Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

In that case, I guess I'm clueless about MUTs here. The cities/region don't publish much info about these sort of things nor do I have time to waste in my life to map bike routes. I imagine if you polled everyone in Waterloo Region how they could get from A to B on a bike, scooter or footpath in the most efficient and safest way, the majority wouldn't have a clue.

That said, they should be building more and more of them if they truly care about cycling etc and promote them via press releases, news articles, useful signage (distance, average time to use etc). Other cities do this but we haven't caught on to all the nuances, for the most part.

Until very recently, I would definitely considered myself to be among this majority. I have since taken an interest in buying a bike to offset some/all of my car trips, and have researched the routes that I'd be required to take to get to my most frequented destinations (job, school, grocery store, etc). We're a two-car household, so I'd love to be able to drop one in favour of something that is cheaper. 

The Region, at least compared to my hometown of London/St Thomas, is a utopia of progressive transportation policies. Unfortunately for me, my home hasn't yet been safely hooked up to the cycling network. I understand that Rome wasn't built in a day, so I'll just go about my life as usual until the day comes that I can finally make that shift.

Actually, Dan's proposed cycling corridor along Fredrick/Benton would include my home. So I really appreciate the advocacy! It inspired me to also reach out to the powers that be to endorse it as well!

👍 Thanks!

FWIW, I'm from London as well, it's a weird duck...so much wrong with politics in the city, but somehow they had (fairly poorly designed) protected bike lanes in the early 90s when I was growing up. The first time I saw a painted bike lane, I thought it was ridiculous that you'd ride on the road. They also rejected an urban highway and built an urban trail network along the river instead.

But more recently they gave up on LRT, and cancelled half the resulting BRT project because of NIMBYism and general obstructionism.

But since then, they have cancelled widening Wonderland Rd. and have made some significant investments in cycling as well.

It's a city with a lot of promise, but it's downtown has just been utterly gutted, and with much worse sprawl and car dependency than our region. It's a city I want to like, with so much potential, but so many obstacles.

KW certainly has been better positioned, but we have our own challenges...the regional/city split is weird. I think it's beneficial in many ways, our cities have relatively very progressive policies. But they also don't have any control over the biggest, most dangerous roads in the region.

The sidewalk ploughing discussions are also interesting between the two. At least one councillor here quoted London as an example of why not to do city clearing: People in London complain about sidewalks as much as we do...and I should know, I was one of those people.

Of course, most people in London have never lived here. They lack perspective, I've lived in both, and I KNOW London's policy, while having many problems, is vastly better than here. People will complain wherever they are, and often with good reason when it comes to sidewalk ploughing. But our councillors choose to ignore the facts on clearing and instead hold up this false argument of "people will still complain"...Ugh...