Comments on: Missing sidewalks in Kitchener-Waterloo

By: ryan

ryan — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 21:12:52 +0000

I live on McDougall which runs between Erb st. and Keats Way south of the university and it has no sidewalk whatsoever and is filled with massive potholes. This causes cars to swerve towards bikes and pedestrians to avoid the potholes and can be very scary walking down. I feel like this street is an example of waterloo’s attitude towards infrastructure as a whole. It feels like im walking down a country road even though I’m supposedly in a “city”, and yet all the benefits of being in the country such as fresh air and lots of green space are absent from waterloo. Waterloo seems like it wants to have all the negative aspects of a city, such as congestion, smelly air, and ugly suburban developments mixed with commie blocks (ugly highrises built in the 50s and 60s) along with the negative aspects of a small town in the country such as bad roads, bad public transit, and a serious lack of culture in the form of architecture and museums. In summary, waterloo may be one of the worst cities in southernn ontario to live in and I would not recommend it as a “city” to anyone. it’s a crappy hole in the ground that imitates a city in order to attract smart immigrants who know that small towns suck.

By: King Street West: An Incomplete Street « TriTAG

King Street West: An Incomplete Street « TriTAG — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:57:55 +0000

[...] friendliness isn’t always something that can be measured. Many streets in Kitchener-Waterloo lack sidewalks, but other streets, even those with sidewalks on both sides, remain hostile to pedestrians in more [...]

By: janem12

janem12 — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:28:21 +0000

This is great! I will post it as a link on my blog. In the next few weeks, Regional staff will be coming with a plan for cycling and sidewalks so I will be well armed!

By: Rob K

Rob K — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:31:56 +0000

As someone who commutes on foot an hour a day, I do have a strong position on whether bicycles ought to be allowed on sidewalks, and I support the K-W bylaws that prohibit sidewalk cycling. Cyclists who have a fear of using arterial roads — and that fear is perfectly justified — should use less busy routes. It is unreasonable to want to turn a cyclist’s problem (fear of mixing with fast-moving traffic on the street) into a pedestrian’s problem (fear of encountering a fast-moving cyclist who rides with a sense of entitlement). Almost every day I encounter cyclists who evidently assume that pedestrians ought to step aside to make their passage easy. I find it objectionable to hear people argue that sidewalk cycling is preferable to driving a car when the facts remain that sidewalk cycling is illegal, driving a car is not. People who don’t like the law that prohibits sidewalk cycling should be working to change it. Finally, Michael’s use of the phrase “low pedestrian traffic” is somewhat irresponsible, since what is low in his view may not be low in someone else’s.

By: Michael D

Michael D — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 04:51:45 +0000

Thanks for the comment – I hadn’t thought about that being an overall strategy. It’s definitely a good way of accommodating real-world behaviour on arterial roads and I’m glad to hear they’re doing it. I do know that the staff proposal for the Franklin Boulevard redesign (alas, not up to the 401) calls for such paths on both sides.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 03:22:52 +0000

One of the Region’s plans when it comes to arterials is to make bike-useful sidewalks – this means an asphalt trailway instead of the usual sectioned concrete.

An excellent example of this is the east side of Fischer-Hallman in the new section north of Erb. The wider, asphalt path is designed for bikes and pedestrians (and inline skaters and skateboarders…).

By: Michael D

Michael D — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 20:03:53 +0000

You’re right — now that I think about it, I’ve even biked on the new sidewalk (Fischer-Hallman is scary). But yeah, I think this isn’t the right way to be tracking progress over time. Ideally something like that could be a layer on some open maps, with the information possibly crowdsourced and updated as changes are considered or made; might be a project for TriTAG.

By: Jarek Piórkowski

Jarek Piórkowski — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:54:44 +0000

For what it’s worth, the rebuilt Fischer-Hallman has continuous sidewalks on both sides from Erb to Columbia.

Incidentally, this might be verified using Street View, as the Street View pictures are much newer. Doing that for all streets is likely an unduly high amount of effort, though.

By: Michael D

Michael D — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 15:21:10 +0000

Thanks for the reply. I honestly don’t have a strong position on whether bicycles should or shouldn’t be on the road. However, my impression is that the vast majority of people won’t ever consider cycling on fast-moving arterial roads, bicycle lanes or not. In these sorts of places being able to ride on the sidewalk would be a serious increase in non-car mobility. Especially when we’re talking about places with low pedestrian traffic, I personally would rather see a bicycle on the sidewalk (being ridden carefully and courteously!) instead of a car on the road. I hope the Region continues to think the same way.

By: Michael D

Michael D — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:18:19 +0000

Thanks for the response. Unfortunately the Google Maps imagery is a full three years old, so I’m sure there are a number of such places. I’ll probably have to be content with keeping this map a snapshot of the 2006 state of sidewalks, which is still mostly accurate.