Trails

[clasher]

Looking over the maps it seems that, if the railway corridor is mainly ruled out, then a good route would be:

• 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.
  

Just a quick assemblage of segments, but I think it could be doable. Thoughts?

If you check out the end of Joseph on the 3D earth view there is already a crossing near the building at the end of Stewart Street. I have no idea what the old garage type building is but there looks like some room to run a trail to the existing crossing there.

[danbrotherston]

I think (rightly) that the aim for this trail is to make a north-of-Victoria connection. The IHT bulges away from the transit terminal itself, so there is some logic in having connections a bit shorter in distance but farther from Victoria itself. Coming from the south, between Queen/King, or Victoria Park/Water/King, there's already a pretty effective routing for bikes (I take it myself). This connection, if located a bit north of Victoria along any alignment near to what's been described, would help with connections from the north side (gasp! so close to Waterloo! Why should a Kitchener trail be designed to benefit Waterloo? *rabblerabblerabble*).

Personally, I've never found the routes you describe as "effective"...I'm either fighting unpleasantly aggressive cars on Queen St. (despite traveling basically at the speed of traffic, I frequently get honked at), or going through the park, where I both feel like a nuisance, and, am forced to slow down considerably to avoid actually being one.  Neither situation seems acceptable to me.

But I am biased in that I live just off Victoria St.

In any case, in the grand scheme of things, I don't care so much where it ends up so long as it is a high quality route, having *any* good commuter connection to downtown is an improvement over now.  And to be honest, most of the possible routes would be good, if the actual details are well implemented.  And even a direct route like Victoria St. could be very poor if the details are wrong.  I really wish we paid more attention to details....


As for the Kitchener/Waterloo issue, thankfully in this case, it's entirely moot, as it's being built by the region.

[Viewfromthe42]

That's what we said about ION... 

[ijmorlan]

[....]

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.

Way too creative. I’ll eat my shirt if you can even get a cogent enough objection from a planner to make us believe they actually understood what you are proposing.

[Pheidippides]

It is great to hear they are planning a new less direct trail, but I hope it doesn't deter from seeking a more direct trail along the rail line. This document from 2013 shows both a direct and indirect route:
http://www.regionofwaterloo.ca/en/gettin...df#page=35

I seem to remember a more recent document that shows the direct route to the south of the tracks, not to the north as shown above, but I can't find it at the moment. The north seems like it would be easier to do along the apparently cycle friendly Catalyst137 property, along the abandoned siding next to AirBoss, across the parking lot, and the along the eventually decommissioned GO/Metrolinx siding.

I did come across this terms of reference though on this page.

"the EA findings and preliminary design must be presented to the Planning and Works Committee of Regional Council on August 22, 2017."


Notice of Study Commencement - Municipal Class Environmental Assessment Iron Horse Trail to Future Transit Hub Access Improvements

The Study

The Region of Waterloo wants to improve the cycling and walking connection between the Iron Horse Trail and the planned Transit Hub at the intersection of Victoria Street and King Street.  This study will identify potential alternative routes, evaluate the alternatives, select a preferred route and prepare the preliminary design.  The evaluation will identify the constraints, impacts, costs, and opportunities to mitigate any impacts.  The Region will follow "Schedule B" of the Municipal Class Environmental Assessment in accordance with the Ontario Environmental Assessment Act.


There is additional information available:
INFORMATION AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AT REGIONAL FTP SITE
 Key Plan – Iron Horse Trail and Transit Hub;
 Conceptual pathway alignment plan-City of Kitchener;
 City Of Kitchener Multi-Use Pathways and Trails Master Plan;
 Region of Waterloo Active transportation Master Plan;
 King-Victoria Transit Hub Preliminary Site Design;
 Public Transit Infrastructure Fund –PTIF- Phase One Program Guide; and
 Public Transit Infrastructure Fund –Council Report.

All background material is available through the Regional FTP Site:
ftp://ftp.region.waterloo.on.ca/
username: dcr1
password: dcadd

[Pheidippides]

Here are a couple of conceptual paths from the City of Kitchener document on the FTP site:
   

[Canard]

This is really exciting. Thanks for providing this!

[timio]

Seeing as this /is/ KW, they seem to have forgotten the "localized" option that goes via Fischer-Hallman and Columbia, with many backtrack pieces, runs parallel to itself while intersecting at random junctions, and has at least 4 pedestrian-only roundabouts with signs for cyclists to dismount and walk.

[Canard]

Just thought I'd note, for those who are keen on keeping Google Maps as up to date as possible... in this view, the cycling infra is a bit out of date:

   

I have added below, in blue, what should be marked as a paved, fully-segrigated MUT:

   

   

(They're really quite lovely!)

Also, while we're on it - in this view, the section of Fountain, from Maple Grove to Fairway/Kossuth, absolutely should not in any way, shape or form be marked as "Cycling Friendly"!

   

[Andy]

When those road's were freshly paved, it would have been considered cycle friendly. But once the edges start cracking, it gets pretty hard to ride in the paved shoulder.

Lots of cycle friendly roads in the area are like that, like this section on bloomingdale is just as bad. Which is frustrating, because other sections the shoulder is wide enough.

[chutten]

It used to be that you could edit Google Maps directly, but the Goog has since discontinued that practice. Now you can only use their generic "report a problem" to hopefully get some attention drawn to a particular failing of the map.

[Canard]

Thanks; done!

[rangersfan]

Does anyone know if the Kolb Greenway trail in Kitchener has been completed? I know the sewer work was on going last year when I went through Stanley Park, but I didn't know the extent of the project at the time.
mentioned in this article: http://www.therecord.com/news-story/6441...rfar-park/
slide deck
https://www.kitchener.ca/en/resources/Boards.pdf

[jamincan]

Just ran over the new trail this past Friday. I thought they did an excellent job, personally.

[rangersfan]

Great to hear.