News roundup: December 31, 2024

Our last news roundup of the year! Here’s the latest in Waterloo Region walking, biking, and transit news for the last month. Subscribe to get updates delivered directly to your inbox, and you can also follow us on Bluesky and Instagram.

What’s happening

• COMMENT: The Region of Waterloo still has a survey open for its study of transit priority measures along Fischer-Hallman Road (Route 201)

Walking, biking, and streets

• Speed camera outside Elgin Street Public School was removed, but will return in a new batch of school zone cameras in 2025 (The Record)
• A Kitchener data analyst argues against school zone speed cameras because there’s too few collisions (The Record) [It’s an investment that pays for itself, and Vision Zero means Zero. -Ed.]
• Cycle Toronto launches legal challenge to Bill 212 (CBC)
• The head of Cycle Toronto was doored in a bike lane and couldn’t attend the legal challenge (Cycling Magazine)
• Biehn Drive extension through Kitchener wetland approved (The Record, CityNews)
• Special traffic lights installed on Freeport bridge for snow clearing (The Record)
• Waterloo Region considering special crosswalks to honour veterans (The Record)

Transit

• Waterloo Region budget will increase GRT fares but avoid most of the transit cuts (TriTAG, CBC)
• Coverage of the UW NDP club’s petition against GRT cuts (CBC)
• CBC reports on the plans for the Kitchener central transit hub, which are expected to finally break ground in 2025 (CBC)
• Kitchener GO is ‘chaos’ when trains arrive but a fix is coming soon - featuring TriTAG’s Rodney Chan (blogTO)
• Cambridge City Council gives support to Guelph-Cambridge GO train proposal, and asks Metrolinx to provide Cambridge-Guelph GO bus service in interim (Cambridge Times)
• Business case for Guelph-Cambridge GO trains will be presented to Guelph Council Feb 11 (Guelph Today)
• Phil Verster abruptly steps down as CEO of Metrolinx (CityNews, The Record)
• John Michael McGrath discusses the role of consultants in high transit construction costs (TVO)
• Environmental Defence’s Nate Wallace talks about transit funding challenges in Canada (Perspectives Journal)
• Perth County discontinues a pilot for some rural transit routes, but routes that connect to Kitchener-Waterloo are maintained (Perth County)

The shape of our cities

• The Region of Waterloo will lose its planning authority starting January 1 when the province’s Bill 23 comes into effect (The Record)
• City of Kitchener opening up city land for affordable housing development (City of Kitchener)
• City of Kitchener delays implementation of inclusionary zoning to January 2026 (The Record)
• City of Waterloo endorses changes to enable four units and up to four storeys on most lots (The Record)
• City of Waterloo is streamlining development approvals in Uptown and the Erb Street corridor (EngageWR)
• City of Waterloo planning for residential use and more height and density near the currently employment focused Research & Technology and Northfield Ion station areas (The Record)
• Region of Waterloo out $13.7m in a development charges calculation error for Amazon warehouse (CBC)

Elsewhere

LRT:

• Quebec province announces Quebec City tramway to cost a whopping $7.6B, should be in service in 2033 (CTV)
• Ontario considering paying operational costs of the Hurontario LRT line in Mississauga when it opens (Global News)
• In Ottawa, O-Train lines 2 and 4 will have a phased launch starting January 6 (OC Transpo)

Highways:

• Highway 413 90% preliminary design & preferred alignment through York, Peel and Halton is nearly complete. Included transitway will reportedly be a separate corridor that will run alongside the highway for public transit including buses and light rail transit (Vaughan Citizen)
• The bizarre Highway 401 tunnel plan came from an unsolicited proposal from a construction firm (Global News)

London

• London’s new mobility and BRT plan and their discontents (CTV, London Free Press)
• BRT 2.0: What to know about proposed resurrection of north, west routes (London Free Press)
• Advocates in London calling attention to challenges of inadequately cleared sidewalks for people with disabilities (CBC)
• Uber Canada files lawsuit against City of London over increasing per-trip fees (CBC)

Ontario

• Brantford mayor to commission study on amalgamation with Brant County, with transit one of the motivators (Brantford Expositor)
• Ontario to expand GO Transit service area to Six Nations and Mississaugas of the Credit (The Public Record)
• Uber’s new payment pricing model is more opaque (CityNews)
• Growing pains: How Windsor plans to ease transition to new parking, bike lanes downtown (Windsor Star)
• Transit use up with international students in Sudbury, North Bay, and Sault Ste. Marie (CBC)
• Guelph Transit monthly fare cap increases by $4.45 to $94.05, while individual rides only up $0.05 to $2.85 (City of Guelph)

Beyond:

• Montreal still has the highest transit ridership in Canada per capita, but Vancouver has overtaken the GTA for second place (DailyHive)
• Victoria city council unanimously approved a plan to reduce speed limits to 40 km/h on most major streets (CBC)