Ride with Candidates:  Janet Cox – Township of Woolwich Ward 3

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 Board member Tom Strickland on their walk with municipal candidate for Woolwich Ward 3, Janet Cox.

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.

Janet Cox is running to win one of the two council seats in Ward 3 of Woolwich Township. I met with her and her husband Roger (also a keen cyclist) at their farm. Janet is a cyclist, but unfortunately I could not bring a bike with me, so we just went for a walk around their farm, meeting ducks, chickens, the odd cow and one very energetic dog along the way.

Janet is a member of TWEEC, the Township of Woolwich Environmental Enhancement Committee. This group meets regularly to plan projects and organize volunteers to improve the environment in the Township.

Janet mentioned a meeting she was in where children were asked why they didn’t cycle to downtown Elmira more often. One key barrier was the very limited number of bike racks in the downtown area. She hopes the Region will add some bike racks when Arthur Street is rebuilt.

Janet has a folding bicycle which can easily go in her car. She finds it very useful, as it allows her to drive someplace, and then easily pull the bike out to roam around from there. From the farm, she often cycles to the Guelph to Goderich Rail Trail (G to G).

We discussed the importance of considering the needs of horses on Woolwich roads. Ideally, there should be a paved space for cycling and an unpaved space for horses and buggies. This can be a challenge to fit into the space available on a typical roadway.

Janet thinks there should be a safe way to cycle between all the communities in the township. She is very supportive of rebuilding bridges over the rivers that currently require detours for G to G cyclists.

Janet mentioned two Regional road projects that she had concerns with. Shantz Station Road was rebuilt a number of years ago. The old road had some paved space  set aside for cyclists with a painted line – now the road has the line essentially at the edge of the road, with no paved space for cyclists. She also mentioned the plan to rebuild  Maryhill Road, which proposes two sidewalks, very wide car lanes, and just sharrows in the town of Maryhill. We agreed that a bidirectional Multi-Use Path on one side,  with a sidewalk on the other side, would have been a better plan. The bidirectional nature could also have been extended outside the town (rather than the unidirectional paved shoulders in the plan), creating a much better space for cyclists and perhaps horses as well. CycleWR is drafting various position statements to post on its website. One will discuss the advantages of one very wide bidirectional paved shoulder rather than two narrow paved shoulders on each side. This project will be the poster child for that commentary – thank you, Janet, for pointing it out!