Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

Photo from Joseph & Gaukel.

The temporary cones have been replaced with more permanent flexible posts. A reasonable place to end up I guess, even if they are further sign pollution (it really is amazing how many signs we can put up in this city, says a lot about our street design).

The crossing was recently resurfaced for some reason, and lane markings have now been added through the crossing. It appears that shark teeth will be painted soon for both the bike and car lanes (does anyone know why markings all seem to be done on separate days, sometimes weeks apart? It's like the city has workers driving around, but each crew is only trained in a single colour of paint).

Both of the flag crossings have been reapplied. They were actually painted on before winter, but had completely come off by the end of winter. Hopefully they didn't cost $10k a piece that time, and won't continue to come off each winter.

Ultimately I think this crossing is a bit of a mess. I'll take a photo once the shark teeth are on, but for both bikes and cars there are separate shark teeth for each of the two crossings. In my opinion, there is no reason for this entire intersection to not just be one giant crossing. It should have been a (brick) raised crossing, level with the Victoria Park entrance and Gaukel. It's turning out to be a visual overload with all the signage, paint, and two distinct crossings.

Great photo. Yeah, the signage is a bit frustrating. I think the sign in the middle is unfortunate, but necessary. The other two both bear a useful purpose. The right hand sign is a legally binding sign, the left one seems more for education. The middle sign is also for education but also enforcement. Probably the left sign wouldn't be necessary if the middle sign was used initially, but I think the middle sign cannot be used in winter.

FWIW...in the Netherlands, the equivalent of the right hand sign is the only one used. But cycle paths are also coloured red, so are more noticeable, and drivers well...they know what they're doing.

I'm glad they replaced the crossing markings. It almost certainly came under warranty. This isn't the first time thermoplast has been replaced under warranty.

For why crews don't paint all at the same time, I think it probably has to do with the fact that different equipment is used to paint different types of markings. The sharks teeth could even be done in thermoplast as well.

The rest though, I completely agree. It's bizarre that they went with two crossings. The whole thing could have been done much more sensibly. But we did manage to get a continuous sidewalk on Joseph so I guess we should be thankful for small blessings.