General Road and Highway Discussion

[danbrotherston]

New project up on the EngageWR website:
https://www.engagewr.ca/victoria-street-modifications

"The Region of Waterloo is looking to make modifications to Victoria Street in Kitchener near the future Kitchener Central Transit Hub."

"This project is focused on Victoria Street North (Regional Road 55) from King Street West (Regional Road 15) to Weber Street West (Regional Road 8)."

Their preferred design alternative is illustrated on slide 47:
https://ehq-production-canada.s3.ca-cent...MAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4KKNQAKIOR7VAOP4%2F20240527%2Fca-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240527T194107Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=e989e0aedcb4e2f7175a291b2973b7cc82a5fdc244566ca2ee2b0c5f6afb4534

One small thing I noticed from their proposed design is that it omits the driveway entrance to the proposed parking lot (present homeless encampment) at the corner of Weber. It was originally shown in the latest available drawings of the transit hub.

https://ehq-production-canada.s3.ca-cent...MAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIA4KKNQAKIOR7VAOP4%2F20240527%2Fca-central-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240527T202037Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-Signature=b44e8f15f45bd33db2fe105b693b5b9d4316aff8ad7716e21399f5bc2b0ee5e6

I assume that the Region's recent acquisition of the neighbouring property has allowed them to either redesign the parking lot, or to abandon the lot idea completely.

Well, I'm impressed, honestly. The proposal is actually very progressive.

It actually achieves two of the three features that make Dutch roads great....good (or at least existent) multi-modal infra, and limiting space for cars. The third, completely re-organizing the road network to unravel travel types and modes (i.e., streets and roads are separate, bikes and cars are separate, limiting the need for intersections to manage conflicts) is...significantly harder and less relevant in the downtown context.

So yeah, I'm for it...going down to two lanes is actually a really good start..and it should also give more additional ammunition to the idea that retaining four lanes to the west isn't needed.

And bus lanes are great to see, especially in a context where there might be some congestion in the future (albeit, they do represent more space and pavement used).

I mean, this isn't graduation day from the remedial class yet, but I'd consider grade A work. If the region keeps this up for 20-30 years, and I'll eventually feel silly for moving.