Kitchener holding ‘workshops on wheels’
Staff want feedback on what it’s like to walk or ride in the city
KITCHENER — The City of Kitchener is taking to the streets to hear from people about its cycling priorities, holding 10 rides and two walks around the city this summer to get input for its pedestrian and cycling master plan.
The rides, which the city describes as “workshops on wheels,” will be held in each of the city’s 10 wards in July, August and September. They will be five to 10 kilometres and geared to cyclists of all abilities. The city will also hold two walks on city trails, one in the suburbs and downtown.
“We’re trying to make this a fun, enjoyable ride while also getting some specific feedback on the experience of walking or cycling in Kitchener,” said Darren Kropf, who recently became the city’s second employee dedicated full time to active transportation such as cycling. He has a background in community engagement and worked on the extensive consultations for Kitchener’s popular neighbourhood strategy.
“We want to know what people enjoy about cycling, and, just as importantly, what they don’t enjoy,” Kropf said.
Kitchener is updating its cycling master plan and combining it with its trails master plan, said Danny Pimentel, Kitchener’s manager of active transportation. That review will take a hard look at priorities, with the aim of “filling in the gaps and creating a connected network (of cycling paths and lanes) available to all ages and abilities,” he says.
The city approved a cycling master plan in 2010 that spells out its priorities for putting in bike lanes and other cycling infrastructure.
But the plan has been criticized by cycling advocates because the budget to implement it is tiny. Kitchener spends $300,000 to $350,000 a year on cycling infrastructure, just 1.1 per cent of the $27 million spent in 2015 for road reconstruction, and a fraction of what’s needed to build a connected cycling network. By comparison, Calgary budgeted $7.5 million in 2016-17 to build a 7.8-kilometre cycling grid.
And many residents aren’t happy with Kitchener’s bike plan, saying they weren’t consulted when the plan was approved, only to find out years later that their street is getting bike lanes.
Council gets resistance whenever the city plans to put in a bike lane, said Coun. Yvonne Fernandes. Residents come to council asking, “‘What’s this cycling master plan? We never heard about it.’ How do we get the community to know this is happening so we don’t get pushback?”
The city wants the updated plan to spell out a core network of connected bike routes across the city. It also aims to find out what discourages people from cycling or walking and to double, in five years and again in 10, the number of biking and walking trips that people take.
That’s why the update will include lots of input from the public, from the rides this summer to workshops, surveys and more this fall and winter, Kropf said.
“If we’re going to put costs on this and we’re going to have that ask (of council), we’re going to need to demonstrate there’s broad community support. It won’t be enough to say, ‘We talked to 100 people who are already cyclists,’” he told the city’s cycling advisory committee this week.
The city hopes to have the plan updated by fall 2019. Details on where and when the rides will take place will be posted at bikekitchener.ca.