Cycling in Waterloo Region

[tomh009]

The realization that I am coming too is that the most important thing--maybe the only important thing when selecting which cycling projects to push is how big an impact they will have on cycling. If you create new supporters, the project will be successful. Creating useless lanes, disconnected lanes, or lanes that might be useful only in the future will only serve to provide arguments against building more infrastructure, and provide no supporters to argue the other side...but building impactful infrastructure--even if doing so upsets more people--is by far the better value both politically and for society.

And this is why I questioned the value of putting lanes on Benton here a few years back: not because the space is needed for cars (it's not) but because it's just three or four blocks, and does not connect to anything.

Now, if Frederick gets bike lanes, we may be onto something, as the (Kitchener) south end of Benton connects to Mike Wagner Green and the IHT through a quiet residential street, and the Benton street diet could create a connection instead of an isolated three-block stretch of lanes that few people will use.