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Consultations, feedback, and events

• CYCLING:
  • CycleWR Meet & Greet for the new cycling coalition for cycling, April 29
  • Your ideas wanted for a “minimum grid” of protected cycling routes
  • Survey on updating the Ontario Traffic Manual Book 18: Cycling Facilities
• ION: Stage 2 public consultations, May 8, 9, 10
• GROWTH: Guidance on the growth plan and intensification targets, due May 7
• KITCHENER:
  • Comprehensive review of the zoning bylaw, April 30 and May 8
  • Urban design guidelines, feedback due May 15
• WATERLOO: Zoning bylaw review informal public meeting May 7

Winter’s last hurrah

• Winter in spring reinforces need for municipal sidewalk clearing (The Record)

Vision Zero

• Driver runs red light, hits pedestrian in Waterloo (CTV)
• Twenty-five minutes of horror on Yonge Street: How the Toronto van attack unfolded (Globe and Mail)
• The truck driver who nearly killed me got away with a $125 fine (Globe and Mail)
• Can you see me? AV’s and pedestrian safety (TCAT)
• Traveling by bus instead of car on urban major roads: safety benefits (Journal of Urban Health)

Transit

On Monday, spring service begins for Grand River Transit, including the new 205 Ottawa Street iXpress, which will be free on Fridays until August. For transit users near King and Victoria, good news: the northbound ‘floating’ bus platform will be back in service too.

• Bombardier says it’s ‘doing everything’ to finish Waterloo region’s LRT order (CBC) 
  Where have we heard this before?
• Regional councilor: Lawsuit will be coming against Bombardier for losses due to late LRT vehicles (570 News)
• Public to receive monthly updates on LRT (The Record)
• Why does ridership rise or fall? Lessons from Canada (Human Transit)
• Politicians, planners try to read tea-leaves on Doug Ford’s plan for transit (Globe and Mail)

Cycling

Last week, we were at the Ontario Bike Summit in Toronto. We learned a whole bunch, saw the City of Waterloo take home a Gold Bicycle Friendly Community Award, and heard Minister of Transportation Kathryn McGarry announce the CycleON Action Plan 2.0 and the provincial cycling network. We also picked up a copy of the Complete Streets Game – you can try it out at the CycleWR meet & greet on Sunday!

We’ll have more to say over the next little while about the summit and what Waterloo’s new award means.

• Polling shows 2/3 of Ontario residents want province to invest more in cycling infrastructure (Share the Road)
• Riding a bike to work may be the secret to happiness (Georgia Straight)
• Bicycle urbanism by design (Next City)
• As Seattle struggles with bike lanes, Vancouver, B.C., has won the battle (Seattle Times)
• Pro tip for managing dockless bike-share “clutter” — give them space on the street (Streetsblog)
• Using crowdsourced data to monitor change in spatial patterns of bicycle ridership (Journal of Transport and Health)

The shape of our cities

• Kitchener condo project to be tallest building in the city (The Record)
• No end in sight for Waterloo Region commercial real estate boom (The Record)
• New book explores the latest and greatest research on parking, the “Cinderella of transportation” (The Bay Link)
• Retooling the suburbs (Corporate Knights)

The road ahead

• Can new vehicle technology prevent attacks like the one in Toronto? The experts aren’t so sure (CBC)
• For a much-needed win, self-driving cars should aim lower (Wired)
• Cars are ruining our cities (New York Times)
• This take on congestion pricing might blow your mind (KUOW)