Cycling in Waterloo Region

[jamincan]

You need to work on your CX skills!

[highlander]

Separated lanes on Wilson would be a huge improvement. Heading north through the Wilson-Fairway intersection until Kingsway is not much fun - to do it properly you need to be in the left lane for a couple hundred metres, which is only marginally comfortable if you hit a green light and can keep a good pace coming down off the rail overpass.

There are a lot of right turning vehicles in this section, so much so that I'd really hope for dedicated signals but I am pretty pessimistic about the chances of that happening.

[jamincan]

It's not listed there, but hopefully fixing the mess on Lackner is included in the budget somewhere.

[Pheidippides]

In case you're ever cycling on the northbound highway 8 exit at Maple Grove you'll be happy to know that the shoulder has been freshly marked as a cycling lane again:
   



Nice to see UPS not discriminating between the modes of active transportation it impedes:
   

[Canard]

Ugh, tweet that!

I wonder what they're supposed to do, though. If there is nowhere to park nearby... are they supppsed to find a spot, no matter how far away, and walk back?

Is this a systemic problem of the drivers being under pressure to do their routes on time?

[ijmorlan]

Ugh, tweet that!

I wonder what they're supposed to do, though. If there is nowhere to park nearby... are they supppsed to find a spot, no matter how far away, and walk back?

Is this a systemic problem of the drivers being under pressure to do their routes on time?

I’m not sure what the overall solution is. Fundamental problem is that there is a functional requirement for delivery vehicles to be able to stop briefly near essentially every address in the city, no matter how pedestrianized the immediate surroundings are. This is true even in areas where land values are way too high for surface parking to make sense.

Of course, maybe the solution is smaller delivery vehicles in some areas. It’s an error to take the vehicle itself as a given.

[KevinL]

In many European city centres, such delivery rounds are done with handcarts and cargo bikes. I believe facilities are even provided for the transfer of loads from trucks to those modes.

It's a question of us recognizing the need for a different way of functioning, and coming up with a solution that works for all. Not the easiest to pull off.

[Canard]

Exactly - and considering we're buried under a half-metre of snow for a third of the year... there's that to consider.

[Canard]

Zeller Drive recently got bike lanes on part of it.

The part that didn't is now completely coated with sharrows!

[Pheidippides]

Ugh, tweet that!

No can do; that would require me give up my flip phone and join Twitter.

In this case I thought it was unforgivable given that the address they are stopped, pretty much same time every day, at is Caley Orthodontic Laboratory which has a U-shaped driveway (seen better in Google maps with the older 2d aerial photograph) around their office.

[Pheidippides]

New pedestrian/cycling refuge on Belmont where the Filsinger trail (?) crosses...and it is more than a bike width wide:
   

   

[danbrotherston]

Ugh, tweet that!

I wonder what they're supposed to do, though. If there is nowhere to park nearby... are they supppsed to find a spot, no matter how far away, and walk back?

Is this a systemic problem of the drivers being under pressure to do their routes on time?

I’m not sure what the overall solution is. Fundamental problem is that there is a functional requirement for delivery vehicles to be able to stop briefly near essentially every address in the city, no matter how pedestrianized the immediate surroundings are. This is true even in areas where land values are way too high for surface parking to make sense.

Of course, maybe the solution is smaller delivery vehicles in some areas. It’s an error to take the vehicle itself as a given.

Options include:

A) The business they were delivering too has a driveway which could be used.
B) There's a side road with parking only 50 meters away, if UPS chose to prioritize safety instead of profit, they could park there.
C) Park in the vehicle lane!

[danbrotherston]

New pedestrian/cycling refuge on Belmont where the Filsinger trail (?) crosses...and it is more than a bike width wide:

Yes, saw that, it's excellent.

Of course, entirely different municipal government building this one.  But other regional roads also have wide refuge islands.  I have no idea what lead to the one on Weber being so unacceptably small.

[Pheidippides]

I’m not sure what the overall solution is. Fundamental problem is that there is a functional requirement for delivery vehicles to be able to stop briefly near essentially every address in the city, no matter how pedestrianized the immediate surroundings are. This is true even in areas where land values are way too high for surface parking to make sense.

Of course, maybe the solution is smaller delivery vehicles in some areas. It’s an error to take the vehicle itself as a given.

Options include:

A) The business they were delivering too has a driveway which could be used.
B) There's a side road with parking only 50 meters away, if UPS chose to prioritize safety instead of profit, they could park there.
C) Park in the vehicle lane!

Unfortunately, for a company like UPS that has the cost of each additional keystroke figured out ($100,000) none of these options make economic sense for them.

[JoeKW]

Block the vehicle lane