Cycling in Waterloo Region

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Quite common where? 

In my experience in central Europe paths and trails are generally open to both modes of transport unless explicitly signed otherwise.

Slow down. I'm saying the bicycle indicates there is a paved path all the way there. That is, you won't have to cycle on a street/road or gravel to get there. Nothing to do with pedestrians, all to do with cars.

Yes pedestrian and bicycle paths are shared in Europe, and quite safely. This is not possible here, because the laws of physics are different in imperial measures. As such we would have untold casualties if pedestrians and cyclists ever shared the sidewalk. So it's illegal to do so. Instead we do the safe thing which consists of placing a 15kg light vehicle on two slim tires traveling at 15 km/h next to a vehicle weighing 1,000+ kg on four broad tires traveling at 50km/h.

You know our motto here in North America: safety is our number one priority.