General University Area Updates and Rumours

[danbrotherston]

This is the right take.

This is no different than complaining that gas is too expensive.

Accita's take is wrong...it is isn't possible to bike from everywhere in the region. I also drove to campus and I also hated parking there, but I lived with family in New Hamburg (more than a decade before they had even the absolutely minimal transit they have now), getting to campus REQUIRED a car...biking was infeasible in summer and impossible in winter. If I didn't have a car, I wouldn't have been in school. And yes, it was still cheaper than living on campus...for me it wasn't for comfort, it was financial reality. Housing was and is way more expensive than driving, but largely because driving is massively subsidised.

Well, I cycle all over the region, including going to New Hamburg on occasion. I agree that for a daily commute, New Hamburg to Waterloo is rather long and most people may not want to do that. However, if you live in Kitchener or Waterloo and your destination is in either of those, then commuting by bicycle is definitely a reasonable proposition. I live in Kitchener and regularly shop at the Wholesale Club in Waterloo and periodically go to the St. Jacobs Market. It is not difficult. I have never owned a car in my life, and couldn't afford one even if I wanted one. There are a lot of people who live a car-free lifestyle. In fact, one of the reasons I moved to Kitchener 22 years ago was that the Region was great for cycling.

I mean, I lived in the region without a car for seven years, so I am quite familiar with the experience.

Given that Bjay says that the nearest bus stop is a 15 minute drive from his home, I can only assume that he is in a town in one of the townships...there aren't many places in the city that are a 15 minute walk from a bus stop let alone a 15 minute drive.

I also think that there are places in the cities where you can live where you would not feel comfortable/safe cycling places; the highway remains a significant barrier in many places. While you and I (or at least the me who lived in the region, before I had a child) might feel comfortable riding on painted bike lanes next to 80+km/h traffic I can certainly and personally understand why not everyone would.

If one has no choice about where they live, driving is likely to become far less optional than for people who have the freedom to choose where they live based on their transportation needs. Frankly, living within 2 blocks of five carshare vehicles, plus being within 50 meters of an ION stop, plus living within 100 meters along a relatively roadway of trails leading to the Iron Horse Trail afforded me a significantly different car free experience than someone living out by Trussler Woods....or any of the the other idiotically inaccessible suburbs the city has built in the last 10 years.

(Aside on "progress"....

People say "we're making progress"...but what is progress...is progress...moving towards a goal? That's how I take "progress", and I think most people take it that way. We aren't making progress by that definition. We build more sprawl faster than we fix our broken urban planning. We are making "progress" only in the sense that we are moving away from our goal more slowly than before...)