01-20-2022, 12:31 AM
(01-18-2022, 03:15 PM)ac3r Wrote: Now, if we could only improve the cycling infrastructure here... While I don't regularly live in Waterloo Region (although own a house here), I am here very often. I never, ever feel safe biking anywhere that I happen to need to go. The only time I get my bike out is to do occasional trips to a store or for some exercise on trails. But to get downtown from my house? Hell naw, it's suicidal. It's great we're improving it in certain places, but I want to see it expanded all over the city. It'd be so easy to do.
It's gotten a lot better than it was even 5 years ago and has overtaken other places like Wellington NZ. It does depend on where you're going.
(01-18-2022, 03:22 PM)Acitta Wrote: Where is your house? I have ridden all over the Region for the last 20 years, and there are very few places that I feel unsafe. Having cycled in Montreal in the '70s, Toronto and York Region in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Waterloo Region is the best of all (though Montreal has improved considerably since I lived there).
Yeah, hard to beat Montreal in 2022 for North America.
(01-18-2022, 04:34 PM)ac3r Wrote:(01-18-2022, 03:22 PM)Acitta Wrote: Where is your house? I have ridden all over the Region for the last 20 years, and there are very few places that I feel unsafe. Having cycled in Montreal in the '70s, Toronto and York Region in the 70s, 80s and 90s, Waterloo Region is the best of all (though Montreal has improved considerably since I lived there).
True, compared to Toronto or Montréal we have it good in every regard despite what people think, but those are huge cities and public transit is great which offsets that. They have great subway networks, streetcars (at least in Toronto) and buses where you can bring your bus on to get around. Here...we've got an LRT that you can basically bike faster than it moves for most of it, which is annoying. I can't complain about the buses, they're decent. But as for protected bike lanes, we could improve them much more which I hope we do to connect distant areas of the city. A lot of the improvements we've made have been focused on the core or urban corridor, but there's a lot of other places left unserviced. I know we tried a pilot project on Westmount (the traffic cones which pissed off every driver in the city) but that was so extremely divisive and I can't remember if we approved separated bike lanes to replace them.
The other thing is that Montréal and Toronto are big enough that it can be annoying to bike to where you need to go. For me, many places in the region aren't really inaccessible distance-wise by bicycle. The LRT is still useful for shortening some rides, e.g. University to Fairway. (Most of that itinerary can also safely be done by bicycle, but there are still gaps).
I've never really lived in Toronto so I won't say anything about transit there. Montréal transit can still be pretty slow, potentially slower than biking, depending on which trip you're trying to make. It is also often slower than driving, unfortunately. (But I do not want to drive in downtown Montréal!)
(01-18-2022, 08:26 PM)ac3r Wrote: It's certainly possible to get from any point A to B to C destination by whatever mode of transport one wishes to use here, but the main problem is that it's rather time consuming. In many cases it's not safe, or certain parts of a route one may use are not maintained in winter. Recreational cycling is one thing, but when someone is wishing to choose it as a mode of transportation to get to work or run errands, time is a consideration.
This is where I think better MUT or separated bike lanes can come into play. Get some good paved trails and separated bike lanes where they are needed - maintain them in the winter - which connect all sorts of different areas of the city...and you can basically start to create MUT "expressways". That is, they have their own rights of way (i.e. trails) or protected lanes (separated bike lanes) that allow people to have more confidence in cycling around the region without having to worry about someone on a cell phone flattening them into a pancake. Adding on to the term "expressway" regarding bikes, it'd also be awesome to consider and use either tunnels or bridges in order to allow users to pass streets without having to stop or risk themselves. This is a very common feature in European cities.
Spur Line is imperfect, but it is also not bad. And after that big Monday snowstorm I was taking my cross-country skis around and most of the trails were already plowed. The guy on a bike was going much faster than me.