map by JP Smola

WATERLOO REGION — More than 54,000 cars, trucks and buses zoom through the roundabout at Ottawa and Homer Watson in Kitchener every day.

On this summer afternoon, there were plenty of vehicles. And one bicycle.

I felt very small on my bike as I entered the roundabout, with three lanes of vehicles racing by.

I plunged into the traffic, hugging the right-hand curb lane. To my horror, as I whizzed round the circle, I realized that I needed to be in the extreme left lane, and had to cross all three lanes to exit where I wanted.

Pedalling like mad, I craned over my shoulder to see what was heading toward me. By some miracle, a window in the traffic opened up, and I slipped across the three busy lanes and out of the roundabout again, safe and sound but feeling like I'd been through the wringer.

I'm not alone. Kuyler Neable is a keen cyclist who rides from his home in uptown Waterloo to his office in south Kitchener. "In all the cycling I have done, I have never had to deal with anything like the roundabouts in K-W. ... I used to fly down the hills in Seattle in rush hour, dodging around taxis and traffic jams, and that was a walk in the park compared to the roundabouts here."

When my editor approached me earlier this summer and asked me to do a feature on what it's like to cycle in Waterloo Region, my first reaction was that it was a dream assignment. I was going to get paid to ride my bike on the region's byways and bike paths.

But it soon became clear that the story wouldn't only involve leisurely pedals down leafy trails. Any trip of a reasonable distance to specific destinations in our region is just as likely to include a frantic pedal through a roundabout, or a slog in blazing sun along a busy regional road, dodging curbside debris.

My roundabout adventure captures the biggest challenge of cycling in our area — it's possible to cycle almost anywhere in the region, but it's often a very scary experience.

The Region of Waterloo and the three cities in the region are banking on more people getting out of their cars and using transit, walking or biking. Doing so will reduce traffic congestion, wear and tear on roads and slow the need to build more and bigger roads.

The vast majority of us, when we venture out to go to work, school or run errands, do so by car, often with just one person in the vehicle. If that pattern doesn't change, the regional road network will have to expand by 35 per cent, and the region would need to build at least 100 new travel lanes by 2031.

Instead, the region has opted to encourage as many people as possible to get out of their cars. The massive spending on light rail and improving bus service is a big part of this effort.

Encouraging "active transportation" — walking and cycling, especially for short trips of less than two kilometres that could easily be done by foot or bike — is another way to ease demand on roads. People still drive for about 71 per cent of short trips.

All of the local municipalities are updating their cycling master plans, with the explicit goal of finding ways to encourage more people to get out of their cars and onto a bike for at least short trips. All are spending more to improve cycling facilities.

Because of that push, The Record decided to take a closer look at what it's like to get around the area on two wheels — what works, what doesn't. We rode a variety of bike lanes, trails and roads, talked to the officials tasked with building bike-friendly facilities, and to some of the people who use those facilities, from hard-core all-season cyclists to regular folks who ride their bikes because it's fun, good for the environment, inexpensive and good exercise.

There are four types of cyclists, the experts say. Less than one per cent of us are "strong and fearless;" about seven per cent are "enthused and confident" riders; about two-thirds are "interested but concerned" riders who would like to cycle more but don't feel comfortable sharing the road with vehicles, while about a third fall into the "no way, no how" group.

Getting that interested majority feeling safer is key to boosting the number of cyclists on our roads, transportation planners say. "The people we're trying to target are, like, mothers," said Danny Pimentel, active transportation project manager in Kitchener. "If we can get a mom and her kid on a bike on the roads, then we can get anybody."

"A lot of people would say they would like to cycle, but they don't feel safe," said Phil Hewitson, director of active transportation for the City of Waterloo. "What's stopping them cycling is (the lack of) safe infrastructure. People don't like cycling in traffic."

Debbie Chapman, who sometimes rides from her home in downtown Kitchener to her job at Wilfrid Laurier University, is among them. "I love biking. I'd love to do it more. I'd love to not use my car all spring and summer and fall, but there are reasons why I don't. I don't feel safe on the bigger roads. I think there are a lot of people like me that don't feel safe."

The statistics show those fears are not misplaced.

The number of cyclists struck on regional roads is at a 20-year low and trending down, from 130 collisions in 2012 to 87 in 2016. The number of cyclists injured in those crashes ranged from 107 in 2012 to 74 in 2016. Three cyclists have been killed in that time: two in 2012, one in 2016.

But cyclists are very vulnerable if they do get hit, suffering injuries about 80 to 85 per cent of the time. That compares to about 28 per cent of those in cars.

Cyclists are always aware that it just takes one driver not paying attention to make things very dangerous for a bike. Ryan McDonough cycles under the assumption drivers will make stupid mistakes. "That's what you have to do. The onus is on me if I'm the one who's going to get killed if I get hit."

Cyclists just want drivers to remember that most of them are ordinary folks, not militant car haters. "We're people. We're teachers. We're doctors. We're humans and we just want to be able to ride our bikes safely. And it's very hard to do that in a car-centric society," said Weldon.

Once it became clear that my cycling assignment was not going to simply be a leisurely pedal on quiet lanes, my editor checked with human resources staff about health and safety concerns around sending me on such a job. He also asked me to wear a bright orange safety vest to be as visible as possible as I negotiated busier roads.

Despite those fears, I found lots of positive developments in the local cycling scene.

Generally, drivers were courteous and alert, and gave me plenty of space as they passed me.

The three cities and region boast of having more than 500 kilometres of cycling lanes and bike paths. Many of those routes are a delight to travel on — scenic journeys by the Grand River in Cambridge, shady paths like the Forwell Trail in Waterloo or Kitchener's Dom Cardillo Trail — where cyclists can travel for kilometres in park-like settings away from traffic.

Cycling often is way more fun than sitting in a car.

"It's definitely fun," says Emily Slofstra, who doesn't own a car. "You're outside. You have adventures. It's exercise so you don't have to go to the gym. It's a nice way to interact with your neighbours."

"There's something so obviously good about being in nature and being outside," says Kyle Messier. "My ride home every day is a chance to decompress."

"It's my freedom," says Clifford Vanclief, who owns The Hub Bicycle Shop in Hespeler. "It's what I do and what I love. It's my rejuvenation. It gives me time to be in my head and I'm out in the fresh air, not stuck in a chemically environment (in the car)."

On your bike, it's easy to see what's around you, and simple to make a quick stop, if you see a nice shop or get a sudden urge for coffee, Vanclief says.

Exploring different bike routes on the commute offers the chance to discover new neighbourhoods and trails, says McDonough, who with Messier has been holding informal bike rides every couple of weeks from McPhail's Cycle & Sport in Waterloo to show people some of the routes in and around town. The trick, they say, is to stop thinking like a driver using main roads, and find the quieter streets and the off-road trails.

Scott Weldon commutes most days from his home in Waterloo to his job in Laurentian Hills in Kitchener. The trip is more than seven kilometres, and he rides it in less than 25 minutes. He believes if more people got out of their cars and gave cycling a try, they'd soon realize it's quicker and easier than they think.

He started a monthly "bagel and bike," in which his co-workers would meet at a local café and cycle from there to the school where they worked. "People kept saying, 'I can't believe how close it is.' 'I can't believe how good I feel.' "

More of us are discovering the pleasures of two-wheeled transport. As many as 1,800 cyclists a day use the popular Iron Horse and Spur Line trails. "Most local streets wouldn't see that many trips," says Waterloo's Hewitson. Trips on those two key trails peaks during morning and evening rush hours, which suggests people are biking to commute, rather than for recreation.

Local governments have successfully tapped in to funding from the provinces and Ottawa to build more cycling infrastructure. The region, for example, got funding to pay half the $3.8 million cost of a number of major projects, including widening and lighting part of the Iron Horse Trail and designing a trail connecting the Northfield LRT station to the St. Jacobs Farmers' Market.

The number of trips by bike doubled in the region from 2011-16. But they still account for only 1.4 per cent of all trips — much lower than in other regions, Hewitson says.

Divide and conquer

The way to increase the number of bike trips, many people believe, is to build more protected cycling infrastructure — bike paths that are physically separated from traffic by more than a narrow strip of reflective paint.

Separated cycling infrastructure can be bike trails along creek valleys and through parks, multi-use trails separated by a grass berm from the traffic on busy arteries like Fischer-Hallman Road, or segregated bike lanes, sometimes called cycle tracks. They're a type of bike lane that's new in our region where cyclists ride close to traffic but are physically separated from vehicles by a curb, bollards, planters or even parked cars. A separate story details the region's experiment with a separated network.

"Regional staff are working to get more people on bikes. That is our No. 1 focus on the cycling file," says Geoff Keyworth, Waterloo Region's acting manager of transportation planning. "So I'm looking at increased separation ... I would like to have separated bike facilities on every regional road."

That's also the view of CycleWR, a volunteer-led group working to make the region more bike-friendly. Members of the group are inviting candidates in this fall's municipal election to come for a ride and see what works and what doesn't for local cyclists.

"We want cycling to be a safe, respected and convenient mode of transportation for people of all ages and abilities," said Slofstra, the group's chair. "The only way that will happen is through better infrastructure."

Improvements are coming. Waterloo rebuilt the promenade through Waterloo Park with separate lanes for bikes and pedestrians, and is rebuilding the west end of Columbia Street with separate paths for bikes and walkers. Cambridge convinced the province to come up with a safer design for the Franklin Street bridge, to give cyclists a safer way to cross the 401.

Many of the planners, engineers and politicians responsible for improving our cycling infrastructure are themselves cyclists. Hewitson in Waterloo is a keen cyclist. Kitchener's manager of transportation planning and its general manager of development services are both avid cyclists who want to see better infrastructure for two wheels. Kitchener just doubled its full-time staff dedicated to promoting cycling, from one staffer to two.

A bowl of noodles

Despite those improvements, there's no coherent network of bike lanes and paths that take cyclists easily and efficiently to key destinations. "Trails are very nice, but they're not always the most direct," says Hewitson. "If we want to commute to work, we want the most direct route."

Any map of the region's cycling trails and paths looks more like a spilled bowl of noodles than a comprehensive transportation system — it's a squiggly sprawl of random routes that abruptly end and don't connect.

Weldon's commute takes him down the Iron Horse and through a couple of parks, but the trail ends abruptly at busy Westmount Road and the Conestoga Parkway, where he has to cross four lanes of busy traffic, with no crosswalk or traffic light.

"A traffic manager would never create a Highway 401 that just ended," says Weldon. "But if you design cycling infrastructure it's totally acceptable to just drop you at all these dangerous spots."

It's not unusual for cycling infrastructure to stop and start, almost randomly. On a 2.5-kilometre stretch of Lackner Boulevard, the bicycle lane appears and disappears no fewer than six times. At one spot, the sign that says, "Cycling lane ends" is easily visible from the sign that says "Cycling lane begins."

"We're in a transition where we have a lot of old roads where bike lanes were planned as an afterthought," concedes Keyworth. "We have a legacy of facilities that we built under previous policies. These facilities are being phased out (as roads are rebuilt) but it takes time."

Even some of the best cycling facilities in the region end abruptly and seemingly without logic. The Iron Horse Trail, a former CP Rail line, dribbles into nothingness around Ottawa Street. The Spur Line trail zips riders from uptown Waterloo through Midtown Kitchener. It runs beside a regional-owned rail line that is used by CN. Cyclists can then go down busy Weber Street as far as Victoria, after which there's no bike path, bike lane or even a sign pointing the way to other bike connections. Or they can continue down the Spur Line for a couple of hundred more metres, when it disappears.

Downtown Kitchener is an island without cycling lanes, Slofstra notes. "We hear from people who say, 'I would never bike downtown or to the market with my kids. There's no way. I wouldn't go.' To me downtown is a key, high-density area where you're going to want to encourage active transportation."

Slofstra, a nursing student who doesn't own a car, says it's challenging to bike from her home in Midtown Kitchener to Conestoga College. "It's very scary at times."

Cyclists like Robin Mazumder argue the area desperately needs a connected network of main routes that will take riders to key destinations. While the Spur Line and Iron Horse are great north-south connectors, and other streets like Margaret Avenue have wide, well-marked bike lanes, there are few east-west routes that are safe, direct and comfortable. Streets like Queen, Stirling Avenue, or Ottawa are good candidates for better bike lanes, says cyclist Nolan Andres.

"Connectivity is very important," Hewitson says. "If we want to encourage people cycling, they need to know there is a cycling route for the whole route they want to take, which is generally home to work. Where you have high-employment areas you need good connectivity to residential areas."

The excellent separated cycle lanes through uptown Waterloo includes cross-rides so cyclists are visible to turning vehicles. But as with most cycling infrastructure, they've attracted mixed reviews, with some cyclists arguing for a curb or other barriers between cars and bikes. The lanes run for only 350 metres or so. There are plans to extend them north to University Avenue over the next couple of years. The other stretch of separated bike lanes, along Manitou Drive, end abruptly at Homer Watson Boulevard.

The Conestoga Parkway and Highway 401, and the area's rivers, are major barriers that can limit connectivity.

Municipalities are making some efforts to create a linked network. The region is piloting a five-kilometre network in Waterloo next year. Waterloo has drawn up a "high-priority network" of 13 routes that would connect riders to most key areas, and plans to concentrate bike infrastructure spending on those routes. "Why improve four different routes in one 500-metre area when one meaningful improvement will carry up to 1000+ users per day?," the city says in its most recent cycling update.

The priority routes include excellent routes like Laurel Trail, but also Columbia Street, a busy road with up to 28,000 cars a day, a top spot for collisions and where cyclists have only painted lanes.

Sometimes the cycling infrastructure feels like it was shoehorned in as an afterthought, rather than designed as infrastructure to help people move efficiently through town. On Water Street in downtown Kitchener, for example, the bike lanes are so narrow the stencilled bicycle symbol spills into the driving lane.

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Even the best-loved cycling facilities have some problems. The Iron Horse and Spur Line cross multiple roads, usually without any traffic signal or even a crosswalk. "I think I counted 11 times you have to cross the road on the Iron Horse Trail," says Weldon. "There's no physical slowdown for cars."

The other thing that's obvious from looking at a bike map of the region is that there's a huge variety of different bike infrastructure. Cyclists face a dizzying array of cycling facilities, from excellent infrastructure that keeps cyclists, vehicles and pedestrians separate to narrow bike lanes that lead nowhere, to vast expanses where there is no infrastructure for bicycles at all. The west end of both Kitchener and Waterloo lack bike routes, while there's currently only one comfortable way for cyclists to cross the 401 without contending with speeding cars merging from or onto highways ramps.

Within a two-minute ride down Queen Street, cycling infrastructure changes five times, from sharrows — essentially a painted signal for cyclists and cars to share the road — to a bike lane painted on the side of the road, then to no bike lane, then to a painted line that suggests a very narrow bike lane, then access to the Iron Horse Trail.

That inconsistency is confusing for both drivers and cyclists, and confusion can lead to dangerous situations. There are so few bike boxes in the region — green painted boxes at intersections designed to allow a cyclist to stop in front of cars, and therefore be more visible — that most drivers and cyclists have no idea what they are, how to use them or that vehicles can't turn right on a red at a bike box.

The single most dangerous place on the road is at an intersection, where two-thirds of all collisions happen. Yet intersections are often where the biking infrastructure disappears.

"That's really where all my cycling infrastructure stops, at the stop light," says Weldon. "It's a huge anxiety builder."

Busy intersections like King and University, in the heart of the university district, where cyclists are numerous, have not only lots of cars, but also lots of pedestrians, Chapman says. "They have to find a safer way for all the different traffic that goes through there."

Intersections are "conflict zones" where different types of traffic — cars, trucks, buses, pedestrians and cyclists — converge and move off in different directions, says Hewitson. Only recently have traffic engineers incorporated designs into intersections to make it safer for cyclists, with separate cycling crosswalks, bike boxes and the green paint that signals to drivers to be extra vigilant.

"The green painted area is highlighting that the bike lane goes through a conflict zone," says Keyworth. Drivers and cyclists still need to be vigilant — even separated bike lanes don't protect bikes through intersections.

As my experience at Homer Watson Boulevard and Ottawa Street made clear, perhaps the most challenging intersections of all are roundabouts. They're proliferating along regional roads like mushrooms in a damp autumn, because they reduce the likelihood of serious car crashes. But they're challenging — and dangerous — for cyclists and pedestrians.

A 2016 University of British Columbia study looked at more than 40,000 crashes in Vancouver and found that roundabouts were safer than conventional intersections for people in cars, with 11 to 46 fewer injuries a year. But roundabouts were less safe for pedestrians, with zero to two more injuries a year, and were most dangerous for cyclists, who suffered 10 to 12 more injuries a year.

Biking and the LRT

Part of the reason we have such a disconnected bicycle network, road planners say, is that it's simply too expensive to build a bike network from scratch. Instead, bike facilities are added or improved as roads get rebuilt, something that can take 30 years or more.

But even where roads are being rebuilt, cycling can feel like a low priority.

The region's $800-million LRT project — its biggest push to get people out of their cars — is proving to be a royal pain for cyclists.

Roads like Weber, King, Duke, Charles, Borden and Courtland were rebuilt for the LRT, but with little to no new bike facilities. In fact, many cyclists complain, the LRT added new barriers that make it even tougher for bikes. CycleWR started up partly in reaction to the many lost opportunities when LRT was built.

The raised curb beside the LRT often acts as a barrier, cutting off cyclists' access to the paths and trails built for them. A cyclist headed west on Willis Way in Waterloo has to haul their bike over the LRT curb and tracks to get to the multi-use path on the far side of Caroline Street. A cyclist heading down the Iron Horse Trail at Charles Street runs into a similar barrier.

Bike lanes next to LRT tracks are narrow, and often the rails cross a street multiple times at sharp angles. Rails are a big hazard for bikes — wheels can get caught in the tracks, vaulting a cyclist over their handlebars and into the path of passing cars.

The problem, Hewitson says, is that in most cases, engineers and traffic planners are trying to insert cycling infrastructure into existing roads. And some roads — like Dundas Road in Cambridge or Victoria Street south of Park Street — even when rebuilt, aren't able to accommodate both bike lanes and traffic lanes.

"We're committed to growing cycling, but we also have to balance the needs of other users. We have significant traffic volumes, and the needs of transit and pedestrians as well," Keyworth says. In some cases adding bike facilities would mean removing a lane of traffic. "If we take traffic lanes away, we will cause traffic infiltration on other streets, and those streets are less able to accommodate the increased traffic."

Keyworth says that "I get it that people want more bike facilities. I want more bike facilities. But we don't have unlimited resources so we have to pick the streets where it's most practical."

In suburban neighbourhoods, where there's wide boulevards and few driveways, multi-use trails are popular with both cyclists and planners. But cyclists say the shared trails don't work as well where there are lots of pedestrians, or where traffic from cross streets can be surprised by fast-moving cyclists zipping down what looks like a sidewalk.

Changing attitudes

Road planners say despite the slow progress, the thinking has changed in favour of better cycling infrastructure. "When I started in transportation in 2003 it was pretty car-focused," Hewitson says. "There was no focus that cycling was part of the transportation network, Bike infrastructure was seen more from a recreational point of view."

Sometimes, politicians push harder for improved cycling infrastructure than road planners. In February, regional council pushed back against a staff plan to separate cars and bikes along University Avenue with a painted buffer and insisted on a design that protects cyclists with a curb.

Cyclists say the attitude from governments seems contradictory. The master plans and the visions make the case for cyclists and pedestrians, but the reality on the streets can be quite different. "If you read the region's transportation master plan, it talks about prioritizing walking and cycling, but if you walk on a regional road, you don't feel like the road was built for you," Slofstra points out.

CycleWR wants to encourage more awareness among politicians, and has been taking municipal candidates on bike rides, to show them where the system needs improving.

Public attitudes lag a bit further. Businesses like hairdressers or doctors' offices often don't provide bike racks, says Chapman, a clear signal that they don't see cyclists as important customers.

Many cycling projects face stiff resistance from local residents or businesses. Putting in the King Street cycle tracks was a "long, long battle," Keyworth says. "Travel lanes were taken away. The net loss of parking spots was low, but we had lots of businesses telling us, 'You're taking away travel lanes in front of my store. How are people going to get to my store?' We heard that loud and clear."

People fear a loss of parking, Hewitson says. "There is plenty of parking. It's just not as convenient as people want it to be. You have to walk a little bit. At any given time most of our parking lots are 60 to 70 per cent full. There's lots of room."

But usually, people come around once the cycling facilities are in, Hewitson says. "Most of the battles we've had, a year later people are thinking, 'Oh that was a good idea.' They object in the beginning — 'No-one's going to cycle here' — but they actually see people cycling when we provide these facilities."

Hardy Bromberg, Cambridge's deputy city manager for community development, says he's seen a similar shift in attitudes around things like the new pedestrian bridge in downtown Galt. Before it opened, critics derided it as a "bridge to nowhere." But it has proved to be hugely popular, Bromberg says, with thousands of people coming to use it the weekend it opened. "That tells me that there is a demand for alternative ways to get around our community," he says.

But some also argue that cyclists can help change attitudes by being courteous, consistent and clear on the roads.

Cyclists need to behave predictably to reduce the confusion and to keep things safer, Slofstra says. "You need to be predictable and you need to be visible," she says.

"If we're going to gain respect we should show respect," says Vanclief.

Better cycling infrastructure will lead to more cyclists, which will lead to better driver awareness, many cyclist believe. Weldon says that "I definitely am a much better driver, being a cyclist. If there's not enough room to pass safely, I slow down."

In the end, planners say it will take time.

"We're working on it," says Kitchener's Pimentel. "It's not going to happen overnight. There's progress. We're looking at separated facilities. Five years ago, that wasn't even on the radar."

A really connected, easy-to-use cycling network is probably decades away, Hewitson admits. "Portland, Oregon has a great network, but they've been at it for 30 years."

But it's an effort that is well worth it, he says. More cyclists will mean less congestion, cleaner air, healthier citizens. "And from a fiscal responsibility point of view, investing in cycling is a much better return than investing in road infrastructure. One kilometre of bike facility, even a separated cycling facility, is a lot cheaper than a road."

cthompson@therecord.com

Twitter: @ThompsonRecord

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