Cycling in Waterloo Region - Printable Version +- Waterloo Region Connected (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com) +-- Forum: Waterloo Region Works (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=14) +--- Forum: Transportation and Infrastructure (https://www.waterlooregionconnected.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=25) +--- Thread: Cycling in Waterloo Region (/showthread.php?tid=186) Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
|
RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 11-09-2020 (11-09-2020, 12:50 PM)tomh009 Wrote: I'm also encouraged that the region chose to hire him: in spite of some of the staff being stuck in their old ways, there appears to be a will to look to a different future at the management level. Fortunately, the cities are already fairly progressive in this direction. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - KevinT - 11-10-2020 I was driving along Wilson the other day between Goodrich and Wabanaki, and it looked like an MUT was going in on the east side. (The stripped area appeared wider than it would be for just a sidewalk.) This would be good for the area if true, although the bridge over the railway tracks between Goodrich and Fairway is still quite the bottleneck. Anyone know any more details on this one? Edit to add: Also, my wife reported recently that the pea gravel section of the Homer Watson MUT through Budd Park is now paved. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 11-10-2020 (11-10-2020, 10:20 AM)KevinT Wrote: I was driving along Wilson the other day between Goodrich and Wabanaki, and it looked like an MUT was going in on the east side. (The stripped area appeared wider than it would be for just a sidewalk.) This would be good for the area if true, although the bridge over the railway tracks between Goodrich and Fairway is still quite the bottleneck. Anyone know any more details on this one? Yes, I believe they are paving a MUT along Wilson. However, it won't extend north over the tracks, which is a shame. The biggest problem on Wilson is Traynor to Webster and there are no concrete plans for infra in that section at all right now. The cost will be prohibitively high unless council is willing to reduce the number of lanes going over the bridge, because there isn't room for a MUT on the bridge with four lanes and a sidewalk. The Budd Park trail was a nice surprise, the city put that together really fast. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - Acitta - 11-10-2020 (11-10-2020, 10:20 AM)Kevin Wrote: Edit to add: Also, my wife reported recently that the pea gravel section of the Homer Watson MUT through Budd Park is now paved.That is good news. It annoyed me that they hadn't paved that section along with the rest. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - KevinL - 11-10-2020 Is there room next to the Wilson rail bridge for a separate pedestrian bridge? I'm thinking similar to the creek bridges put in along Homer Watson and the like. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - KevinT - 11-10-2020 (11-10-2020, 02:26 PM)KevinL Wrote: Is there room next to the Wilson rail bridge for a separate pedestrian bridge? I'm thinking similar to the creek bridges put in along Homer Watson and the like. They might be able to widen the span to include an MUT lane on the east side, or hang one off the edge or something, but there doesn't appear to be much room to continue it from the bridge over to Fairway. I'd suggest reducing the southbound direction to a single lane, shoving the two northbound lanes over one, and adding a physical barrier to segregate the remaining lane for MUT continuation. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 11-10-2020 (11-10-2020, 02:26 PM)KevinL Wrote: Is there room next to the Wilson rail bridge for a separate pedestrian bridge? I'm thinking similar to the creek bridges put in along Homer Watson and the like. I suspect so, but it is a considerably higher span, and would require considerable engineering work to integrate the embankments. I'm quite certain the cost will be in the millions. And then near the bridge there may be some conflicts with the plaza parking. My preferred option would be to right-size the road to three lanes, and to use the space we have at vastly lower cost. But historically, this is a hard sell...15 minutes of minor congestion is a hard pill to swallow for folks who have their food chewed for them, and yet somehow control the government. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - tomh009 - 11-10-2020 (11-10-2020, 10:58 AM)Acitta Wrote:(11-10-2020, 10:20 AM)Kevin Wrote: Edit to add: Also, my wife reported recently that the pea gravel section of the Homer Watson MUT through Budd Park is now paved. Me, I treasure the small number of unpaved trails in the city! But that's just me ... RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - tomh009 - 11-10-2020 (11-10-2020, 03:00 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(11-10-2020, 02:26 PM)KevinL Wrote: Is there room next to the Wilson rail bridge for a separate pedestrian bridge? I'm thinking similar to the creek bridges put in along Homer Watson and the like. How wide are the lanes? Could we reduce each lane by 20-30cm in order to turn the sidewalk into a MUT? RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 11-10-2020 (11-10-2020, 03:16 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(11-10-2020, 03:00 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: I suspect so, but it is a considerably higher span, and would require considerable engineering work to integrate the embankments. I'm quite certain the cost will be in the millions. I mean, maybe...if you squeezed everything, and I mean everything, you could do a 3 meter MUT (which is undersized, because as the RoW transportation commissioner DIDN'T know, for cycling infra next to a vertical obstruction, you need to add 0.5 meters as you do for a roadway, so really 2.5 meters which is undersized but still meets the minimum), the lanes look to be about 3.5 meters wide, with a very cramped 1.5 meter sidewalk, you could probably get to the required 3 meter MUT by going to the MTO's minimum standard lane width of 3.15 (which, by the way, the region refuses to actually use as a minimum). So yes, you could possibly squeeze everything in, in a very uncomfortable situation (provided they are also able to increase the height of the bridge guard rails without using any space, because they are too short to be allowed to be used on a MUT). But even if you managed to achieve that, you'd still be screwed on the bridge approaches, because there is no sidewalk outside of the bridge...or rather, the sidewalk is only on one side except for on the bridge itself. So on the approaches, you'd be 1.5 meters short, you'd still have to rebuild the embankment. As far as I can tell, a road right sizing is the only way to do this for a reasonable cost. Given they have started with MUTs though, I'm thinking the city has already refused such a common sense option and will instead opt for trying to find the money one way to complete this critical link in a wasteful but less contentious way. Or to put it another very blunt way...there are no fiscal conservatives when it comes to transportation. There are only the foolish, and the wasteful. Edit: Well, I stand corrected, apparently taking a curb lane---at least for the bridge section---is in the cards. That's great news! RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - clasher - 11-10-2020 I've ridden that stretch of Wilson many times over the years and it's always boggled my mind that it's a 4-lane road. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - danbrotherston - 11-10-2020 (11-10-2020, 09:47 PM)clasher Wrote: I've ridden that stretch of Wilson many times over the years and it's always boggled my mind that it's a 4-lane road. Yeah, it's pretty unnecessary. Although I'll fully admit, I ride it on weekends, so, I'm not seeing it at it's busiest. In the theme of absurd 4 lane roads, I give you Dixon: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4354614,-80.4592422,3a,75y,192.16h,86.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sys3eUCSd9a1mNSB2IMM7-g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 A tiny residential street that is for some reason a massive four lane arterial Rd. Worst part, this is part of a major cycling route. That being said, I think the situation around Wilson and Fairway is a huge obstacle to the success of the LRT...I've taken the train to businesses there, and I've rarely felt less safe or less welcome in the city. Hopefully the Wilson work can at least improve the crossing for pedestrians as well. RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - dtkvictim - 11-11-2020 (11-07-2020, 07:59 PM)danbrotherston Wrote:(11-07-2020, 06:22 PM)catarctica Wrote: I’m talking about the downtown grid zoom meeting yes. I don’t remember the street name but I saw construction on Ontario (I think) between duke and king so I was a bit convinced it’s for bike lane. Ontario is all dug up right now, but the road closure map lists it as "Utility Work", for ~1 month. Are these Zoom meetings recorded and published anywhere? RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - tomh009 - 11-11-2020 (11-10-2020, 10:02 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: In the theme of absurd 4 lane roads, I give you Dixon: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4354614,-80.4592422,3a,75y,192.16h,86.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sys3eUCSd9a1mNSB2IMM7-g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 That must have been envisioned as a major artery at some time in the long-distant past? RE: Cycling in Waterloo Region - panamaniac - 11-11-2020 (11-11-2020, 03:12 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(11-10-2020, 10:02 PM)danbrotherston Wrote: In the theme of absurd 4 lane roads, I give you Dixon: https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4354614,-80.4592422,3a,75y,192.16h,86.81t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sys3eUCSd9a1mNSB2IMM7-g!2e0!7i13312!8i6656 Yes. As is the case for most of the overly wide roads in town. |