Ride with Candidates: Matt Rodrigues, Regional Council – Kitchener

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 Joseph Brannan, on their ride with municipal candidate for Kitchener Regional Council, Matt Rodrigues.

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.

Matt Rodrigues and I set out on a bike ride and conversation on a lovely, sunny afternoon, beginning at Mike Wagner Green in Kitchener. Our 8km route took us through a mix of City of Kitchener municipal infrastructure and Region of Waterloo trails, bike lanes, and roads. I chose a route with some dramatic gaps in where the two systems meet, to highlight how those systems can be challenging for residents to complete trips along major routes. 

Our first example was Highland Rd. West, between Queen’s Boulevard and West Ave, where the City of Kitchener’s separated cycle track ends, and the Regional owned portion of Highland begins. Unfortunately, but somewhat appropriately illustrating the challenge of this section of road, I was passed quite closely by a vehicle in this stretch. The rest of our route took us through some much calmer trails such as the Henry Sturm Trail, Hearth Green & Lakeside Park trails, and later on, back to the Iron Horse Trail.

Our conversation covered a lot of topics about active transportation and transit in the Region, and I was glad to hear that Matt supports a publicly-owned bikeshare program similar to Toronto’s or Hamilton’s, instead of the private model that we’ve seen with Neuron. 

That’s one of CycleWR’s priorities in this election, along with updated E-bike regulations, filling in gaps in high-priority routes, and creating a standalone Regional cycling budget. 

With a brief stop in Lakeside Park to chat about the Region’s water infrastructure, we continued down Homer Watson Blvd to Ottawa Street, where our conversation turned to roundabouts. I highlighted my experience the weekend previous between the Ottawa/Homer Watson roundabout, and the Block Line Road roundabout, where the Region’s Roundabout Pedestrian Safety pilot project is making a dramatic and very clear difference in being able to cross at roundabouts safely on foot! Ottawa Street’s bike lanes then led to conversation about snow clearing, and about other little gaps in our city’s network that we’d love to see connected. Matt mentioned how he would love to sit down with each municipal ward councillor, and brainstorm what improvements and connections could be created in each area.

Thanks Matt for your time, and for taking on the challenge of navigating some of our spicier Regional corridors by bike, while also enjoying the trails!”