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+--- Thread: Walking in Waterloo Region (/showthread.php?tid=189)
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - nms - 11-13-2017
I expect that it was a matter of asking the various businesses to chip in to cover the added costs of ramps. Alternately, raising the sidewalk generally higher might have created challenges with respect to curb height at various pedestrian crossings.
Or it could have been a matter of, "Oops, it wasn't in the initial project scope so it didn't get added."
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - MidTowner - 12-11-2017
Well, it's finally snowing again in Waterloo Region. In Kitchener and Waterloo, sidewalks must be cleared by property owners no more than 24 hours after a snowfall ends. In Cambridge, the municipality is responsible for sidewalks that meet a number of different criteria.
If you find a sidewalk has not been cleared for more than 24 hours, in Kitchener you can call 519-741-2345 and, in Waterloo, e-mail snowandice@waterloo.ca
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 09:18 AM)MidTowner Wrote: Well, it's finally snowing again in Waterloo Region. In Kitchener and Waterloo, sidewalks must be cleared by property owners no more than 24 hours after a snowfall ends. In Cambridge, the municipality is responsible for sidewalks that meet a number of different criteria.
If you find a sidewalk has not been cleared for more than 24 hours, in Kitchener you can call 519-741-2345 and, in Waterloo, e-mail snowandice@waterloo.ca
This policy is so utterly pathetic. Snow began on Saturday, and given the forecast, I don't have to clear my sidewalks till Thursday morning. I'll mark my calendar.
In other news, municipal clearing is up and running, the sidewalk plow drove all the way down my street today, to clear 10 meters of sidewalk at the end of it which the city owns, just to drive back up the street. People complain about waste, *not* clearing all the sidewalks is wasteful.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - MidTowner - 12-11-2017
It’s definitely pretty poor. You’re right that the worst part is that the clock doesn’t start until the snow stops falling, and resets if it starts again. I remember a number of occasions in which enforcement would effectively be on pause for a two week period, since snow (even if small amounts) fell intermittently during that time.
That having been said, I do think it’s important to lodge complaints, so the municipality knows that people are being inconvenienced. The modest changes to the City of Kitchener’s enforcement practices last year, supposedly as a result of increasing complaints, really did have an impact. I don’t see a wholesale rethink of the way sidewalks are (not) cleared, unless the municipalities hear often that it’s just not working.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 10:25 AM)MidTowner Wrote: It’s definitely pretty poor. You’re right that the worst part is that the clock doesn’t start until the snow stops falling, and resets if it starts again. I remember a number of occasions in which enforcement would effectively be on pause for a two week period, since snow (even if small amounts) fell intermittently during that time.
That having been said, I do think it’s important to lodge complaints, so the municipality knows that people are being inconvenienced. The modest changes to the City of Kitchener’s enforcement practices last year, supposedly as a result of increasing complaints, really did have an impact. I don’t see a wholesale rethink of the way sidewalks are (not) cleared, unless the municipalities hear often that it’s just not working.
Indeed. Worse, there are so many complaints, bylaw usually won't follow up for a week, so a week spread out by 2-3 snows could be 2-3 weeks. This is why enforcement is a completely useless policy, and it really pisses me off that councillors won't admit this, I've had them say with a straight face to me that enforcement works.
That being said, I entirely agree, I call and complain about every sidewalk I pass, usually while walking, the time I spend on hold I usually get 3-5 to complain about. It's getting to the point where the corporate call centre people in Kitchener know me.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - ijmorlan - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 10:25 AM)MidTowner Wrote: It’s definitely pretty poor. You’re right that the worst part is that the clock doesn’t start until the snow stops falling, and resets if it starts again. I remember a number of occasions in which enforcement would effectively be on pause for a two week period, since snow (even if small amounts) fell intermittently during that time.
That having been said, I do think it’s important to lodge complaints, so the municipality knows that people are being inconvenienced. The modest changes to the City of Kitchener’s enforcement practices last year, supposedly as a result of increasing complaints, really did have an impact. I don’t see a wholesale rethink of the way sidewalks are (not) cleared, unless the municipalities hear often that it’s just not working.
That reset thing is really stupid. It should be more like “within 24 hours of snow beginning”, regardless of whether it is still snowing, stopped and started again, or what. So continuous snowfall would require daily cleaning, which seems somewhat reasonable as a minimum requirement. Of course this ignores that the real solution is municipal sidewalk clearing, rather than discussing the details of a bad policy.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - nms - 12-11-2017
Speaking of sidewalks, meanwhile in Stratford:
Stratford's 1-sidewalk policy has residents fuming
Quote:Residents of Ballantyne Avenue, a tree-lined street close to the Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ont., are angry that work by city crews to replace sewer and water lines will also take away one of the street's two sidewalks.
And because it's now Stratford city policy that residential streets with two sidewalks only get one after reconstruction work, residents warn that other streets in Stratford's older neighbourhoods will face the same fate.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 01:36 PM)nms Wrote: Speaking of sidewalks, meanwhile in Stratford:
Stratford's 1-sidewalk policy has residents fuming
Quote:Residents of Ballantyne Avenue, a tree-lined street close to the Festival Theatre in Stratford, Ont., are angry that work by city crews to replace sewer and water lines will also take away one of the street's two sidewalks.
And because it's now Stratford city policy that residential streets with two sidewalks only get one after reconstruction work, residents warn that other streets in Stratford's older neighbourhoods will face the same fate.
We can't be too smug here, UW removed sidewalks from one side of Ring Rd. on the UW campus.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - plam - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 01:55 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: We can't be too smug here, UW removed sidewalks from one side of Ring Rd. on the UW campus.
Not quite the same thing. I know that the Ring Road work didn't get universally positive reviews here. But there are 0 trip generators on the outside edge of Ring Road. The goal was to channel the crossings to a number of specific points (which are the logical ones).
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 02:18 PM)plam Wrote:(12-11-2017, 01:55 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: We can't be too smug here, UW removed sidewalks from one side of Ring Rd. on the UW campus.
Not quite the same thing. I know that the Ring Road work didn't get universally positive reviews here. But there are 0 trip generators on the outside edge of Ring Road. The goal was to channel the crossings to a number of specific points (which are the logical ones).
Some are logical, some most certainly are not. But more to the point, channeling all the crossings to one point creates more congestion for both cars and pedestrians, because now peds all cross at the same point.
If the university felt there was a safety issue they should be removing the cars and redesigning the road to be safer instead of freaking out about buses and sidewalks. Now we have pedestrians walking on the road instead. Even if this wasn't the worst sidewalk to remove, it was a bad one on given the pedestrian nature of campus.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - plam - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 03:00 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(12-11-2017, 02:18 PM)plam Wrote: Not quite the same thing. I know that the Ring Road work didn't get universally positive reviews here. But there are 0 trip generators on the outside edge of Ring Road. The goal was to channel the crossings to a number of specific points (which are the logical ones).
Some are logical, some most certainly are not. But more to the point, channeling all the crossings to one point creates more congestion for both cars and pedestrians, because now peds all cross at the same point.
If the university felt there was a safety issue they should be removing the cars and redesigning the road to be safer instead of freaking out about buses and sidewalks. Now we have pedestrians walking on the road instead. Even if this wasn't the worst sidewalk to remove, it was a bad one on given the pedestrian nature of campus.
Which crossing do you think is missing?
I think that channeling is better, because then the car stops once instead of 5 times when people randomly cross. I also don't think that part of it is worse for people walking.
Removing the cars was discussed but ultimately it was too much of a stretch.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - Canard - 12-11-2017
Stratford is hardly the model city for sidewalks. This one made me laugh out loud when we walked past:
https://goo.gl/maps/o5PrUibRMdJ2
(...and a little further up the road, the sidewalk just disappears, completely)
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 06:48 PM)plam Wrote: ....
Which crossing do you think is missing?
I think that channeling is better, because then the car stops once instead of 5 times when people randomly cross. I also don't think that part of it is worse for people walking.
Removing the cars was discussed but ultimately it was too much of a stretch.
Crossings on the west side of Ring Rd. are a disaster.
Was removing cars discussed? I was at the university at the time, and neither I nor my professors had any idea this was even happening, it seemed to occur unilaterally. I have no idea why removing personal vehicles would be a "stretch", the ONLY parking lot on Ring Rd. itself is the administration building. They're trying to remove all buses which is much more of a stretch (vastly more people use buses). But I'm pretty biased against the university administration.
As for channeling, it's probably not a lot worse for students, although, given that cars sometimes don't stop, it's not great--worse, students clearly want to walk on the other side because they end up walking on the road.
In any case it is clearly worse for cars and buses on Ring Rd. Besides having many more stop signs on Ring Rd., before students generally filtered through traffic when there was a break, walking on one side till there was space to cross, then crossing, the result being nobody really had to stop at any time unless your destination was directly across. Instead they now *must* cross at the crossing and thus very often block cars, and often for an extended period.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - plam - 12-11-2017
(12-11-2017, 08:32 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(12-11-2017, 06:48 PM)plam Wrote: ....
Which crossing do you think is missing?
I think that channeling is better, because then the car stops once instead of 5 times when people randomly cross. I also don't think that part of it is worse for people walking.
Removing the cars was discussed but ultimately it was too much of a stretch.
Crossings on the west side of Ring Rd. are a disaster.
Was removing cars discussed? I was at the university at the time, and neither I nor my professors had any idea this was even happening, it seemed to occur unilaterally. I have no idea why removing personal vehicles would be a "stretch", the ONLY parking lot on Ring Rd. itself is the administration building. They're trying to remove all buses which is much more of a stretch (vastly more people use buses). But I'm pretty biased against the university administration.
As for channeling, it's probably not a lot worse for students, although, given that cars sometimes don't stop, it's not great--worse, students clearly want to walk on the other side because they end up walking on the road.
In any case it is clearly worse for cars and buses on Ring Rd. Besides having many more stop signs on Ring Rd., before students generally filtered through traffic when there was a break, walking on one side till there was space to cross, then crossing, the result being nobody really had to stop at any time unless your destination was directly across. Instead they now *must* cross at the crossing and thus very often block cars, and often for an extended period.
The west side wasn't even discussed in the channeling plan.
I was on the University's Joint Health and Safety Committee at the time (as was ijmorlan's brother). The internal report did discuss a range of options, up to banning cars. Lots HV, L, N, M, and R are on the Ring Road itself. But as I recall there were also concerns about deliveries etc. No private cars was also discussed. There were also discussions about enforcing the speed limit.
I also asked about buses. The University would like to maintain the current number of buses, not remove all buses. That may still not be the right thing, but it's a different thing.
I don't know if there are numbers proving the point, but I recall that the argument was that the crosswalks would make the cars more likely to stop. Which they really should. Filtering through traffic is probably not quite the right thing.
RE: Walking in Waterloo Region - Pheidippides - 12-11-2017
The cities should at least broadcast loud and clear that the snow has stopped falling and the clock is now ticking. Then at least you'd know if you were wasting your time calling to register a complaint only to discover that it won't be accepted because it is still technically snowing in some bureaucrat's opinion.
I was holding my breath watching someone in a mobility scooter heading westbound ON Highland at Patricia because the sidewalks were not clear. The 204 went wide around them, but a number of other vehicles did not give as wide a berth and some even honked (as if that person really WANTED to in that vulnerable a position).