Cycling in Waterloo Region

[jamincan]

Didn't Toronto starting towing them?

[jamincan]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/feds-unv...-1.5344392

The National Active Transportation Fund, $400 million to be spent over five years, will nearly quadruple the amount of money Canada spent over the last five years building and upgrading bike paths, pedestrian walkways and bridges, and nature trails.

This is pretty big news and has me thinking how Waterloo Region could best tap into it.

I'd like to see some thought go into adding more pedestrian/cycling overpasses of the expressways and Grand River.

[danbrotherston]

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/feds-unv...-1.5344392

The National Active Transportation Fund, $400 million to be spent over five years, will nearly quadruple the amount of money Canada spent over the last five years building and upgrading bike paths, pedestrian walkways and bridges, and nature trails.

This is pretty big news and has me thinking how Waterloo Region could best tap into it.

I'd like to see some thought go into adding more pedestrian/cycling overpasses of the expressways and Grand River.

We definitely need more crossings of the highway, it cuts up communities.

Not sure about the Grand River though, there isn't much in the way of commuter options on the other side. The thing that bugs me though, for both, is we have so much low hanging fruit. We're going to spend at least 7 million dollars building a dedicated cycling bridge at Strausburg (and I know it's for transit, but it is going to be publicly presented as a "cycling" spend), for that money, we could probably improve 3-4 existing crossings.

For example, here's a ~1 million dollar plan to make a crossing on Victoria St. that connects all the way to Breslau.

https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?m...sp=sharing

I've come to realize I'm a fiscal conservative, the fact that we aren't doing this is fiscally irresponsible.

[ac3r]

If there is one place near the Grand River that could use a safe pedestrian/cycling pass it would be here on King Street East because the only way to get past here is to take a gamble and cross the highway ramps (unless you take a massive detour and use the travel trail along the river, but that's often washed out): https://www.google.com/maps/@43.4149512,...=!3m1!1e3t

[dtkvictim]

The downtown cycling grid documents also say "If external grant funding can be secured, construction can be completed in one year. If funded solely through the city’s existing capital funding for cycling, the project will be constructed over two to three years.", so I wonder if they will pursue funding for that purpose.

[danbrotherston]

The downtown cycling grid documents also say "If external grant funding can be secured, construction can be completed in one year. If funded solely through the city’s existing capital funding for cycling, the project will be constructed over two to three years.", so I wonder if they will pursue funding for that purpose.

Are we referring to the downtown grid?

That was in reference to COVID funding I think, it was decided that the city would fund the grid itself, and that COVID funding would go to projects dispersed across the city, mostly trail paving--they're good projects, but they aren't really co-ordinated in the same way the downtown grid is.

[dtkvictim]

The downtown cycling grid documents also say "If external grant funding can be secured, construction can be completed in one year. If funded solely through the city’s existing capital funding for cycling, the project will be constructed over two to three years.", so I wonder if they will pursue funding for that purpose.

Are we referring to the downtown grid?

That was in reference to COVID funding I think, it was decided that the city would fund the grid itself, and that COVID funding would go to projects dispersed across the city, mostly trail paving--they're good projects, but they aren't really co-ordinated in the same way the downtown grid is.

Yes.

I didn't realize a decision had been made, I assumed that "extra funding" option would remain open in case external funding became available (such as possibly through this active transport fund). But anyways, I'm just impatient to see it get done and be able to make use of it, and I don't know if I see myself in DTK in 3 years time. Plus I'd like to see us much further ahead on cycling infrastructure in three years, not just wrapping up the "grid".

[danbrotherston]

Are we referring to the downtown grid?

That was in reference to COVID funding I think, it was decided that the city would fund the grid itself, and that COVID funding would go to projects dispersed across the city, mostly trail paving--they're good projects, but they aren't really co-ordinated in the same way the downtown grid is.

Yes.

I didn't realize a decision had been made, I assumed that "extra funding" option would remain open in case external funding became available (such as possibly through this active transport fund). But anyways, I'm just impatient to see it get done and be able to make use of it, and I don't know if I see myself in DTK in 3 years time. Plus I'd like to see us much further ahead on cycling infrastructure in three years, not just wrapping up the "grid".

Umm...I mean, it's not set in stone...but the tender has been issued, and possibly even a contractor selected, I think it would take a great deal of motivation to change it now.

I'm not 100% certain if the tender was for the full 3 year project, or just this year, if it was just this year, it's not impossible that the next two years could be combined into one if funding came along, but I think it's pretty unlikely.

Ultimately, if there was more funding available, there is no lack of things to spend it on, with the DTG fully funded, I don't think there's going to be a strong motivation to change that. Some on council were pushing to extend it further anyway.

[Bob_McBob]

Has the region said anything about the future of the separated bike lane pilot? It was originally supposed to be "monitored and maintained" until spring 2021, but what's the plan after that? I was recently struck by how much better the curb section on University has fared than Columbia, where huge lengths of bollards are completely missing after this year's winter maintenance. It seems like the bollards are impractical without the curb for protection.

[danbrotherston]

[jamincan]

[danbrotherston]

[jamincan]

I mean, I think it's bullshit too, but "No substantive objections, he's just upset." is simply not true.

[KevinL]

However you characterize them, his objections are not the best - the survey was to determine its effects on traffic and connectivity, and a question on its budget would just skew results; and no matter the sample size, demographics can be used to ensure a weighted representative sample.

[Coke6pk]

If 738 people voted for him in the next election, and the rest stayed at home, would he be fighting those results too?

Coke