Cycling advocacy group shares safety tips, infrastructure wishes for Waterloo Region

As we come out of winter and into warmer spring-like conditions more people are cycling on local roadways.

A recent uptick in cyclist-related collisions has prompted a local advocacy group, CycleWR to share safety tips and new ideas for infrastructure they’d like to see implemented.

Patrick Bergsma, president of CycleWR spoke with CityNews Kitchener and noted, that for cyclists one of the best things you can do is use hand signals and wear reflective gear to increase visibility. In addition, having working front and rear-facing lights on your bicycle is vital.

For drivers, Bergsma said giving cyclists space and slowing down is paramount, as well as how you interact with bike lanes.

“If you see a bike lane whether is painted green or not, just assume that there is going to be someone there. Make it a good habit to look.”

In terms of infrastructure, Bergsma said intersections are key, and concepts like radial roundabouts, cyclist underpasses and continuous crossings should be the focus of new developments.

“When your mixing different modes of traffic, it’s key to have a more radial roundabout. Which means when you enter a roundabout, is essentially a bit more of a 90 degrees rather than a very tangential curve.”

Radial roundabouts are already being used in parts of Kitchener including at the Strasburg Road and Huron Road roundabout. While ideas such as pedestrian/cyclist underpasses are already being examined by municipalities.

Bergsma said despite this however, we are still years behind other countries like the Netherlands and he would like to see further developments in local biking infrastructure to increase safety.