ION - Waterloo Region's Light Rail Transit

[plam]

Between William and the Iron Horse, the bike path is the sidewalk. The infrastructure is sending mixed signals here (and will be different post-construction as well).

I was referring to the section of Caroline between Erb and William, but in any case:

CITY OF WATERLOO BY-LAW NO. 08 –077

Part IV - General
1. Operation of Vehicles
(a) Driving on a Boulevard, Sidewalk or Multi-Use Trail
i. No person shall drive a motor vehicle or a motor-assisted vehicle on any boulevard, sidewalk or multi-use trail except on a driveway;
ii. No person shall drive a bicycle having a wheel or wheels more than 50 centimetres in diameter or ride a skateboard on any boulevard or sidewalk except on a driveway.
iii. No person shall drive a motorized snow vehicle within the City.

The "Coles Notes" version: Happy Cycling

Sidewalks are for kids and pedestrians!
• Kids can ride on the sidewalk. Adults have to ride on the road
• Some roads have a lot of cars. Use Google bike directions for a bike-friendly route

P.S. I don't see any exceptions for construction. 

I tend to take a more pragmatic point of view. Laws don't replace good judgment, and people follow what the infrastructure is saying more than they follow the law. They certainly are not universal, which suggests that Waterloo's laws may or may not be optimal for all road users.

Sidewalks are usually not good for riding because 1) cars coming out of driveways don't expect or see traffic on sidewalks; 2) there might be people walking on the sidewalk.

In some cases, the best thing to do is to ride on the sidewalk. I do not recommend biking on Ottawa St, for instance. There aren't any driveways or pedestrians, and the road is legitimately scary.

On Caroline St, there are not cars coming out of driveways, because the road is closed, so the question is whether the cyclist is going to get in the way of a person on foot. My suspicion is that most of the time on Caroline in November with the construction, the answer is going to be "no". So I do not see a reason (besides "the law says so") to not ride on the sidewalk.