Week in review: January 21, 2017

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Consultations, feedback, and events

• SIDEWALKS: Volunteers needed for Kitchener sidewalk clearing study
• LIGHT RAIL:
  • Pedestrian crossing for Traynor-Vanier neighbourhood January 28
  • Stage 2 to Cambridge consultations February 15, 16, and 23
• WATERLOO:
  • Uptown streetscape construction public consultation January 31
  • 2017 Bicycle Map feedback due January 27
  • Spruce and Hickory street reconstruction consultation January 24
•  KITCHENER:
  • Shape DTK 2020 short and long surveys
  • Study: reporting sidewalk issues through social media
• CAMBRIDGE: Transportation Master Plan and parking
• MOVING FORWARD: priorities and trade-offs

Walking and Cycling

• New drawings of the first phase of the Uptown Streetscape and protected bike lanes have been published in preparation for a public information centre. They’re a considerable improvement over preliminary designs, featuring tighter corners and shorter crosswalks, straighter bike paths, and cross-rides (like a crosswalk for people cycling) at Bridgeport where a new trail is planned. A significant addition appears to be previously ruled-out protected bike lanes between Erb and the ION tracks, which will provide more direct connections to trains and the Spur Line Trail. Attend the public consultation January 31 to find out more!
• Frustrations mount over the ineffectiveness of Kitchener’s sidewalk clearing policy and how long it takes for complaints to be addressed.
• Kitchener company Miovision is launching Miovision Labs to mine and analyze the wealth of data its equipment collects for new innovations. One project, in collaboration with University of Toronto researchers, will analyze conflicts and near misses with bikes along Bloor Street.
• Trail resurfacing and upgrades are being planned for UW’s Research and Technology Park.

Transit

• The Record looks at some of the ION route options considered for Cambridge during 2015 consultations. New consultations on a recommended route are happening mid-February.
• The Region has retained legal counsel for issues related to the King-Victoria Transit Hub. This is among the first of many steps to bringing GO and VIA trains, light rail, city buses, and intercity transit to one central location.
• Late last year, the Region passed a new development charges bylaw that would help pay for ION light rail and bus service expansion. The Waterloo Region Homebuilders’ Association has launched an OMB appeal of the bylaw. At present, the bylaw remains in effect until the OMB rules otherwise.

Car sharing, ride-hailing, autonomous vehicles, and of course, parking

• Walkable City author Jeff Speck offers ten ideas for maintaining walkable cities in the emergence of autonomous vehicles.
• A study from UC Berkley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Centre looks at car sharing’s impact on students, showing how access to shared vehicles defers vehicle ownership while improving quality of life in communities where not all destinations are easily accessible without a car.
• Transit expert Jarrett Walker writes about the challenges of hailing and ‘rating’ his Lyft drivers during a snowstorm that exposed some weaknesses of ride-hailing apps.
• In honour of Martin Luther King day in the US, City Observatory looks at two of the racial biases still inherent in our transportation system: “driving while black,” and discrimination in taxi hailing.
• New research shows that parking demand for dense, mixed-use developments near good transit can be less than half of what is predicted in standard guidebooks.

What we’re reading

• Streetsblog shares 8 transportation engineering euphemisms that should be abolished. Changing these words and phrases helps expose the biases towards traffic volumes inherent in the profession and allows many of the problems of transportation to be framed in more inclusive ways.