Finding the way
Kitchener hopes to install signs next year along paths and trails
KITCHENER — A vast network of bike paths and trails snakes through Kitchener’s greenways and parks. But almost the entire network is devoid of any signs or guides to help trail users find their way.
That’s something the city hopes to work on over the next few years, says Jonn Barton, a project manager for the city who’s responsible for trails.
The city has a network of about 200 kilometres of trails and multi-use pathways, but only two trails — the Iron Horse Trail and the TransCanada Trail — have any formal signage, he said.
The lack of signage makes the trail network less useful as a piece of the city’s transportation system, he said. “There’s no sign that says, ‘This trail will take you all they way from Point A to Point B.’ It’s just follow the trail and see where it goes.”
Even a member of the city’s cycling and trails advisory committee was recently surprised to learn that a trail very close to her home could actually take her downtown, he said.
Trails can often be in green areas without clear landmarks, and can emerge onto streets in midblock, where there aren’t any street signs, so that trail users may not even know which street they’re looking at. Installing signs would reduce the guesswork, and allow even someone from out of town to be able to navigate the system easily.
“It’s a priority for me,” Barton said. “I basically want to make sure it gets addressed. We haven’t had the resources to do it, and it’s becoming a very apparent gap in our trail infrastructure.”
Cambridge and Waterloo have begun installing signs on their trails, and Kitchener will likely draw on their experiences as well as those of other cities, Barton said. But it’s unlikely there will be a regionwide standard trail sign used by all the municipalities in Waterloo Region, he said.
There’s no set budget for signage, Barton said, but about $50,000 could be allocated out of the overall trails budget to create signs.
The project is in its very early stages, Barton said.
He has asked the trails advisory committee to suggest key areas where signage should go, and to suggest the type of information that signs should include.
The city is also scheduled to carry out a master plan for its trail network, and some of that work could help determine key locations for signage.
The city will likely consult the public about trail signage sometime next year. If all goes well, Barton hopes to see signs on at least some Kitchener trails by summer 2018.