04-20-2017, 11:31 AM
(04-20-2017, 11:12 AM)KevinL Wrote: Looking over the maps it seems that, if the railway corridor is mainly ruled out, then a good route would be:
Just a quick assemblage of segments, but I think it could be doable. Thoughts?
- From the Iron Horse at Gage, take Raddatz Park along the north side of the creek to the end of Waverly.
- Take Waverly to Strange. Yes, this will have to be on-street; I'm not familiar with the traffic here or how problematic this might be.
- Cross Strange into Cherry Park. Maybe reconfigure the parking lot so the trail is unimpeded. Upgrade the existing park trail, and follow it to Park and Stewart.
- Cross Park and run the trail along the south side of Stewart; there's only one driveway here, for the Home Hardware parking, and the trail can be kept mostly separate from traffic.
- Here's where things get tricky. Expropriate a slice of the Home Hardware lumber yard (hopefully no need to touch the structure) and bring the trail over the Huron Spur (uh oh, railway approvals needed). Then, use a thin slice of the former Kitchener works yard to get the trail to the UW lands and King Street.
That is definitely a good guess as to the routing, and is probably one of the more realistic options.
The traffic on Waverly is.....no terrible, but there are a few blind corners as well as a lot of parking for the school nearby. I've never liked riding it when coming along Gage, but it's probably acceptable.
My personal preference would be...creative...to say the least. Basically, I'd like to run the trail segregated all the way up Victoria St. to King, where it can meet the planned MUTs on King up to the station.
How could this work given there is zero space available on Victoria? Simple. In my opinion at least, the northern-most Southbound (Westbound) lane (go Kitchener directions) is used almost exclusively for vehicles turning right on Park. Instead disallow right turns on Park at Victoria, and instead route cars up Joseph and in behind.
The region (or city) already owns most (or even all) of that space for their parking lot. It might not even require much paving, just reconfiguring to allow all Park northbound destined traffic to be routed there instead of along Victoria. I then argue you can use that entire lane for a two way trail along the north side.
Past Joseph I think there is sufficient ROW next to the parking lots and UW buildings to build the trail in the ROW.
Finally South (West) of Park St., combine the bike lanes into a trail on one side, and provide the (already needed) crossing at the IHT to allow bikes to continue South (West) on Victoria past the IHT.
This is my personal preference, but I doubt it will happen.