Cycling in Waterloo Region

[panamaniac]

“Total to date” was the wrong term for them to use (there isn’t even an ‘as at’ date on the sign). They just mean “Total.”

But very interesting! Three hundred users a day is nothing to sneeze at, and if we assume that some people only bike or walk to their jobs (or elsewhere) some days of the week, that’s a lot of people that trail is serving. It would be really neat to see daily and hourly breakdowns of the counts, to better see how many are commuters and other types of users there are.

If I understood the reports correctly, the individual was riding the wrong way down the street, not on the sidewalk.  The accident, however, occurred when she entered the cross street without stopping (again, if I read the Record report correctly).  There was a third auto/cyclist accident in K-W last week - the Record report did not imply the cyclist was at fault in that accident, as it did in the other two, but I've seen no report of any charges being laid.....

I'm not sure the police would lay charges in a case like this, they're not required to, and charging a dead person seems...unnecessarily cruel.  It doesn't necessarily change the insurance company's view of fault either.

As for Midtowner's position, he's absolutely right, the most effective thing we can do to increase compliance with the laws i build safe bike infrastructure.  It's well studied.  And of course, this is entirely at odds with D'Amato's inflammatory column this morning, who suggests we stop building infrastructure and start licensing cyclists.  Insane.

That being said, I do feel that education is important, it is useful for cyclists (and future drivers) to know, for example, why cyclists would ride out from parked cars.  It doesn't even occur to some drivers that doors may open, and they take it as a personal insult.  I've even seen WRPS bike officers fail to ride away from parked cars.  So education does have a place I believe, but licensing does not.

I certainly didn't mean to imply such a thing in my post - my reference to "charges" was in reference to the third accident, the details of which the Record did not provide.