sidewalk riding is dangerous to individuals walking or using mobility devices, especially individuals who may not be able to move away from the E-scooters quickly. The current solution to this problem has been to fit the E-scooters with a device which will make a noise to alert others of their presence; however, it would be ideal to discover mechanisms which prevent sidewalk riding altogether. 
2. Furthermore, it is important to consider why E-scooter riders might want to ride on the sidewalk. Understanding and addressing sidewalk riding will ensure the long-term success and integration of the program. Your group could choose to focus on how to improve the safety of E-scooters on the road to encourage fewer sidewalk riders. You might want to attempt to predict where sidewalk riding would be more prevalent (such as on precarious or unsafe roads) and consider ways to mitigate the issue. 
3. Finally, the City of Hamilton is also considering how best to integrate E-scooters with multi-modal pathways. Currently, there is a prohibition of E-scooters on many multi-modal trails. This is not an ideal circumstance, as effective E-scooter integration would take advantage of the versatility of E-scooters to ride not just on traditional roads, but also multi-modal trails. It is also unclear how prohibition of E-scooter integration would be enforced. Thus, the third challenge identified with E-scooters is to consider how to safely share multi-modal trails between various forms of transportation (cyclists, pedestrians, roller bladers & skaters, etc.), and E-scooters.
4. Finally, the City is also interested in understanding the impacts of E-scooters on bike share ridership and how to mitigate the impacts to bike share. What are the experiences of other Cities who have had to integrate various operators and what tools, tactics and techniques did they implement.  If this has not been a major concern for other cities, how can Hamilton be an innovator in ensuring sustainable mixing of different mobility technologies and operators?

Topics to inspire you!

• Smart-city applications in safety
• Inclusion of people of all ages and abilities
• Education in safety and proper use
• E-Scooter use during winters
• Dynamic sharing of roads and public spaces

Helpful links to start your research!

 Article on the plan for the E-Scooters Pilot Program to launch in Hamilton next spring 

 Report on w  hat sustainable mobility looks like in Hamilton 

 Article on what E-Scooters are and the recent emergence of them 

For many communities and areas in Canada, flooding, eroding streams, and biodiversity loss represent some of the first tangible challenges presented by climate change, and Hamilton is no exception.  Hamilton is experiencing more frequent and intense rainfall , with an average 3% increase in rainfall per year since 1970. Due to the high density of impermeable surfaces such as roofs, parking lots, driveways, and roads in the city, intense rainfall quickly turns into an ecological disaster. Aging stormwater pipes are unable to keep up with the rapidly changing climate, often leading to combined sewer overflow (CSO). This means that when sewer pipes carrying rainwater have reached capacity, the excess stormwater combines with sewers and their stew of oil, heavy metals, human feces and more, outflows into our streams and lakes. This not only pollutes our lakes and wetlands but also threatens ecosystems and fish populations. For instance,  Hamilton’s Ancaster Creek  is currently facing this very problem! During periods of significant rainfall, the stormwater systems become overwhelmed, increasing the risk of flooding in nearby homes, and causing raw sewage to flow into the Ancaster Creek. 

The City of Hamilton is investing in upgrading infrastructure and adopting  low impact development technologies , such as rain gardens, green roofs, and bioswales. One challenge lies in engaging private property owners (homeowners, business owners, institutions, etc.) to up-take these solutions. For example, Green Venture Hamilton offers education workshops to youth and residents and carries out various Eco initiatives including the  De-Pave initiative . The De-Pave initiative encourages community members to come together to tear up under-used pavement and create green spaces that beautify and capture rainwater. Despite the numerous initiatives they host, Green Venture faces the challenge of engaging and incentivizing residents to make a meaningful change in stormwater management on their properties. To build on their initiatives, they are looking for new and innovative ways to engage residents to be proactive about stormwater runoff. This would mean capturing or diverting stormwater on their properties before it enters the stormwater sewer systems. If you choose to address this question:

• Consider existing solutions within the city and why or why not community action may be lacking. 
• Consider low-cost solutions that target rainfall at the source (before they enter the stormwater sewer systems) and serve to repurpose stormwater to address other community needs. 
• Consider approaching the problem through place-specific solutions (solutions that target a specific location in Hamilton that demonstrates a need) OR adaptable solutions that can be applied anywhere
• Consider the use of demonstration projects (normally highly visible and small in scale and therefore the cost and risk of failure is minimal while still providing the opportunity for learning from live experience)

Topics to inspire you!

•  Low impact development  and  green infrastructure 
•  Urban demonstration projects 

Helpful links to start your research!

 Innovative Infrastructure Storm Water System 

 Hamilton: Ancaster Creek Sewage Problem 

 Tacticle Urbanism 

McMaster University and Hamilton at large is focused on supporting healthy, sustainable, and active transportation options to address the community’s diverse transportation needs. From cycling to walking and other micro-mobility methods, creating infrastructure and a space for everyone of all ages and abilities to participate is imperative. Often, however, real and perceived safety threats are experienced by many in the McMaster community and surrounding neighbourhoods. Real and/or perceived safety concerns limit mobility options (i.e., deter walking/cycling) and have impacts on how people engage with or spend time on streets or in public spaces. Students and community groups within and around McMaster have  repeatedly voiced  that trails and streets in near-campus neighbourhoods are unsafe, impairing the accessibility of such areas. McMaster does have a volunteer service within the McMaster Students Union called the Student Walk Home Attendant Team (SWHAT) who will walk or bus with users during the evening hours, 7 days a week. During non-COVID times, this service would run from 7 pm to 1 am and was a great option for students to feel comfortable walking home. (SWHAT shout-out: they even brought umbrellas when it rained!). However, there are many students who need to safely arrive home after 1 am. Student athletes, healthcare students, or even just students working late at night/early in the morning are unable to take advantage of SWHAT services. Similarly,  the HSR  and  GO buses  do not run later than ~2 am. Other solutions that exist to solve this problem include apps such as  Companion  that share one’s location; however, these require someone to be awake to monitor your location and require the user to have a functioning smart phone and data. As such, if you choose to address this question: 

Topics to inspire you!

• Social and physical infrastructure
• Role of architecture and layout design
• Role of  placemaking  in community safety

Helpful links to start your research!

 MSU Study on Student Housing Near Campus Neighbourhoods 

 Study on the impact of Ambient Noise on Safety Perception 

 Report on the impact of perceived security on walking choices 

What does the MacChangers journey look like?

What does a completed MacChangers project look like?  

A final MacChangers project is a proposed solution discovered through the human-centered design process and is financially viable, well-researched, inclusive, and innovative. Past successful MacChangers projects have included the proposal for an app, a social media page, infrastructure proposals, policy recommendations, and businesses. In addition to the relationships and skills you’ve built, finishing the MacChangers program will look like creating a business plan, not launching a business; proposing a policy plan, not changing a policy; showcasing an app demo, not creating an app. The project is one that presents a well-thought-through idea that could be carried through by you or picked up by a community member. In some cases, students have been able to bring their idea to grants or mentorship programs to begin implementing their idea.   

What does “Innovative” mean?

Our definition of innovative means “new to the City of Hamilton,” or any idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by the Hamilton community. For example, p op-up parking patios  had been implemented by Nova Scotians long before the idea came to Hamilton. Basing a proposed solution on case studies from other places tends to produce more implementable ideas, as the constraints and successes of the proposal are better known. That said, the design thinking process allows for completely innovative ideas. If you do base things off of a case study, ask yourself to think about how to best adapt these ideas to Hamilton specifically. In other words, try to elevate these ideas to best suit the Hamilton community.

One question you want to ask yourself when solving a problem is, “Who has the authority to implement my idea?” As a MacChangers student, you are constrained to developing ideas that can either be implemented or approved by the municipal government. For example, one of the priorities identified by “Our Future Hamilton” is to reduce the average public-school class size. As education is overseen by the Provincial government in Ontario, this problem is considered outside of the City of Hamilton’s jurisdiction. Do some research to understand what authority the City of Hamilton has over the problem you are addressing to help you scope your ideas once you start solution finding. (Read more:  Government of Canada  &  Federal, Provincial and Municipal Responsibilities ) 

Some actions you may take to familiarize yourself with the scope of your problem include: 

1. Ask yourself: who has the authority to implement my idea?
2. Understand how by-laws work and how they can be introduced or affected or changed. Research what by-laws, Provincial laws, and Federal laws currently exist and how they may be impacting the problem. (For a well-organized resource, consider  this document  created in Saskatchewan. For a local resource, review the  City of Hamilton website .)