It is difficult to ride to Kanata Research Park (KRP) from points east, and vice versa, without biking on a stretch of Carling between Moodie and Herzberg.
Why do cyclists end up here?Simple: There's no practical way to avoid it. Going eastCyclists take Carling starting at Herzberg. They ride east on Carling. If they know about Watts Creek, they often take Burke through to the path. Otherwise, they continue down Carling and merge dangerously at the bridge.
Going west
Cyclists have two choices, and neither of them are good.
| | | Choice 1 for going west: take Carling all the way. Go under the dangerous train bridge and ride on the road to avoid the bad shoulder. |
| | | Choice 2: To avoid as much of Carling as possible, take the Watts Creek path. This means a left turn from Carling onto Moodie, then another from Moodie to the path. Both turns mean crossing multi-lane fast traffic. At the end of the path, get on Burke and cross the dangerous intersection at Carling to get on the right side of the road. |
NCC Pathway down to March RoadWatts Creek leads down to March Road, but this isn't a reasonable path as it would add 15 minutes to the route. Most cyclists in this corridor will have a ride between 30 - 60 minutes, no cyclist would accept this detour. The map below shows the detour. | | | Map showing detour if a cyclist were going to follow Watts Creek Path down to the end, then go up March Rd. |
What we wantA safe, direct link from the NCC Watts Creek Pathway to Bayfield. We recognize this is expensive and difficult, but the land appears to be non-private land.
The diagrams below show the path for cyclists going in both directions. In neither case are there any dangerous intersections.
 | | Path of a cyclist going westbound. |
| | | Path of a cyclist going east bound. |
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