05-12-2017, 09:48 PM
(05-12-2017, 08:08 PM)tomh009 Wrote:(05-12-2017, 07:31 AM)Pheidippides Wrote: There was room on King for bike lane from Erb to William or further south, but there was a greater "need" for on-street parking that was lost to the LRT and streetscape work.
This was pure politics, to get the uptown businesses (and the Waterloo city council?) on board. Objectively speaking there is plenty of parking, but the region decided to concede this point in order to get agreement on LRT overall.
Personally, I would give up the parking lane in a second, but the broad sidewalks are what we should have in the central urban core of (the city of) Waterloo.
Interesting. If the few parking spots were eliminated, it raises an interesting question: what are the traffic lanes on King St. in that area actually for? With no parking spots and no driveways, the only thing a car can do is drive the entire length of the block. But that can be done on adjacent streets. So why not just expand the (non-vehicular) street by eliminating the through lanes entirely? Of course that suggestion has already been made and is probably still too “radical” for Waterloo. Maybe when the LRT system needs rebuilding in a few decades.