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16 tweets,
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1/ This is a thread about the @CityKitchener bike infrastructure planned for Young St in the Old Berlin neighbourhood. The design is for a contra-flow bike lane and includes an important less busy xing for people on bikes to cross Weber St (urban hwy).
Info about the recent city council meeting that made (imo) an unfriendly ammendment to the committee-level planned design is here:
3/ here is what city planners intended this route to be (traveling from Ahrens toward Margaret). Note that this was the route was brought to a public consultation and supported:
4/ originally intended route, traveling from Margaret toward Ahrens (there's even a bonus truck blowing a stop sign):
5/ Here is the ammended/passed-as-ammended route that saves 7 parking spots in favour of a less safe, less direct cycle route. It takes us twice as long (~30s more) because it's uphill, and it requires my 7yo to navigate a bonus left turn.
6/ finally, here is the return trip (from Margaret toward Ahrens) on the amended route (woops, I misspelled "amended" in my previous tweet). A little quicker as it's downhill, still requires a bonus left turn. It will require intersection treatments to be AAA.
7/ The unfriendly, amended design (blue) will need a bigger budget to be safe, because it requires consideration for 3 safe intersections (yellow, black, red) instead of only 2 (yellow, red) on the purple path (original design, supported by public consultation. 
8/ This design change was made with disregard for the city engineers who are working hard to make active transportation a viable alternative to driving everywhere in this city.
The new design is less safe for the intended users.
It is not a cosmetic change, it's a big deal.
The new design is less safe for the intended users.
It is not a cosmetic change, it's a big deal.
9/ I have only like 29 followers so probably few will read this, but I figure the least I can do is put a visual out there so people can really see the difference in the design. This comparison *should* have been prepared by the councillors opposed to the motion as prepared.
10/ We need to defer to our experts and our public consultations for this sort of change.
Also. There is free parking on Maynard, where the grey truck parked.
Thank you. That is all.
Also. There is free parking on Maynard, where the grey truck parked.
Thank you. That is all.
A couple of tweets seem to be missing so here:
