Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

That's looking good.

I'll give them credit for ingenuity that they haven't displayed before. A centre running facility is about the only way to get a cycling facility safely through the interchange and the configuration of the one way roads provides an opportunity to implement it in a reasonable manner.

They also have a big opportunity at Lancaster and Bridgeport to make big improvements to what is one of the regions many highly dangerous intersections...especially since Lancaster is being rebuilt.

Yes, I’m very pleased to see that they’re including centre-running through the interchange as an option. They’ll need lights at the ramps, however, because right now left turns across the centre line are done in the usual “wait for a gap in traffic” way, which wouldn’t be safe with bicycles coming through the middle (as we know from LRT experience, both here and elsewhere).

To me it is obvious that there should be 2-way bicycle paths on both streets, regardless of what is chosen for the interchange. While we’re at it, let’s go on a road diet. There is absolutely no conceivable need for 4 lanes on Bridgeport west of Weber; even 3 is questionable, other than turn lanes. Personally if it were up to me I’d probably go to 1 lane plus turn lanes.

Yeah, signals at the ramps is one option. A second option is to disallow left turns, which I don't think is entirely unreasonable. On the west ramp, the only movements that would be limited is southbound 85 towards Bridgeport, which could be accessed reasonably via the University exit. The eastern ramp is a little more problematic because there are more movements which are restricted, some of which are a more significant detour. You could put in new ramps, but now we're talking about pretty major changes.

Either way, it's probably a non-starter in either case. Two new signals would cost a quarter million dollars and significantly affect traffic operations and I'm pretty sure both signals and restricting access would require the province to agree to it which just isn't going to happen.

So sadly, that seems like it'll be a non-starter...even though...even with completely uncontrolled intersections it would probably be significantly safer than crossing the slip ramps.

C'est la vie.

FWIW...I'm disappointed that it probably won't happen because of the provincial agreement that would be required, and because it would involve major changes to traffic operations...but I also think we need a broader conversation about highway access patterns.

I suspect that the suggestion that people on SB 85 accessing the bridgeport area can just get off at University and use surface streets would be considered unthinkable by most engineers and much of council. But that's actually a relatively minor detour. We need to start having serious conversations about this kind of limitation. The idea of making a trip a few minutes longer in order to make our roads safer and saner should be an easy win...