Margaret Ave Road Diet - Kitchener

[Waterlooer]

I agree... the road is currently very large, easily could be a 3 lane road. A boulevard and bike lanes are needed.

[KevinL]

And with the widening of Weber, there's a place for traffic to go if they find this too constraining. Great move.

[jallen]

Sounds great! I lived on Margaret Ave until I was about two years old and it's great to see some changes coming - I'm looking forward to the bike lanes (in the absence of any being put in on Weber).

[bzmwillemsen]

I would love to see the cities first segregated 2-way bike line here.

Hide it behind the parking spots and make it extra wide, there is so much room here and it's the perfect spot to encourage some bike traffic.

I would also love to see a plan to connect new pedestrian walk-ways or bike lanes to downtown via queen stree

[zanate]

Chris,

I hope that you can make the public meeting. It appears that the meeting is intended for residents only, and the city needs to hear local support for the change.

This is fantastic news, and a great use of Margaret Avenue. It could provide cycle-friendly access to Queen St. and the downtown, and will hook up with the 1 Adam St. development. I foresee an overflow problem during the Weber St. construction, but after that we should be able to look to Weber to be a high-traffic corridor like Victoria (for better or for worse) taking the pressure off this road.

Whose ear do we have to whisper in for parking-segregated bike lanes?

[Chris.Day]

Chris,

I hope that you can make the public meeting. It appears that the meeting is intended for residents only, and the city needs to hear local support for the change.

This is fantastic news, and a great use of Margaret Avenue. It could provide cycle-friendly access to Queen St. and the downtown, and will hook up with the 1 Adam St. development. I foresee an overflow problem during the Weber St. construction, but after that we should be able to look to Weber to be a high-traffic corridor like Victoria (for better or for worse) taking the pressure off this road.

Whose ear do we have to whisper in for parking-segregated bike lanes?

Unfortunately I can't make it but my wife will go and provide me with live updates via BBM. I plan on sending my thoughts to Dan Glenn Graham who is the councilor for ward 10. dan.glenn-graham@kitchener.ca

It might also be worthwhile to send thoughts to Yvonne Fernandes who is the councilor on the cycling advisory committee. yvonne.fernandes@kitchener.ca

At the 1 Adam Street meetings they have used Davenport as the example of what they envision for Margaret Ave.

With the widening of Weber and the rail overpasses coming soon for Weber and King that will help reduce traffic on Margaret for people that use it solely because it already has an overpass.

Chris

[zanate]

I had an interesting discussion with a friend about this road treatment. It's not really much of a "road diet" because there are very little in the way of extra lanes to remove (if any! maybe some of the turn lanes on the bridge might be curtailed.) But, Margaret is massively overwide around Wellington. It was my impression that people tended to assume a defacto right-turn lane on Margaret at Wellington (see this streetview image for reference) but she disagreed, and she is a much more frequent user of the road than me.

Still, that streetview shows how massively much width is given to this street, that could be better used. Narrower and fewer lanes would keep traffic speeds down and make this a more pleasant corridor. Though hopefully if they add bike lanes to Margaret, they won't screw it up so spectacularly as they did on northbound Davenport by Old Abbey. (Take a look next time...)

[zanate]

Short summary from last night's meeting, which I was reminded of when I sat down yesterday evening and saw it mentioned on the news (fortunately it's a short ride away):

Mostly bike lanes, painted parking (on the outside, no segregated bike lanes this time) and a bit of lane reduction over the bridge and at one or two intersections. No surprises.

I posted some pictures and did a more detailed writeup here. Not in a position to upload them here right now (on mobile), but if someone else wants to, be my guest.

[Waterlooer]

Thanks for posting pictures.

[EdTheTed]

I think the traffic circle at Margaret and Union is one of the most poorly thought out. You cannot see it at night. Not sure if it is relevant to the "diet" discussion.

[panamaniac]

I think the traffic circle at Margaret and Union is one of the most poorly thought out. You cannot see it at night. Not sure if it is relevant to the "diet" discussion.

I am surprised that there would be a problem with it. It's just a T-intersection and it is well lit at night.

[markster]

I actually prefer the Margaret roundabout to some of the over-sized ones.
It's low enough for your car to safely mount it, so if you're going fast enough to (a) not see it in time, and (b) be severely jostled when you hit the bump, it is likely that you aren't approaching the intersection with the level of caution you should be. Note that there is a yield sign before the intersection!

[zanate]

I have seen instances of northbound traffic treating it as a straight-through that they don't need to think about, including a near miss. But I don't know if this roundabout has unique problems.

Northbound traffic is coming up with the speeds they're accustomed to on the wide-open Margaret Avenue in Kitchener. Maybe it's optimistic of me, but there's a chance that they'll knock a few km/h off their approach if they're driving up a calmed and dieted Margaret Avenue instead.

[Chris.Day]

The city has marked off the parking and bikes lanes on Margaret. If you travel on Margaret you can see the purple markings from Victoria St to where the lanes pick-up again near the roundabout. It's hard to make out in the picture but you can see here that they've placed the bike lane on the outside of the new street parking.

I'm not sure what the lead time is from the marking of the lanes to painting them but hopefully its not too long.

[zanate]

The cyclist on the sidewalk in the background of this picture speaks volumes. I wonder: will cycle lanes be enough to change his habits?

I'm still looking forward to the work, though. It should have a calming influence on traffic, and be better for cycling than what's there now.