Cycling in Waterloo Region

[ijmorlan]

The city ignores me on Twitter now (guess they got sick of me berating them about the lack of enforcement), so someone else will have to ask...

Just for the record, I don’t think you asked too much. They should be pondering why they feel unable to answer your questions, not ignoring you. Why can’t they justify their actions with a non-BS explanation?

[KevinT]

I was at the Alpine Club's 65th anniversary shindig on Saturday night and mayor Dave Jaworsky was in attendance.  I wanted to go up to him and ask if it would be okay to leave my bike in the middle of the road when stopping in at Symposium, but I never got the chance before he left.  :-(

[clasher]

Maybe they've just given up and they'll be quietly converted into parking.

[Section ThirtyOne]

Maybe they've just given up and they'll be quietly converted into parking.

Based on the way things are going, this seems a distinct possibility.

[Canard]

I had the same thought. It might be for the best at this point. My rage level would probably go down a lot lol.

[robdrimmie]

The thread is a little stale, but 5 days ago I asked City of Waterloo for an update. At the time they said they were waiting for consistently warmer night temperatures. Given that this April was the coldest on record since 1915, I can believe that it isn't the best time for cost-efficient, low-priority road construction.

Did anyone bring it up with Jaworsky while he was posing with bikes for the CycleWR event?

My tweet and the city's response are at: https://mobile.twitter.com/RobDrimmie/st...1734066176

[Canard]

Did anyone bring it up with Jaworsky while he was posing with bikes for the CycleWR event?

I wondered the same thing. You would think this is something they would be all over, but it appears they are completely ignoring the issue.

[danbrotherston]

The thread is a little stale, but 5 days ago I asked City of Waterloo for an update. At the time they said they were waiting for consistently warmer night temperatures. Given that this April was the coldest on record since 1915, I can believe that it isn't the best time for cost-efficient, low-priority road construction.

Did anyone bring it up with Jaworsky while he was posing with bikes for the CycleWR event?

My tweet and the city's response are at: https://mobile.twitter.com/RobDrimmie/st...1734066176

Low priority is the point eh...

Frankly, the lanes could be opened to cyclists, if the city cared, even without paving, we have gravel trails all over....but it's a very low priority, lower than enabling illegal parking.

Of course the IHT and Waterloo Park are largely closed as well, with no safe detour for the IHT so I guess we'll just write off this spring for cycling in the core areas.

[Canard]

Why aren’t our local advocacy groups doing anything to raise a stink about this?

[clasher]

I had a great idea for a litte contra-flow bike lane today, Young Street from Ahrens to Weber, the reason being that it's a great spot to cross weber since there is a light there already and it connects to the Margaret street bike lanes pretty easily. Saves trying to ride on the Queen, Water or Victora if you're trying to get across downtown. Just a little jog to Gaukel and you're in the park and onto the IHT if you want. There's enough room on the road for it... but you'd have to take a few parking spots away from people so it's probably something that will never happen.

[ijmorlan]

I had a great idea for a litte contra-flow bike lane today, Young Street from Ahrens to Weber, the reason being that it's a great spot to cross weber since there is a light there already and it connects to the Margaret street bike lanes pretty easily. Saves trying to ride on the Queen, Water or Victora if you're trying to get across downtown. Just a little jog to Gaukel and you're in the park and onto the IHT if you want. There's enough room on the road for it... but you'd have to take a few parking spots away from people so it's probably something that will never happen.

Amusingly, the Google overhead view shows exactly one car parked in the stretch, which gives a sample of how valuable that parking actually is — i.e., barely at all. To be fair the StreetView shows more stored cars.

Anyway, one-way streets that are minor enough not to have lane markings should allow contra-flow bicycle traffic even without any specific signage. The bylaw should simply be amended to say that one-way provisions don’t apply to bicycles wherever there are no lane markings. As signs are replaced, “Bicycles Excepted” can be added. And the traffic department then needs to make contraflow bicycle lanes standard when a road is upgraded to have lane markings. Also they should review every existing one-way road to see if contraflow lanes should be installed (hint: well-nigh everywhere).

[plam]

I had a great idea for a litte contra-flow bike lane today, Young Street from Ahrens to Weber, the reason being that it's a great spot to cross weber since there is a light there already and it connects to the Margaret street bike lanes pretty easily. Saves trying to ride on the Queen, Water or Victora if you're trying to get across downtown. Just a little jog to Gaukel and you're in the park and onto the IHT if you want. There's enough room on the road for it... but you'd have to take a few parking spots away from people so it's probably something that will never happen.

Amusingly, the Google overhead view shows exactly one car parked in the stretch, which gives a sample of how valuable that parking actually is — i.e., barely at all. To be fair the StreetView shows more stored cars.

Anyway, one-way streets that are minor enough not to have lane markings should allow contra-flow bicycle traffic even without any specific signage. The bylaw should simply be amended to say that one-way provisions don’t apply to bicycles wherever there are no lane markings. As signs are replaced, “Bicycles Excepted” can be added. And the traffic department then needs to make contraflow bicycle lanes standard when a road is upgraded to have lane markings. Also they should review every existing one-way road to see if contraflow lanes should be installed (hint: well-nigh everywhere).

Yup. Makes sense at Ahrens and many other places too. This is a thing in many other parts of the world. Could be here as well.

[plam]

I heard that the mega roundabout at Ottawa and Homer Watson is still pretty scary to cross, because there are like 3 lanes of cars in each direction, so even if one lane entering the roundabout yields, you can get flattened by the subsequent lanes. Should there be a beg button controlling access to the roundabout? Is there a better solution?

[creative]

So because there was only one car parked there when the photo was taken a mean that nobody ever parks there. With that reasoning I can say that I travel the Ottawa roundabouts quite frequently and have never seen a cyclist going through there so therefore nothing needs to be done to improve it for cycling.

[plam]

So because there was only one car parked there when the photo was taken a mean that nobody ever parks there. With that reasoning I can say that I travel the Ottawa roundabouts quite frequently and have never seen a cyclist going through there so therefore nothing needs to be done to improve it for cycling.

These issues are not comparable. Ottawa roundabout is a safety issue. Not enough parking isn't a safety issue. And there is also a parking lot basically at the corner of Duke and Young.