Cycling in Waterloo Region

[Bob_McBob]

The concept of cross rides is great but I particularly don’t like them. They are quite random on the Iron Horse and Spur Line trails. I can not always remember if crossing is a cross ride or not. A lot of them have blind spots where I cannot see if a car is coming or not. I almost always slow down and almost stop at all crossrides to be on the safe side. I hesitate before I am sure that drivers coming in both direction have seen me and are slowing down. I also don’t like how they are signed to stop for pedestrians and not pedestrians and cyclists, unless I’m missing something. Trying to educate drivers to newer concepts, when they can’t follow other long existing rule, is probably futile. Defensive driver, defensive cyclist and defensive pedestrian here.

Case in point: You're talking about pedestrian crossovers, not crossrides. Crossrides are the elephant foot crossings you see along MUTs at parking lot entrances and intersections. They often have extra painted markings for cyclists, and some intersections even have cyclist-specific signals. Cyclists have the right of way and don't have to dismount to cross them.

https://www.durham.ca/en/living-here/crossrides.aspx

Also, you're technically supposed to dismount at pedestrian crossovers, though few cyclists do along the IHT. IHT crossings are inconsistent because the region refuses to allow pedestrian crossovers on regional roads. Current provincial law doesn't allow a crossride to be installed alongside a pedestrian crossover, but the City of Kitchener left extra space to install them if that ever changes.