Cycling in Waterloo Region

[ijmorlan]

No sidewalk on the west side of University? Anything along there without sidewalks on both sides is a bad proposal IMO.

Four lanes for vehicles, four lanes for bikes, and only one sidewalk that doesn't even comfortably accommodate three people across? Yuck.

In general I agree that both-side sidewalks should be near-universal, but I note two things here:

1) the “bike” path on that side is actually multi-use, the same as the East side of Fischer-Hallman;

2) there is and will be nothing on University between Erb and Keats Way on that side for pedestrians to access. Immediately next to the road is the creek/drainage ditch and on the other side is the back of long lots on McDougall.

Between the two of these I think the proposal looks pretty good, certainly better than the on-street bike lanes proposal. Do these make any difference, in your view?

Having said that, I agree the widening of the general traffic area to four lanes is unnecessary, and I would extend that to the sections of the street that already have four lanes, as long as turns were permitted only where turn lanes exist (or, equivalently, turn lanes were provided wherever turns were permitted). Perhaps some turn lanes should be lengthened.