Cycling in Waterloo Region

[the_conestoga_guy]

It appears that the active transportation expansion for Duke Street in DTK is no longer going being recommended by council (page 18 of link below). Staff are instead recommending separate facilities between Victoria and Water that would provide a connection between the Water St facilities and the future underpass at the new transit hub.

https://pub-regionofwaterloo.escribemeet...entId=7153

• Previous plans envisioned a AAA cycling facility along Duke Street between Frederick Street and Water Street. After the detailed review of the alternative designs, corridor constraints, and long term multimodal transportation objectives, it was concluded that the section between Frederick Street and Water Street should be removed from the Downtown Kitchener AAA cycling network at this time.
  
• The main reasons for removing this section of Duke Street from the AAA network is that the available corridor space between Frederick Street and Young Street is not wide enough to accommodate two- directional bus service, a two-directional separated cycling facility, and a sidewalk
  

Having some progress is certainly better than none, but I hope our planners are taking this as an opportunity to evaluate other options to move people safely through this area. 


I hope that this can be used as a chance to advocate for finally closing King St through downtown to cars so that the local residents have a safe space to move through their neighbourhood. I know it's an unpopular idea politically for suburbanites who don't want their Uber Eats drivers to lose access to parking in front of restaurants, but I think it's an idea worth exploring sometime in the next 10 years.