Ride with Candidates: Tina Weltz – Township of Woolwich 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 Tom Strickland on their meetup with municipal candidate for Township of Woolwich Ward 1, Tina Weltz.

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.

Tina Weltz is running for one of the two councillor positions in Woolwich Ward 1. We met at her photography studio in Elmira. I wasn’t able to bring my bike out, so we just relaxed and talked about cycling issues.

Tina has a road bike and does lots of country cycling . She also regularly walks her dog on the Guelph to Goderich Rail Trail. When cycling to the south of Elmira, Tina uses either Three Bridges Road or New Jerusalem Road, rather than Arthur Street. She suggested improving the cycling experience on one of those two roads might be more beneficial than Arthur Street, as they have much less traffic.

We talked about the Regional proposal to put a cycling facility through Downtown Elmira, which would have removed many parking spaces. There was strong opposition from the town council and many people in the town, and the Region decided to proceed without a cycling facility, at least south of Church Street.

We agreed that Memorial Avenue, one block east of Arthur, would be a good way to access Arthur Street. Tina mentioned that she had been in a meeting with some young cyclists, who identified the lack of bike racks in the downtown area as a barrier to cycling downtown.

Tina noted that some of the reluctance to spend money on cycling in the Township comes from the challenging state of the overall Township budget. She is running partly to focus more attention on budget issues, and make more effective spending decisions. Hopefully that will free up some money for cycling ideas, such as CycleWR’s proposed signed wayfinding network in Elmira.

The wayfinding network uses Memorial Avenue and other low traffic streets to create safe routes to Downtown Elmira and the Guelph to Goderich Trail. Combined with better bike parking options at the intersections on Arthur Street in the downtown, the wayfinding network could largely substitute for the lack of a safe cycling facility on Arthur Street itself.