Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

Luisa D'Amato has outdone herself this time: Those empty cycling lanes in downtown Kitchener are a sign of the city’s long game

Paywall link: https://archive.is/ZqPOK

Jesus what a trash headline. Cynicism everywhere! The article (rant) starts awful and almost redeems itself by the end, but you know nobody reads the whole thing anymore.

Ahh yes...quoting Ian and his "excellent" points again. I wonder if him and D'Amato are friends. He is king of the entitled NIMBYs and a truly unpleasant individual.

[nms]

In positive news, the Cycling Guide app has evolved into the CyclingGuide Foundation (Toronto Star, written by Terry Pender). It has been downloaded 800 times in the last six weeks, and there have been requests to expand into Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, London and elsewhere.

[michalshawn170]

I also want to ride a e scooter in waterloo please let me know about e scooter speed limit?

[dtkvictim]

Cedar St south of King has had a few barriers for a bit now, instead of just paint. I wonder if this is the treatment Margaret will get (hopefully with better coverage though).

[creative]

There are barriers over the bridge. The separated part where they narrowed the street is paved now. Looks like it will be extending to Frederick past the Centre in the Square. Too early to tell if it will be separated or curbed.

[SF22]

There are barriers over the bridge. The separated part where they narrowed the street is paved now. Looks like it will be extending to Frederick past the Centre in the Square. Too early to tell if it will be separated or curbed.

It will be separated with a boulevard buffer to the street, as the section from Victoria to Frederick is all going to be a multi-use trail. The region is planning to install 'temporary' bike lanes ("mostly paint", although they are going to be looking for some engagement on the subject later this year) on Frederick sometime next year to link up to the end of the Margaret/Otto bike facilities, until Frederick actually comes up for reconstruction in several years.

[bravado]

This one's quite boring, but Cambridge's cycling committee has been asked to rank locations for secure bike parking (in downtown Galt only) - so that's a valuable Kitchener service that's finally being copied down here.

The committee ranked the following in order:
1. Mill Street Lot
2. Civic Square Lot
3. Water St S Lot
4. Main St Lot

[SF22]

This one's quite boring, but Cambridge's cycling committee has been asked to rank locations for secure bike parking (in downtown Galt only) - so that's a valuable Kitchener service that's finally being copied down here.

The committee ranked the following in order:
1. Mill Street Lot
2. Civic Square Lot
3. Water St S Lot
4. Main St Lot

Maybe boring, but important! People won't bike to run errands or visit friends if they don't feel safe parking their bike somewhere and walking away from it for a while.

[dtkvictim]

Photo dump of Margaret St, infrastructure is more or less in place and usable from Wellington to Frederick now. Apparently bike signals could be installed here before the Region figured out Duke & Ontario St. Also for some reason the barriers over the bridge have a large gap in the middle. Must be the designated Mei King pickup zone (in actuality, probably somehow related to the rail RoW? The large fence has the same gap, which makes no sense... presumably it's most important over the tracks).

[dtkvictim]

Also separate, but the rail crossing on Breithaupt St has been redone.

[danbrotherston]

The gap in the barriers over the bridge are likely to do with the bridge span itself, I'm guessing the barrier begins and ends on the bridge abutment, which is sitting on the ground.

The bridge span itself is a civil engineering component, and the city staff would have to hire an engineer to validate that the bridge is able to support an increased static load that would come from the concrete barriers, which would cost a lot of money.

The same thing was done on the Lexington bridge, although in that case, I think it was less cost and more jurisdiction, because the MTO owns the bridge over the highway, not the city. But AFAIK the city owns the railway bridge.

[SF22]

The gap in the barriers over the bridge are likely to do with the bridge span itself, I'm guessing the barrier begins and ends on the bridge abutment, which is sitting on the ground.

The bridge span itself is a civil engineering component, and the city staff would have to hire an engineer to validate that the bridge is able to support an increased static load that would come from the concrete barriers, which would cost a lot of money.

The same thing was done on the Lexington bridge, although in that case, I think it was less cost and more jurisdiction, because the MTO owns the bridge over the highway, not the city. But AFAIK the city owns the railway bridge.

I emailed the city about the gap in barriers over the Margaret Ave bridge. The response I received is here:

The barriers need to be pinned into the asphalt so they don’t get dislodged by vehicles or snow plows. This can create little holes that over time allow water to seep in. Not a big deal for a regular road. But for a bridge, water seepage can threaten the structural integrity of the bridge and significantly reduce its lifespan. This was a risk we didn’t want to take. We will monitor the location to ensure drivers are remaining in their designated lane of traffic.

[dtkvictim]

I don't know what you call these... But one of those bicycle resting posts has been installed at Water/Duke. It was pretty convenient to use while waiting, thumbs up from me.

Also I usually bike outside of rush hour so it's not an issue, but a few times now I've had close calls using the Water St bike lane with cars coming from Halls Ln and especially from the Water St South city parking lot. I think these conflicts stem from the bike lanes being bidirectional, because it's always when I'm heading towards Weber St, so I get the complaints now...

[bravado]

I wonder if I'd still get a ticket for riding on the sidewalk after this new abomination in Cambridge abruptly ends?

[timc]

Does anyone *ever* get tickets for riding on the sidewalk? I know it's against the city by-laws, but I don't know if I've ever seen any enforcement.