Week in review: March 17, 2018

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Consultations, feedback, and events

• #MOVINGWR: March 25 at Kitchener City Hall
• MOVING FORWARD: Online comments due March 30
• TRANSIT: 2018 network public information centres, March 21, 22, April 4, 5, 10, 11, online
• MHBPNA PRESENTS: Sustainable streets April 6
• HEAVY VEHICLES and vulnerable road users, Transport Canada safety measures consultation, due April 2
• SNYDER’S ROAD: Cycling improvements April 5

Stop de Kindermoord

Traffic-calming measures were approved for Sims Estate Drive, Parkvale Drive, and Fallowfield Drive. These measures include mid-block pedestrian refuges and intersection narrowings. We hope this marks the beginning of more rational, less pedestrian-hostile intersection designs in Kitchener.

• Police nab texting drivers from inside GRT bus (The Record)
• Pedestrian deaths won’t end as long as Toronto (or Waterloo Region) panders to cars and drivers (Globe and Mail)
• The road to Vision Zero (TVO)
• Taking action on Vision Zero in Ontario (Share the Road)
• Pedestrian deaths are the price we’re willing to pay to keep traffic moving (The Star)
• Vision Zero is a failure; it’s time to Stop de Kindermoord (Treehugger)
• ‘Stop killing kids,’ traffic safety advocates protest (CityLab)

Transit

Consultations for the 2018 transit network changes begin next week. Alarmingly, consultation documents still do not show the 202 University Ave iXpress connecting with ION light rail, suggesting that either UW and GRT are still working out an agreement for the new terminal, or that the UW administration is unwilling to allow buses to adequately connect to trains. Meanwhile, Conestoga College gears up for another U-pass referendum April 9.

As part of the provincial-federal agreement on transit funding for municipalities, Waterloo Region is eligible for up to $340 million in transit infrastructure funding over the next decade from upper levels of government.

Proposed transit improvements for Cambridge next year include a dedicated southbound bus lane on Hespeler Road near the Delta and a feasibility study for GO train service to Cambridge.

• Bus service could launch in North Dumfries if grant approved (The Record)
• When will the LRT be on track? (CTV)
• Joint community transportation grant applications could lead to a better connected Perth County (Stratford Beacon-Herald)
• Ottawa, Queen’s Park should work together on passenger rail (The Record)
• Public transit benefits everyone - even those who don’t use it (The Star)
• Is it time for a public transit renaissance? Navigating travel behavior, technology, and business model shifts in a brave new world (Journal of Public Transportation)
• Fixed-route buses are the future, Jarrett Walker argues, urging skepticism of technology (Streetsblog)
• Don’t believe the hype about Hyperloop (Railway Gazette)

Cycling

We’ll be at #MovingWR on Sunday March 25 at Kitchener City Hall to talk about a minimum grid cycling network. Come say hi, and leave your mark on our maps!

Regional staff are recommending multi-use pathways for Westmount from Glasgow to Highland, and for Victoria Street from Fischer-Hallman to Westmount, in addition to painted buffered bike lanes on Victoria from Westmount to Lawrence. Cross-ride treatments are recommended at intersections. While mid-block pedestrian crossing islands would be included with the work, crossings at intersections would be likely to become more dangerous for pedestrians with the introduction of right-turn lanes at several intersections. The recommended design also includes a bus queue-jumping lane on eastbound Victoria Street at Lawrence Ave.

• How bike lanes could get Toronto’s suburbs moving (Globe and Mail)
• Montreal mulls adopting separate traffic laws for cyclists (Globe and Mail)
• #MeToo: Woman on a bike (big orange bike)
• The unhelpful ways cities talk about bike helmets (CityLab)
• A brief history of how (North) American transportation engineers resisted bike lanes (Streetsblog)
• Building better bus stops (for people cycling) can be a snap (CityLab)

The shape of our cities

As the Region prepares to update its population signs to declare 600,000 residents this year, density continues to dominate the new homes being built:

• Region of Waterloo wants greener Greenbelt expansion (CBC)
• Parking garage rent earned Kitchener $1M last year (The Record)
• Demand for industrial space dominating Waterloo Region’s commercial real estate market (The Record)

The road ahead

• Ontario town says it’s saving $8M a year by using Uber over public transit (CBC) Editor’s note: before anyone starts predicting the death of transit here, this is in a town that’s relatively sparsely populated, with no existing municipal transit infrastructure. So it likely has lessons for how to reach hard-to-serve neighbourhoods with low-density and circuitous streets, like what GRT is wanting to study for certain pockets, but it’s not going to scale up to fit in wider urban areas.
• Excellent principles for shared mobility (Human Transit)
• How Google Maps and Waze may be making traffic worse (CityLab)
• Cloaking a weak argument in big—but phony—numbers (City Observatory)