Ride with Candidates:  Victoria Richardson – Waterloo Ward 5

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 Priya Soundararajan on their ride with municipal candidate for Waterloo Ward 5, Victoria Richardson.

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.

My candidate partner was Victoria Richardson, who is running in Waterloo Ward 5. We planned a route that touched a few commercial destinations, schools, and green spaces. I met Victoria at the Bridgeport plaza, along with her husband and daughter. It was wonderful to have her family out on the ride! We were going to put the bike infrastructure to the test, and as we’ll see, the results were mixed.

Victoria’s platform emphasizes leading with empathy and building community, and her concern for equity and accessibility in how we get around reinforced that for me. She believes people need multiple options for getting around. Some people can’t drive because of a disability, and not everyone should be forced to buy a car, which is a big financial investment. For example, she knows many seniors who feel confident riding e-bikes but might not do so if the cycling infrastructure doesn’t feel safe.

Victoria owns an e-bike. She and her partner used to bike their daughter to daycare because they were a one-car family, and an accessible trail made that possible. She talked about the value of a quiet, scenic, usable trail that takes you to important places, and part of our route was on that very trail.

Section 1: Lincoln Rd.

We started off along Lincoln Rd, which has a painted bike lane. This road leads to the Moses Springer Community Centre, which is popular with kids and families (I’ve enjoyed its outdoor pool myself a number of times), and to Lincoln Heights Public School. With so many children using this road, physically separated bike infrastructure seemed all the more important here.

After a short but steep climb on Lincoln, we turned right onto some quieter residential streets and eventually onto Margaret Ave, which has a painted bike lane with a buffer from traffic: a small upgrade from Lincoln.

Erb St and Bridgeport Rd.

We continued on to Erb St, our route to the other side of the expressway. The Region has announced plans to add a two-way separated bike track on Erb St E and Bridgeport Rd E. This would mean removing one lane of traffic on each of these currently three-lane roads, and a traffic study found it would add only 54 seconds of travel time on Bridgeport and 96 seconds on Erb. That’s a negligible cost compared to the huge gains in safety and convenience that separated bike lanes would bring. However, removing a car lane is not allowed under the Province’s Bill 60. The Region is reviewing this plan to see what can be done under the new law.

For now, Erb St has only a painted bike lane, so we were riding close to fast-moving traffic, which felt uncomfortable with a child in a bike trailer. Staying on Erb would also have meant crossing the highway ramp, so we decided to cut over to Bridgeport Rd, where the crossing seemed a little less risky.

To get there, we turned left from Erb onto a tiny street called Goldbeck Ln. We crossed as pedestrians but missed pressing the beg button, so we had to wait another cycle for the signal.

Even then, there was no traffic signal at Bridgeport Rd. We had to wait for a sliver of an opening in the traffic coming off the highway and dart across. Victoria pointed out that there’s a high school across the road, and I couldn’t imagine someone making this crossing every day on their way to school or work. We both agreed this is a major piece of missing infrastructure.

From there, we made our way through the seven(!) intersections on Bridgeport with the various highway on- and off-ramps. Victoria explained that the highway separates two schools: Sandowne Public School to the east and Lincoln Heights to the west. After finishing grade 6 at Sandowne, students transfer to Lincoln Heights, and they might want to go back to visit friends at their old school. This route is incredibly tedious by bike, and as a parent, Victoria said she would be terrified to let her child make the trip. It’s a clear example of why filling this gap in the safe cycling network matters so much.

Lancaster St.

Once across the highway, we turned from Bridgeport Rd onto Lancaster St. Lancaster has several businesses and restaurants and is also a bus route, so it’s quite busy. There isn’t even a painted bike lane, and Victoria wasn’t comfortable riding in traffic with her daughter (I would have done the same), so we rode on the sidewalk on the left side, since there’s no sidewalk on the right. The Region indicated in 2023 that it was studying the feasibility of a bike lane on exactly this stretch, but we haven’t heard about the outcome since.

Bridge St. and Lexington Rd.

We then turned onto Bridge St, which has a bike lane and felt a bit safer. We passed Bridgeport Public School and Bechtel Park on the left and a shopping plaza with a number of restaurants on the right. There’s a considerable buffer between the sidewalk and the road here; perhaps a multi-use path or bike track could fit in that space and help people reach these major destinations.

Next, we turned left onto Lexington Rd. After a short stretch of bike lane, we finally merged onto a multi-use path, which was a big relief safety-wise. The path gives access to a plaza with a few businesses, including a ServiceOntario, but then ends on Lexington and turns into a residential street. That’s fine for recreational cycling, but not for someone who wants to continue along Lexington toward Weber St.

Hillside trails and University Ave.

From there, we rode the Hillside trails, which were beautiful. Victoria stressed how important trails like this are for pedestrians and cyclists alike. Crossing University Ave was tricky, though: the median island only has room for one bike with a trailer, so we had to take turns dashing across. It felt a bit dangerous, and we discussed how a signalled crossing would make it safer and more usable for cyclists and pedestrians.

We ended our ride at the Moses Springer playground, where Victoria and I had a surprisingly fun time on the up-and-down cycle track, a great way to finish! We chatted about a few more cycling issues. Victoria highlighted the importance of safe bike facilities in letting kids get around without depending on their parents to drive them, which builds independence and a healthy, active lifestyle from a young age. We also touched on speeding e-bikes. E-bikes on trails are a relatively recent phenomenon, and Victoria mentioned growing concern among pedestrians about them. Education, along with trail signage on good riding etiquette, could be a good starting point.

Overall, the ride showed both the good and the not-so-good of our bike infrastructure. I learned a lot about the issues community members face from a cycling perspective, and I hope Victoria got as much out of the ride as I did!