12-01-2017, 02:40 PM
I meant data about people’s preferences. We can look at traffic data for a street and make educated guesses about whether most people would be comfortable riding on a street with that volume of traffic, but it’s still a guess.
If your employer is on Weber Street, you really do have to ride on Weber Street to get there, if only for a short distance. I guess the exception would be those workplaces with a smaller street or trail behind (I wonder how many Manulife employees in Waterloo commute by bicycle?). But it’s going to get quickly complicated to try to figure out the back way to get to every major or minor employer in the region. Most are located on arterials because they want people to be able to get to them. Those arterials are by and large overbuilt, and could accommodate protected bike paths. Doing so would provide an immediate safe route for many commuters.
The City of Kitchener did have a map of smaller streets it identified as good for cycling. I have no idea what the criteria for a street’s inclusion were.
If your employer is on Weber Street, you really do have to ride on Weber Street to get there, if only for a short distance. I guess the exception would be those workplaces with a smaller street or trail behind (I wonder how many Manulife employees in Waterloo commute by bicycle?). But it’s going to get quickly complicated to try to figure out the back way to get to every major or minor employer in the region. Most are located on arterials because they want people to be able to get to them. Those arterials are by and large overbuilt, and could accommodate protected bike paths. Doing so would provide an immediate safe route for many commuters.
The City of Kitchener did have a map of smaller streets it identified as good for cycling. I have no idea what the criteria for a street’s inclusion were.