Trails

[tomh009]

Dan, to be clear, I am not supportive of the trail being closed and the new location being blocked by a trailer. But someone needs to make an issue of the new routing being unavailable. Maybe someone could ask the question of the city on Twitter? (I don't have a Twitter user ID ...) Complaining here does not resolve the issue.

I found 2015 traffic numbers: the Waterloo end has ~800 users/day in the summer and ~300/day in the winter.
http://www.therecord.com/news-story/5692...-waterloo/

My other issue is that taylorbb compared the trail closure to a major road closure: the latter would affect tens of thousands of people per day. Regardless of relative value of bicyclists or motorists, a lot more people would be inconvenienced by a major road closure.

[Canard]

Random thought. I dread two places on the Iron Horse Trail, which I always ride from either Borden or Ottawa, up to its end at Caroline: The intersection at Courtland/Stirling, and Victoria/West/Strange.

At Courtland/Stirling, it's not so bad - just hop off and walk by bike across whatever crossing flips first.

But at Victoria/West/Strange, I try to do the right thing by merging into traffic, getting in the left turn lane, and turning across traffic then branching off into the trail entrance. I'm comfortable doing this now, but it's still not ideal. Often, I'll later pass people I know I already passed, who simply biked or jogged through the (former) Lai Lai lot at the behest of the signage telling them not to do so.

Just wish these two places could be a bit better. But I don't know how.

[KevinL]

As I believe has been mentioned earlier in this thread, both of those crossings have improvement plans that have yet to be implemented. At Courtland/Stirling, crossings would be established and marked to direct the trail onto the empty triangle of land between the Stirling 'split', making for two easier crossings away from the lights. The other will officially put the trail through the Lai Lai parkling lot and put marked crossings on Victoria and West.

[Square]

Kitchener Trail news : http://www.therecord.com/news-story/7147...-facelift/

[KevinL]

The main trail impact here will be along Balzer Creek, from Fallowfield to Country Hill Drive (under Homer Watson). It will connect the parks at opposite ends.

We still need trail connections from Fallowfield Park north toward the Hallman Ballyards (and Trans-Canada Trail), and south toward Manitou. That will make for a robust trail network.

[Canard]

Re: Iron Horse closure between Park and Caroline, here's how I do it:



Also, this is only the 2nd time I've ridden on the "Shared Pathway" on the "West" side of the road.  It's fun, but it still feels a little wrong!

Other fun, for the sake of discussion:

Iron Horse Trail through Courtland/Stirling

Iron Horse Trail through Victoria/Park/Strange Intersection

[Pheidippides]

Kitchener staff report on the proposed Balzer Creek path:
http://www.kitchener.ca/en/Calendar/Down...6fbd2f2225

[Pheidippides]

Waterloo staff report on proposed trail enhancements of the "central promenade" in Waterloo Park, and an art selection for Waterloo Park, and next steps in Waterloo Park master plan:

http://calendar.waterloo.ca/Module/Calen...08ed47618f
"The trail enhancement that is under consideration will give an effect of a glowing trail in the night. The glow will form a design or pattern that may be customized through detailed design. Glowing trails examples from around the world have been featured in both traditional and social media recently and the incorporation of a glowing trail in Waterloo may be one of the first examples built in North America."

"-Request $159,000 for the Waterloo Park - Bauer Parking Lot Upgrades project in 2018. Those funds will be used to develop the detailed design of the Festival Heart and surrounding frontage, trail, and service elements.
-Recommend modifications to the Waterloo Park Master Plan - Preferred Concept and affected figures to formalize a commitment that removes a proposed surface parking lot from the Young Street entrance to Waterloo Park."

"The selected artistic work will have a significant presence that will encourage public gatherings. The tables feature two sculptural components, a nut and a squirrel, that create a connection between the tables and the site environment and introduce an element of humour to the work. The harvest tables will be fabricated in durable powdercoated steel, and wax-coated cold-cast bronze. All are durable materials that will require little maintenance throughout all seasons, as defined in the maintenance plan submitted by the artist as part of the RFP process. The tables are of dimensions specified in the
call to ensure compliance with the City of Waterloo’s Accessibility Standards. The design includes accessibility elements in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and includes ten distinct areas to provide access to users of all abilities."

[Canard]

Thank you for sharing that!

More information on "Nuts" can be found starting on page 92.  I would have preferred a bronze mallard and a concrete loaf of bread, but I guess I missed the proposal deadline.

I also apparently missed all the talk way-back-when about this "Glowing Trail" (my other half rolled his eyes and reminded me it was in the initial proposal when I enthusiastically ran downstairs to tell him about it).  I had to look it up; this would be incredible!  This would be infinitely better than the current experience of biking through Waterloo Park at night, right now:



Here are a couple of companies that make it:

• Glow Stones
  
  
• Core Driveway
  
  
• Boral Luminesque®
  

This is where I really wish there was a spot where you could just donate whatever money you felt you wanted to, toward a given project.  Between trail upgrades and LRT expansion, we'd probably end up in the red, though.

[timc]

Are we not planning to have overhead lighting along the trail?

[Pheidippides]

It is an interesting placemaking concept, but comes across as gimmicky to me, especially the line about it trending on social media. Just because all the cool kids are doing it doesn't make it a good idea. In winter it will largely be unseen and summer not visible until very late. I'd rather they invest in regular, high quality lighting and sidewalk/trail clearing in the winter.

[danbrotherston]

@timc the main trail will be lit.

[rangersfan]

The glowing trail concept/project has been approved :

http://m.therecord.com/news-story/716267...il-project-

[Canard]

Woo-hoo!!!!! So happy about this!!

[timc]

I have mixed feelings. The rest of the trail project is $1.4 million, and we are going to spend an extra $800K on making part of it glow? I can't help but think that there are other trail network improvements that could be made with that money.