Welcome Guest!
In order to take advantage of all the great features that Waterloo Region Connected has to offer, including participating in the lively discussions below, you're going to have to register. The good news is that it'll take less than a minute and you can get started enjoying Waterloo Region's best online community right away.
or Create an Account




Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
Cycling in Waterloo Region
#16
I can see people detouring through Raddatz Park and the Cherry Street townhomes to make a faster connection - hopefully the city will have prepared for that.
Reply


#17
That is why they are doing it ( it was one of the conditions when the site plan was approved) but that work could happen even after all 3 buildings are done. Oh well not a big deal.
Reply
#18
Strange is pretty busy now that Park is closed too... I'm going to stick to heading uptown via Duke>Waterloo>Roger/Herbert. It requires a bit of counter-flow riding but that entire neighbourhood is messed up with one-way streets for reasons beyond my comprehension.
Reply
#19
(08-26-2015, 01:35 PM)BuildingScout Wrote:
(08-26-2015, 01:15 PM)timc Wrote: I would rather ride in an on-street bike lane than in a multi-use path. It's safer that way.

Do you have any stats backing this up? I seriously doubt it, particularly in the winter.

Not really. Just the general idea that pedestrians are safer not having cyclists share the same pathway with them. Also, from personal experience, crossing intersections is more difficult from a multi-use pathway than it is from a bike lane.

If we're talking about winter, then all bike lanes are nearly useless because they end up filled with snow from plows.
Reply
#20
(08-27-2015, 06:20 AM)timc Wrote: Not really. Just the general idea that pedestrians are safer not having cyclists share the same pathway with them.

This is a uniquely North American myth. Everywhere else in the world people seem to quite safely and successfully share bike paths with pedestrians. In fact we even have plenty of examples here (the Iron horse trail, the Grey Silo trail), yet people carry on believing that people and cyclists cannot safely share a path.
Reply
#21
(08-26-2015, 08:09 PM)clasher Wrote: Strange is pretty busy now that Park is closed too... I'm going to stick to heading uptown via Duke>Waterloo>Roger/Herbert. It requires a bit of counter-flow riding but that entire neighbourhood is messed up with one-way streets for reasons beyond my comprehension.

Herbert is one-way I assume to discourage rat-running (it is also blocked to motorists near William- maybe better). A couple of other are in the Mary-Allen neighbourhood, but I don't think you'd encounter too many others on that route.
Reply
#22
(08-26-2015, 08:09 PM)clasher Wrote: Strange is pretty busy now that Park is closed too... I'm going to stick to heading uptown via Duke>Waterloo>Roger/Herbert. It requires a bit of counter-flow riding but that entire neighbourhood is messed up with one-way streets for reasons beyond my comprehension.

Herbert's one-way arrangement is a constant source of irritation for me and makes bike navigation of the Mary/Allen neighbourhood needlessly difficult without breaking the rules on a one-way street somewhere, which I see happening a lot.

The ludicrousness of Herbert and the price we pay to calm traffic can be seen here on John St. at Herbert:

[Image: herbert.png]
Reply


#23
I don't really understand how driving down any of those streets with the opposing one-ways would possibly save anyone time, nor is there really any destinations in that neighbourhood that would be drawings lots of people to visit it. I imagine most people speeding through that area would be living there. It'd be nice if the city of Waterloo would throw up some "bicycles excepted" signs under the no-entry signs.
Reply
#24
Here's a map of the one-ways in Mary-Allen. They're designed to make it impossible to get from Union to Uptown except by King or Moore if you're going by car. They're also designed to make it challenging to get between any of the cross streets either, so the bulk of traffic goes along John and Allen using King or Moore to access.

The same rules apply to bikes, too, except that there's a lot of "north-south" bike traffic because of the access paths through to William. That includes me, most days. But if you're going/coming by way of Mount Hope cemetery (which connects much of the Mount Hope neighbourhood on the south) you're forced into cycling illegally or taking an unreasonable detour.

The spur trail helps somewhat but still draws people away from the cemetery area. I've found that it's a great trail to ride on (the parts that are paved that is) but that it forces me to deal with a part of Moore around Union that is both busy and hilly, and I'd rather just go down Herbert or Bowman into the cemetery which is a calm and beautiful place to bike through.

[Image: bJ0HtYl.png?1]
Reply
#25
On the topic of the Spur Line Trail, close to Uptown, it looks like they're starting work on finishing touches. Soil and sod, lampposts. South of Roger St, it’s still gravel. There are still a few missing pieces too.
Reply
#26
Don't the one-ways and the fenced-off ends of Willow and Herbert basically accomplish the same things?

I don't really see myself using the spur line trail to get to uptown from downtown, I don't need or want to go that far east most of the time, or I stop at Central for groceries so using Herbert just makes so much sense.
Reply
#27
(08-27-2015, 09:47 AM)clasher Wrote: Don't the one-ways and the fenced-off ends of Willow and Herbert basically accomplish the same things?

It's also meant to stop people from using the neighbourhood to bypass backed up traffic on Union at King. i.e. You see a large backup on Union in front of you, so you go from Union to King via Herbert and Allen.
This would also be why Hazelglen doesn't connect with Fischer-Hallman, to stop people going Victoria -> Hazelglen -> F-H
This is why the Uptown West Traffic study proposes to sever Euclid St at Alexandra to stop people from going Erb -> Euclid -> William -> King
Reply
#28
I just learned about this interesting website to crowd source cycling near misses, collisions, hazards, and thefts: bikemaps.org

Besides the maps with locations of each type of incident it also has some simple aggregation and visualization of the data by day of the week and hour of the day. I think this could be really interesting when more people are contributing. I'm going to start contributing, will anyone else join me?
Reply


#29
(08-27-2015, 07:24 AM)BuildingScout Wrote:
(08-27-2015, 06:20 AM)timc Wrote: Not really. Just the general idea that pedestrians are safer not having cyclists share the same pathway with them.

This is a uniquely North American myth. Everywhere else in the world people seem to quite safely and successfully share bike paths with pedestrians. In fact we even have plenty of examples here (the Iron horse trail, the Grey Silo trail), yet people carry on believing that people and cyclists cannot safely share a path.

The people of /r/Toronto do not agree that it is a myth:
https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comment...umber_bay/?
https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comment..._face_for/?
https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comment..._sidewalk/?

It's one of the top 10 themes in that subreddit (peds vs cyclists vs motorists).
Reply
#30
(08-27-2015, 06:28 PM)numberguy Wrote: The people of /r/Toronto do not agree that it is a myth:
https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comment...umber_bay/?
https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comment..._face_for/?
https://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comment..._sidewalk/?

It's one of the top 10 themes in that subreddit (peds vs cyclists vs motorists).

Because the debate is framed that way. For example in the first link you gave this accident took place in a path that is already separated from pedestrians and cyclist. So clearly the problem lies elsewhere, i.e. people not being used to cycling paths. Yet comments focus on the dangers of "sharing" the path, even though it is not shared at all.

The second link is equally misguided. For example it contains a link to this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiu1uLgwF1E . How about a similar video "car drivers, three feet of separation learn the bloody difference (a far more common and more dangerous infraction).

The last link is about cyclists on the sidewalk which is presently illegal, and, as I pointed out before, the problem isn't cyclists on sidewalks. Europeans seem to manage this fine. The problem is cyclists racing on sidewalks as it were a street instead of a shared path, which brings us back to the original problem. It's the lack of shared path culture, not shared path.

Just think about it, when there is an accident because someone is speeding on the highway no one calls for an end to highways. People call for an end to speeding. Yet every time there is an accident in a share path or sidewalk, its the fault of the path/sidewalk, not of the people involved.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiu1uLgwF1E][/url]
Reply
« Next Oldest | Next Newest »



Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)

About Waterloo Region Connected

Launched in August 2014, Waterloo Region Connected is an online community that brings together all the things that make Waterloo Region great. Waterloo Region Connected provides user-driven content fueled by a lively discussion forum covering topics like urban development, transportation projects, heritage issues, businesses and other issues of interest to those in Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge and the four Townships - North Dumfries, Wellesley, Wilmot, and Woolwich.

              User Links