Cycling in Waterloo Region

[nms]

If only there was a local company could come up with a solution to count intersection traffic.

[dtkvictim]

I was the one who stole the photo and made the thread in /r/waterloo just to annoy the anti-bike people. As usual, they're losing their mind over it and saying that it isn't accurate, counts pedestrians (even though it only has sensors in the road) and some blatantly can't read so they're saying "wow 1202 bikes all year? what a waste of money!" even though I specified it has only been active a short while. Since their minds are never going to change regarding bikes, it's just fun to troll them with this stuff.

I don't mind it being reposted, though I'm not sure the cold rainy day (even had hail that morning) was the most convincing argument. It's definitely worth making good faith arguments to change people's minds though. I have changed many people's perspectives to varying degrees, either through evidence and argument, or just by being someone whom my friends and family want to be safe while cycling. And as stupid as it sounds, just by showing enthusiasm for infrastructure improvements is often enough; people like to fit in, and just taking a positive position before they do is often enough to have them agreeing (really, this is how every social media network becomes an echochamber).

I happened to go by again today and took another photo, for anyone interested. Today was fairly nice weather, though it was a Sunday, so minimal commuters. If I counted the days between my photos correctly, it looks to average around ~100 per day.

[ijmorlan]

We could organize a group ride, doing laps of that block?

Honestly, I would rather the counters collect accurate data.

[Jefferson]

Biked along Water St about an hour ago and the cyclist count for today was at 2315. I was quite surprised to see such a high number.

[jmrappolt]

Biked along Water St about an hour ago and the cyclist count for today was at 2315. I was quite surprised to see such a high number.

I saw that too today. That would be amazing if accurate, of course, but seems really high. Is it possible that it's not calibrated correctly and is counting pedestrians and / or cars in addition to cyclists?

[Acitta]

Biked along Water St about an hour ago and the cyclist count for today was at 2315. I was quite surprised to see such a high number.

I saw that too today. That would be amazing if accurate, of course, but seems really high. Is it possible that it's not calibrated correctly and is counting pedestrians and / or cars in addition to cyclists?

There is are sensors in the bike lane.

[Bytor]

Biked along Water St about an hour ago and the cyclist count for today was at 2315. I was quite surprised to see such a high number.

According to StatCan the 2016 reported data for bike to work for that census tract was 2.7%, and 135 is about 2.5% of 5,500, the population of the tract.

[dtkvictim]

Some photos from the Cedar St cycling infrastructure.

1) This is Duke Street (where an existing contraflow painted bicycle lane already existed) connecting to Cedar St. I'm not really sure I understand why it was done this way; bidirectional cycle tracks suck for intersections, and they've basically made one just for this intersection. All it seems to accomplish is making right turns and straight through more complicated, although I suppose you don't have to use it.

2) Cedar St facing south towards King St. I didn't go check, but I believe just the large hill between Charles & Church is remaining.



3) Cedar St facing north towards Weber St.



4 & 5) Approach and intersection with Weber St. There is a really awkward driveway right before the intersection, where you can see curb cuts. The intersection seems okay so far, but given our dumb lights and having to cross is a specific order (whereas pedestrians can cross whichever light is green first) it could be a slow crossing.

[danbrotherston]

I can understand the challenges with transitioning on bi-directional on road infra to on road...

To be honest, there were disconcerting places in the Netherlands that do this as well, but it seems to work okay in practice.

Here's one example:

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1699377,...384!8i8192

This is (really advisory) on road bike lanes on a rural-ish road. The road carries very little traffic behind the camera here, but in front carries the highway interchange and the bypass road merges, so traffic is orders of magnitude higher. So proceeding straight here you must turn left onto the boulevard bike path on the left.

Really the transition is basically just a ton of red pavement and a waiting space on the right which nobody uses.

https://www.google.com/maps/@52.1590987,...384!8i8192

Here is a newer road with the opposite situation. Behind the camera is a fietstraat, a shared space with low speeds and ahead the bike path continues straight while traffic has to turn right off the street.

Realistically both situations are the same and again the same as what they are doing in Kitchener, but you can see how the specific configuration use of colours and other cues changes exactly how the interaction feels.

In both cases however, low speeds and contribute to a safe environment. I'd say average speeds in the first example are higher 40-50km/h. In the second example, average speeds are probably under 30km/h. But in both cases the route is a bike priority route (in the first case it is only a through route for bikes), cars are routed a different way, so cyclists outnumber drivers many times.

I think for Duke St. speeds should be pretty low, the real question is how many people use it as a bike route. I think maybe there's hope of greater volumes of cyclists when things get extended to the south, but it's really going to take some good cycle infra, because otherwise, it's... well frankly hard to even find.

[tomh009]

2) Cedar St facing south towards King St. I didn't go check, but I believe just the large hill between Charles & Church is remaining.

Cedar St S has bike lanes going up to Cedar Hill. Some work still remains but the curbs and paint have been completed.

[danbrotherston]

It really is a shame that Duke St. doesn't continue two blocks further south. Connecting to Stirling would be a huge benefit for the cycling network. Avoiding Cedar Hill alone would probably be valuable enough, but the connections to the west are huge, and one day, a bridge over the freeway at the other end of Stirling would enable an extremely high quality east/west route covering the whole city.

[tomh009]

Wasn't that bridge approved already?

[danbrotherston]

Wasn't that bridge approved already?

The bridge from Stirling to Strasburg is approved. That's actually the one of the connections to the "west" that I was referring to (the other being simply continuing west on Greenbrook Dr.

I was actually suggesting a bridge at the other end of Stirling over the highway and connecting to Wedgewood Dr. which would connect into Stanley Park and with a trail through Stanley park all the way out to Lackner.

[Acitta]

Wasn't that bridge approved already?

The bridge from Stirling to Strasburg is approved. That's actually the one of the connections to the "west" that I was referring to (the other being simply continuing west on Greenbrook Dr.

I was actually suggesting a bridge at the other end of Stirling over the highway and connecting to Wedgewood Dr. which would connect into Stanley Park and with a trail through Stanley park all the way out to Lackner.

I am not sure that there is enough room on the Wedgewood side to build a bridge.

[KevinL]

I am not sure that there is enough room on the Wedgewood side to build a bridge.

Looks sufficient to me.