ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[danbrotherston]

Yup...it's pretty terrible.

Generally when I bike, I will come up Water, turn left into the parking lot (I suspect this is less surprising to drivers than trying to make a left turn onto the sidewalk, and it saves some time). I merge onto the MUT/sidewalk and proceed on the west side of Weber. I won't stay publicly whether I dismount to cross, but sufficies to say that I find it ridiculous that the regional engineers did not provide for a crossing for the users of the MUT, and that I don't believe dismounting improves safety, if drivers are going to turn without looking, I don't believe it matters whether you are on a bike or not, the Victoria St. corner is so poorly designed for non-motor vehicle users anyway.

It is sure is a shame that you were forced by the poor infrastructure in the region to give up cycling to work .

Coming up Water I would definitely do that as well. I was more so wondering if you were already on Weber, what the planners intended for cyclists to do in order to get to the MUT.

And yes, Weber/Victoria is a terrifying intersection. Once I started walking for my commute, I walked through it 2 times a day as it was the shortest way (sometimes 4 times if I want back downtown for lunch). If I was still working there, I think getting hit would be an inevitability. I already had to actively avoid being hit multiple times.

Oddly enough (and more on topic to ION interacting with intersections), the next worst intersection I walked through was Water/Duke, for some reason. I think it might have to do with how the crosswalk to the east of Water is seemingly randomly set back a few meters, making visibility more difficult for cars (not that it's a good excuse for the drivers). This photos shows the interaction I had most often:

Heh, in my opinion you vastly overestimate the thought planners put into their cycling infra. I don't think any planner thought anything about how any cyclist could make it through any part of their infra along Weber. Some places have more thought put in, but Weber is especially poorly designed even by regional standards.

As for me personally, I wouldn't be coming up Weber, I've ridden on it a few times, but I wouldn't again if I could avoid it. If I had too, I'd probably be on the sidewalk, which is curbfaced, narrow and poorly sloped, rather bumpy, and too busy with pedestrians to safely ride on, so frankly, none too safe either, but I'd just continue on the sidewalk and cross at the next red light.

Yes, a number of the ION intersections are particularly poor for pedestrians which...seems problematic for a mass transit system.  The one in question is particularly strange though, I'm not sure why the crosswalk is set back so far. Often they do so in order to reduce crossing distances (a laudable goal) in the face of immense and unnecessary turning radii (I can think of an easier way to solve the crossing distances), however that intersection doesn't have such problematic turning radii, so the crosswalk could be brought forward, I have no idea why it wasn't.

The other reason I've heard is so that right turning traffic approaches the crosswalk from a more perpandicular angle (which only works if the turning radii aren't too wide) so visibility is better, but I'm not aware of any regional engineers using this as a reason, this is more from the Dutch CROW manual. As is, it simply causes a detour for pedestrians (or more specifically, pedestrians who are not physically able enough to walk up the barrier curb).