In the months before the 2018 municipal election, CycleWR volunteers have been taking municipal electoral candidates for bike rides to show off the best and worst of the cycling infrastructure in their ward/city/region. For a full list of completed rides, click here. CycleWR is a non-partisan organization that does not support any particular party or candidate. Summaries are written by volunteers or candidates and may not reflect the mandate or views of CycleWR. For more information, contact us at hello@cyclewr.ca.
CycleWR volunteers Patrick & Marie-Pascale went for a ride with Mayor of Waterloo candidate Kelly Steiss. Here’s how it went:
We had a good ride with Kelly and what felt like a productive discussion afterwards. I didn’t realize that she has been on the City of Waterloo active transportation advisory committee.
We did a circuit including both off-road infrastructure and Weber Street, basically from the eastern tip of Waterloo Park to Anndale Park and back, including the Hillside Trail. This was a typical ride that Marie-Pascale might take to get around in the community. We talked about wayfinding; when sharrows can be appropriate; segregated infrastructure; and the role of bicycles in urban areas. I think that our ride was fairly representative of the different types of infrastructure we might see in Waterloo.
One key piece that we talked about but that we didn’t ride was the new King Street bike lanes. She was sympathetic to the point of view that lack of enforcement during the winter could lead to bad habits. (Hey, I actually rode them today and noticed zero cars in the lane!).
I chose to start with the safer (mostly off-road) infrastructure and then onto Weber for the return trip after checking in with everyone. Lexington and Weber move faster and I wouldn’t ride on them with small children.
I hope that we’ll see infrastructure that will allow people to reach many of their destinations on bicycle without having to ride on streets that have lots of cars. The routes should be reasonably direct (I sometimes take Weber because it’s more direct, despite there being more contention.)
Thanks Patrick and Marie-Pascale volunteers with @Cycle_WR for taking me on a candidate ride. It was interesting to hear about the assets and challenges of the City’s cycling infrastructure pic.twitter.com/w8TKVCki7B
— Kelly Steiss (@KellySteiss) July 19, 2018