Walking in Waterloo Region

[danbrotherston]

I'd be curious what crossings you are talking about though. I know in my (formerly daily) walks, I've encountered some true abominations, like this trashfire at Spadina and Ruth

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4389489,-...312!8i6656

And the complete lack of any crossing at Spadina and Glen

https://www.google.ca/maps/@43.4382773,-...a=!3m1!1e3

Honestly, these need more than just lines, but now I'm making it about me....lol.  Crossings that could be improved with only lines I really hope would not get much resistance from staff...I know there is some small cost to it, but no engineering is required, nor any change to the legal status.

I actually have experienced Spadina before, but I completely forgot about that. I think I ended up crossing the center island before figuring out the proper way to do it.

A few that come to mind (I'm 90% sure these are all unpainted, but I'm using Google maps to double-check so it's possible some are now if it's outdated)

• Queen St and Church St
  
• Duke St and Breithaupt
  
• All of the David St intersections south of Jubilee (Technically a residential area, but also a lot of foot traffic from the park)
  
• Water St S & Jubilee (Apparently this intersection exists twice, but I mean the one with the crossing)
  
• Water St S & Water St S (I just experienced this one today. The one curb cut is clearly for pedestrians, the other is maybe for a driveway? Not sure what to make of this one...)
  
• Heins Ave and Jubilee (So I guess just most of the Jubilee intersecting roads. Against residential, but park adjacent, lots of pedestrians and cars)
  

I don't really ever care about the lack of crossing in residential areas, but only because of low levels of traffic. It's the intersections where I frequently meet a car while crossing that bother me. It just feels like I'm doing something wrong, like I'm in the space of the cars. Paint is just a cheap, easy signal that it's a pedestrian space without having to put in raised/continuous sidewalks.

Ha, I live right at Queen and Church, you're right, it doesn't have a marking...that seems like a big oversight.  I never noticed because I've never crossed that way, I've always crossed Queen (I live on the other side, and like to walk through the neighbourhood, and when you have to cross Frederick, Queen is child's play---not literally sadly).

It's always amazing to me how anti-pedestrian the park is...Jubilee is a mess.  For Heins I don't think they could paint a crossing, that intersection is garbage and painting it would illustrate just how terrible it is.  But Theresa and Water could get one (as you mentioned, the Water crossing where there *IS* a sidewalk--did I mention this is in a park?!).

I'm not sure what the criteria that staff use for deciding to put in lines or not, I am surprised that most of those have stop bars, but no crosswalks. Certainly couldn't hurt to ask our ward councillor. Although, honestly, the list is probably pretty long.

Here's my quick attempt at fixing Heins. I mean, it's a park...I'm not sure why we are facilitating transport trucks over pedestrians.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?m...n2XNIrNk4q&ll=43.44758254079801%2C-80.49877387655287&z=19

(Actually, I'd love to see water connected to Heins and Jubilee itself closed, but that's a little more ambitious).