Leading up to the 2022 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 volunteer Jeff Henry took Mark Fisher, candidate for Regional Council, Waterloo, out for a ride. Here’s what they had to say about the ride:
Mark and I started our ride at the University of Waterloo where we both graduated, exploring the Region’s separated cycling pilot infrastructure along University Ave and Erb St. the permanent infrastructure on King and Caroline, and the City’s separated trail through Waterloo Park ending back where we started. Along the way, we talked about what worked (curbs on-road, bi-directional cycle tracks) and what didn’t (bus stop conflicts, winter snow widrows, damaged curbs and destroyed bollards) with the separated infrastructure pilot. We talked about protected intersections, the raised cycle tracks with curbs along King, and the complexity of accommodating above-ground hydro, growing trees, and plentiful benches to make snow clearing from cycle tracks and sidewalks efficient. We saw crowded crossings of the Trans Canada Trail at University and at the NW corner of Erb and Caroline, which need to be expanded. We also chose not to dismount our bikes to ride along the Laurel Trail on Caroline or cross intersections, as the Region needs to restripe these as cross-rides and provide signage to warn drivers to expect people to cycle across intersections at speed.
Mark talked about his extensive recreational cycling, highlighted his desire to see more buried hydro lines, and noted that the mode-share of cycling had a long way to go. He had lots of questions about what works and what doesn’t, and agreed that raised cycle tracks separated by curbs are “life savers” that make sense as a preferred design. We also talked about the bike trailer I used when taking my young child to preschool and to playgrounds, and how I made different choices about where to bike depending on if I was using it.
We parted ways where we started, at the University of Waterloo, with Mark heading back on-road along Columbia, Westmount, and Laurelwood while I took the separated lanes on University and King home to see the family.