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Trails
That does sound like a great connection to make. I have to work so I can't make it the session but it'd be cool to see what they have planned.

I was on the IHT between Queen and the park this evening and it wasn't paved at all. There are some shiny new galvanized drain pipes sitting beside the big pile of dirt that has taken over the extra parking lot in park. Looks like a few days to clean that up.
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(07-23-2018, 09:48 PM)clasher Wrote: I was on the IHT between Queen and the park this evening and it wasn't paved at all. There are some shiny new galvanized drain pipes sitting beside the big pile of dirt that has taken over the extra parking lot in park. Looks like a few days to clean that up.

IHT on Victoria/West got paved, though.

Saw 4 cars in the Uptown Waterloo bike lanes today. On the east side, they're not in most of the lanes, but they are in the start/stop zones near the intersections. People can't read "no parking from here". I called into WPRS non-emergency. I wonder what happened. I also rang my bell at someone who was stopped in the bike lane, so he moved.
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Has anyone biked on these trails before?

   
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(07-29-2018, 08:25 AM)Canard Wrote: Has anyone biked on these trails before?

Columbia Forest? I have. There are some trails that you could get by on a hybrid bike, particularly on the south side skirting the edge of the wood. Most are more suitable for a mountain bike or cx bike. Be warned that there are some big hills in there. It's a beautiful spot well worth visiting, even if just to hike.

[Image: 23843444_10155217633301317_4459841228076...e=5C06C414]
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Thanks jamincan!  I decided to chance it and popped my bike on the rack and drove over to check it out (no safe way that I could see to bike over there).

I found I could ride 90% of what I came across, and actually the only section I avoided was the stuff out in the fields that I think you were mentioning - long grass creeps me out (ticks!) so I just stuck to the forest.  It was amazing and I can't wait to go back!  10 km felt like 40 and it was a hell of a workout.

   

   

   

   

   
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Keats Way would toss you out at the bottom of this, and overall is a pretty calm place to bike, so you could bike there without a car, though I can understand wanting to save your energy for this. I don't have a mountain bike, but I feel like with my slightly studded tires and 44/32/24 crank and 11/36 cassette, I wouldn't be out to lunch at all.
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Good news everyone.  That surprising hump on the IHT at Gage has been replaced with an extremely good example of a curb ramp.  No bumps, no lips, nothing.  Well done!

https://twitter.com/danbrotherston/statu...9174942720

   
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Not sure if this has been posted but the central promenade trail through Waterloo Park has been open for a few weeks and the result is pretty fantastic. I am now fairly confused about what the proper biking protocol should be when heading up Caroline towards the Park through the Erb St intersection. however I have been just avoiding this intersection for a long while now and just using Father David Bauer.

Also I really wish that the new bridge across Laurel Creek could have been made to match the one that was already there, now used for pedestrians. The two different bridges look fairly odd side by side.
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I do the same as you, rangersfan. If I'm coming up the Spur Line, I cut-off toward City Hall and then take William across to Caroline and then hop onto Father David Bauer. There is much less confusion about where you're supposed to go as a cyclist, I'm always crossing tracks at oblique angles, and I don't have to worry about the mess of where to go through that intersection as a cyclist. They should actually consider signing it as an official bike route, because it's pretty much superior in every way except being less direct.
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If there were contra-flow lanes on Erb, it would make a great deal of sense to take Spur line to King to Erb to Laurel. As it is, I normally follow the railroad tracks all the way to Erb, but when ION starts that will not make as much sense.
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Heh, guess in a minority. I just ride up through the alleyway, through Waterloo Town Square, cut down the Sidewalk on Caroline then cross whichever combinations of crosswalks have the Walk first. Then I go up the trail by the Clay and Glass.

Never had an issue with this.
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(08-15-2018, 12:07 PM)Canard Wrote: Heh, guess in a minority.  I just ride up through the alleyway, through Waterloo Town Square, cut down the Sidewalk on Caroline then cross whichever combinations of crosswalks have the Walk first.  Then I go up the trail by the Clay and Glass.

Never had an issue with this.

When ION service begins, they might try to discourage that.
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Why is that?
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I just say might, no guarantee, but riding alongside the train without any kind of separating feature is something I can imagine politicians, planners, and people being uncomfortable with. I do realize that it is far easier to get sucked under a pickup or delivery truck on a road than to somehow fit under an LRV, but these are the perceptions we have.
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(08-14-2018, 09:33 PM)rangersfan Wrote: Not sure if this has been posted but the central promenade trail through Waterloo Park has been open for a few weeks and the result is pretty fantastic. I am now fairly confused about what the proper biking protocol should be when heading up Caroline towards the Park through the Erb St intersection. however I have been just avoiding this intersection for a long while now and just using Father David Bauer.

Also I really wish that the new bridge across Laurel Creek could have been made to match the one that was already there, now used for pedestrians. The two different bridges look fairly odd side by side.

Which part is confusing? You bike up the Caroline MUT, cross Erb, get onto the new trail. Technically you're supposed to walk your bike across both FDB and Erb. But in practice nearly everyone just rides across. I feel safer doing that than dealing with traffic at Erb & FDB.

I think the Erb crossing in particular should be marked as a legal bike path since there is no risk of interacting with cars turning onto Erb from either direction. From what I've heard, the most dangerous intersection on the Caroline MUT is Alexandra, which is not marked as a crosswalk. SB traffic turning right takes this corner at high speeds, and people trying to cross from the LCBO parking lot gun it without looking. At least one cyclist has been injured there already.
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