Cycling in Waterloo Region

[tomh009]

I was just re-reading the MINIMUM MAINTENANCE STANDARDS FOR MUNICIPAL HIGHWAYS and realizing that for cycling lanes most of our on-road facilities will fall in to the class 3 standard (only need reduce depth to 8cm within 24 hours), and this was the new revelation for me, if the municipality declares a snow event then no matter the depth of snow in the cycling lane they are deemed to be in compliance until the snow event is declared over.

So basically, as soon as there is enough snow to warrant the clearing of the bike lane that will also likely enough to trigger a snow event and no longer require the lane to be cleared.

If the uptown cycling lanes aren't going to be cleared all winter I think there is a requirement that they have to be signed as officially closed (if it is closed they are in compliance).

And it also says that the municipality should clear the bicycle lanes within 24 hours after the end of the snow event (if practicable). 

I personally think this is reasonable; the number of people bicycling during a snow event (or in the first 24h after it) really is relatively small. I do recognize that others here will disagree with me.