Ride with Candidates: Elizabeth Bate – Kitchener Ward 1

For the 2026 municipal elections, CycleWR volunteers have been taking municipal electoral candidates on bike rides to show off the best and worst of the cycling infrastructure in their ward/city/region.

Below is a summary written by CycleWR volunteer  Adrian Vantyghem on their ride with municipal candidate for Kitchener Ward 1, Elizabeth Bate

Disclaimer: CycleWR is a non-partisan organization that does not endorse a 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.

Elizabeth and I met at the Krug Plaza. Before we started our ride we had a conversation about the redevelopment plans for this plaza, which would see the lot strip mall replaced with four 6-storey buildings and a parking garage. Elizabeth is part of a local group that is trying to raise concerns about these designs. In particular she expressed concerns about the amount of lighting in the parking garage and park. She also believes that the density does not fit in with the neighbourhood, preferring either shorter or fewer buildings. Overall her primary concern is that she does not feel like these concerns are being taken seriously, which is one of the main reasons she has decided to run for Council.

Although it had been some time since Elizabeth had last biked around the neighbourhood, she has fond memories of biking around Rosemount as a kid. She told me about how she would bike to the Short Stop when she was as young as 6, which she was allowed to do “so long as she doesn’t cross the big street.” Being able to cycle safely is one of the first ways that kids can gain independence, and Elizabeth wants to make sure that kids today have the same opportunity that she enjoyed when she was growing up.

Our ride took us around the Rosemount and Heritage Park neighbourhoods, visiting some pieces of good and bad infrastructure along the way. I also chose to highlight a short section of Route 2 of Kitchener’s Active Transportation Network. Here is a map of our route.

The very first traffic light we reached also provided our first challenge. The lights at Krug/River only change when a car waiting on Krug trips the sensor, and it resets so that cars that have completed a right turn do not trigger a light change after they have cleared the intersection. Since we were on bikes these sensors didn’t register our presence. Instead of running the red light we had to gesture forward the car waiting behind us until they were close enough to trigger the sensor.

Fortunately the next stop on our route was to check out an example of good infrastructure that was recently installed. Frederick St was recently redesigned to reduce the number of car lanes to make space for one-way, grade-separated cycle tracks on either side of the street. River/Frederick is also a protected intersection where cyclists are diverted away from the car lanes when they reach the intersection. This makes cyclists more visible to cars trying to make a right-hand turn, making collisions a lot less likely.

Our next segment was a short stretch of the multi-use path on Victoria from Frederick to Natchez. Riding along Victoria is something I still avoid whenever I can because the frequent plaza entrances and heavy car traffic make it feel unsafe. We were fortunate enough to be riding at a time that did not have many cars, but we were still very careful at every plaza entrance to make sure that anyone trying to turn right was aware of our presence. I also pointed out that, when the path runs right up against the road, any cars trying to turn onto Victoria need to block our path so that they can see oncoming traffic. Elizabeth was interested to hear feedback on how we could fix this type of design.

After leaving Victoria to take the parallel multi-use path along Rothsay our discussion turned to connectivity. This path is much safer than riding on Victoria, but doesn’t have access to any of the plazas. It is also not a true replacement for riding on Victoria. While the east end has a cut-through to Lackner, its west end curves to take a scenic route through the Conservation Trail — there are no direct connections to Frederick. Being able to take shortcuts — like cut-throughs and modal filters — on a bike is a fantastic way to make cycling a more viable means of transportation and can help to get people to replace car trips.

Riding along Ottawa St showcased several problems that can easily deter someone from choosing to cycle. What started as a multi-use path eventually split into a combination of sidewalk and painted bike lane, forcing us to ride beside fast-moving traffic. At Ottawa/River we transferred onto the sidewalk (dismounting when near pedestrians), and I pointed out that the bike lane on River merges into a right turn lane and that cyclists almost exclusively (and understandably) use the sidewalk at this intersection. When passing Franklin I drew attention to how little space there is for cyclists wanting to turn left without using car lanes or sidewalks. When we reached the Conservation Trail the bike lane turned back into a multi-use path that we were very thankful to have.

The final segment of our trip used Route 2 of Kitchener’s Active Transportation Network from Ottawa to Krug. I use Route 2 regularly to go downtown and generally feel very safe on it. With Elizabeth I pointed out that cyclists are meant to use the pedestrian island to cross Ottawa right by the highway off ramp. It’s not a crossing I would be comfortable using with young kids on bikes, so in my opinion stops the route from truly being for all ages and abilities. I mentioned that it would be better to extend the Ottawa multi-use path until Franklin and build a protected intersection there, but this falls under Regional jurisdiction while the active transportation network belongs to the City.

Overall our ride did a great job of highlighting both good and bad infrastructure in our neighbourhoods. Our long conversation covered too much to be shared here, like the importance of bike share programs, reliable transit, and poorly scheduled reconstruction projects. Elizabeth has been involved in activism for her entire life and values making sure Kitchener’s residents feel heard.