Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

Highland is a Regional Rd., the region is very far behind on bike infra, the failure to put it here was a huge mistake, but unfortunately, not an uncommon one in the region.

If you're looking for the reason why that particular road was missed, locals near other projects have successfully fought the region to have some sense and actually build good bike lanes, I'll point out that the locals on that road are likely to be lower income than many other roads.  Frankly, it's shameful how badly that was handled, as even the pedestrian facilities are shit, and as you point out, it's a very important roads for non-drivers.

This is a major problem with with arbitrarily dividing responsibility for roads between the city and the Region. For instance, in the 18 years I have lived in Kitchener, no effort has been made to build sidewalks on Victoria St. North. Seems like one thing that makes for a good argument for unification.

And what if unification lead to all roads being designed and built by the traffic engineers who don't feel the need to put sidewalks on high speed high volume highways?

I do see the point of separating a street grid into major arterials and minor roads, but I do agree the current organization is probably not optimal for roads.  But in our specific situation, it's just as, or even more likely that amalgamation would lead to the region running the transportation show.