Ride with Candidates: Joel Botter – Waterloo 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 Graham Roe on their walk with municipal candidate for Waterloo Ward 1, Joel Botter.

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.

A Waterloo Ward 1 Walk with Joel Botter – Coffee, Roundabouts and Bike Racks:

Municipal elections are on October 26. As a CycleWR volunteer I get to meet and chat with a few candidates about how our streets work, and don’t, for people who walk, bike and ride transit. First up is Joel Botter, running for city council in Waterloo Ward 1.

Meet Joel

We met at Coffee Culture at the Boardwalk inside Ward 1 Waterloo. Joel is a Master’s student at the University of Waterloo studying American history, with a focus on the intersection of business and politics in the U.S. He has been interested in politics for as long as he can remember, and he has lived in Waterloo Region his whole life, except for one year in Toronto during his undergrad. He wants to serve the community he grew up in.

His platform is built on three words: walkable, affordable and beautiful. He wants a city you can get around without a car, which he says means more options rather than fewer cars. That includes more transit funding, more cycling routes and more pathways. He also wants affordable and diverse housing, and green space, with mature trees and well-designed public spaces.

Joel also understands that a councillor’s job is to represent the people in the ward, not just push personal priorities. What he hears from Ward 1 residents is:

• High speed traffic cutting through neighbourhoods. Drivers are using residential streets as shortcuts, at speed, to the annoyance of its residents.
• Affordability that cuts both ways. Longtime owners want to protect the nest egg that their home represents, retirees on fixed incomes are squeezed by costs, and young people and students are struggling to buy a first home. These are very different needs, and a councillor has to hold them all.

Getting there 

Ward 1 isn’t the easiest place to reach by bike. It’s an example where we need to invest in separated bike paths that act as ribs out to our suburbs so it’s possible for relaxed, stress-free human mobility to the other areas of Waterloo Region. The ward runs roughly from Fischer-Hallman to the back of the Boardwalk, and from University Avenue to Columbia. It’s a mature, affluent suburb of mostly single detached homes, with Westvale and Beechwood at its heart. From my side of town, I took John Street into Old Westmount to reach Glasgow and once I’d crossed Fisher-Hallman I found the bike path that runs along the tracks thru to the Boardwalk (note I biked to Kitchener to find a safer route to the Boardwalk, though that was only a few blocks). Once inside the ward, though, the neighbourhood streets are calm and very walkable and I was even surprised to find the Boardwalk walkable too.

A walk through the Boardwalk

From the coffee shop we walked from the Boardwalk toward Westvale. The Boardwalk was surprisingly pleasant on foot. The roundabouts were another story. I’m not convinced drivers know how to yield to pedestrians, or what the shark’s teeth painted on the road actually mean. At the University/Erbsville roundabout, several sets of shark’s teeth have been scrubbed off the pavement entirely. Crossing it on foot is a real-life game of Frogger. When we crossed into the Westvale neighbourhood, the northern most round-a-about – it had fresh markings, was smaller and all drivers were mindful of us pedestrians – it’s just anxious cause as a pedestrian we know not all drivers will stop at the markings.

Westvale Public School

We kept walking through the calm streets of Westvale to Westvale Public School. It had rained that morning, so the kids’ commute would have been on wet pavement, and yet the bike racks at the back of the school were full. Only a handful of bikes were at the racks at the front.

The racks are new, and sadly they’re wheel-benders (the kind that grip the wheel instead of the frame). I really don’t understand why buying functional bike racks is so hard. It’s a small thing, but it’s the kind of detail a city council can and should get right.

Transit beyond the spine

If you live on the LRT line, transit works well. If you don’t, it’s a different story. The “ribs” of the network, the bus routes that feed the LRT spine, still aren’t predictable or intuitive, and that matters in a ward like this one.

Final thoughts

My chat with Joel was lovely. He’s a thoughtful, intelligent person who is mindful of his neighbours and makes connections easily. I can’t tell you how to vote, but I can tell you to find out who your candidates are and what they think about the streets you walk and ride on every day.

You can read Joel’s full platform at joelbotter.ca.