Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

But I'd like to live in a city where I don't have to "just Google it" (DuckDuckGo, though). I'd like to be able to grab my bike and go to where I need to go in a safe way, not spend 20 minutes mapping out where I can do so without the risk of getting killed. Before the era of Just Googling It, you would have to figure out that sort of stuff on your own anyway. It's not like most drivers rely on GPS to get around the city because they have enough roads to use and figure that out...the same should be true for cyclists. Sans making a few wrong turns, it should be safe to ride on major roads to get to where you need to go.

I don't drive a lot and when I do I usually do just Google it.

There is another point that no one has mentioned, though. Unless you have a bike phone mount, turn-by-turn directions aren't that convenient when pedalling around. (They're also kind of unsafe when driving around unless you have a car mount, but how many drivers care about that?)

Also Kitchener in particular has quite a few wayfinding signs now, but so does Waterloo, if you are on the network (Iron Horse, Spur Line, Laurel Creek)...

I've said in the past and a still believe that probably the biggest bang for the buck improvement the region and city could make for active transportation is identifying a minimum network of safe routes from various sectors on the city and then signing those really well and addressing obstacles along them. There are some areas that are worse off than others (and Hidden Valley is one, in my opinion, though also very low priority), but there are the bones of a pretty decent safe network that some targeted spending could make highly effective. Discoverability remains a huge problem, and uptake in active transportation is going to be hindered until it is properly addressed.

Grid, yes.

Not sure that amalgamation would help with this. Depends on if it's the Regional approach or the City approaches that win out.

This! So much this! Every time someone suggests amalgamation would make things better, I just imagine how bad it would be if regional engineers were in charge of everything in the city.