Cycling in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

Bylaw question: I have a bike with 16 inch wheels (folding bike), can I legally ride it on sidewalks in both Kitchener and Waterloo? Or is there something outside of the wheel size exception that would still make it illegal?

Umm....

Complicated answer but keep in mind IANAL.

Of course the intention of the sidewalk cycling bylaw is that kids can cycle on the sidewalk. The bylaw mentions wheel size because our pols are bad at making laws??? The effect is AFAIK yes, an adult riding a bicycle with small wheels (say a folding bike) is fits within the bylaw, but a taller 11 year old riding a bike with 20 inch wheels (perfectly possible) wouldn't be permitted. I.e., our bylaw is fundamentally broken and badly written.

The bylaw is not enforced in practice, and I mean, ever. The only place you MIGHT get ticketed for riding on the "sidewalk" is downtown, and even then, it would only be by WRPS, who AFAIK won't ticket you for the bylaw, because that's not their general purview, but will, I suspect, find something else to ticket you for, probably something like, riding in a crosswalk.

Which brings me to my other note, riding in a crosswalk is illegal for all ages and wheel sizes, which kinda makes a lot of our MUTs completely broken. And yet they function, in that they are heavily used by people on bicycles every single day, with nobody getting ticketed. Basically everyone who cycles down the IHT is breaking the law a dozen times a day at least.

The summary is that, in my experience, like a lot of things I'm starting to realize. There is "the law" (or bylaw) and then there is reality, and they are very different. As an adult, outside the downtown cores, ride on the sidewalk if it makes you feel safer, as long as you are courteous (and frankly, privileged and white) you'll not run into any problems.

And yes, I fucking hate that---not people cycling on the sidewalk, I don't mind that so much as long as they are courteous, although I'm a little annoyed when there is a protected bike lane---I hate our broken justice system.