Residents have say on Wolseley-downtown plan
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/residents-have-say-on-wolseley-down…
A SWARM of Wolseleyites, West Enders, and other Winnipeggers descended on a
Wednesday night open house to give feedback on the latest iteration of the
Wolseley to Downtown Walk Bike Project — an ambitious plan that promises to
transform areatransportation.
The event packed the lecture hall at Westminster United Church, with a line
of attendees snaking out the door and down the street.
Chris Baker, an active transportation co-ordinator with the City of
Winnipeg public works department, said the plans, maps, graphics and
information on display to the public represented the recommended design for
the project, following two previous rounds of public engagement.
“But that being said, we’re here to collect meaningful feedback from the public
and have meaningful conversations,” Baker said. “So once we collate all
this, the online survey and tonight’s feedback, there’s still an
opportunity to change the design, make some refinements. If we missed
something, or missed the mark, we’ll be able to refine the design and make
it the best it can be, and the most palatable for the most people.”
Canora Street resident Chris Brown showed up with three pages of detailed
notes outlining his concerns about how the plan intends to deal with
rush-hour motorists who cut through Wolseley by converting sections of
Westminster and Wolseley avenues into westbound, one-way streets.
“What everyone I’ve heard say is: leave Westminster alone,” Brown said,
explaining the plan will inadvertently shunt shortcutters onto his
residential street.
James Plett, who lives in West Broadway, was also concerned about the
impact of proposed one-way streets in his neighbourhood.
“My work location is never in the same location, so sometimes I need to go
east and head down to Osborne (Street). And if the one-way is put in, that
means I would have to go west onto Broadway, which is already a backed-up
street. And this will definitelycause more people to start using Broadway.”
Luanne Karn said she took part in previous phases of the consultations, in
a successful effort to prevent a Transit bus from being run on Home Street.
“It was both a good public engagement process, but also very negative in
that it just came out of the blue at us,” she said. “I’m also concerned
that they haven’t addressed the issue of cut-through traffic very well.”
Marianne Cerelli, chairwoman of the Wolseley Residents Association, said she
had some misgivings about the way public consultations had been done. Her
group is holding a community meeting to discuss the plan, Feb. 10 at the
Westminster Housing Co-op.
“But all of that said, I think most people support active transportation,”
said Cerelli. “They support having a bike corridor, they want people to be
safe on their bicycles, they want people to be safer walking, they want to
reduce the speed and the cut-throughs through the neighbourhood.
“But the high-interventionist nature of the proposal has caught people
off-guard, so I think they need to bring people along a little bit better,
through a better engagement process.”
Baker stressed the plan is still open to adjustment. An online survey on
the project remains open until Feb. 9.
solomon.israel(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @sol_israel
UTSA researchers review security risks for e-scooters and riders<https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/01/20200128-usta.html>
28 January 2020<https://www.greencarcongress.com/2020/01/20200128-usta.html>
Researchers at the University of Texas San Antonio have published<https://www.utsa.edu/today/2020/01/story/escooter-hacking.html> a review of the security and privacy risks posed by e-scooters and their related software services and applications.
We were already investigating the risks posed by these micromobility vehicles to pedestrians' safety. During that study, we also realized that besides significant safety concerns, this new transportation paradigm brings forth new cybersecurity and privacy risks as well.
-Murtuza Jadliwala, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science, who led this study
According to the review, which will appear in the proceedings of the 2nd ACM Workshop on Automotive and Aerial Vehicle Security (AutoSec 2020<http://www.codaspy.org/2020/AutoSec2020/index.html>), hackers can cause a series of attacks, including eavesdropping on users and even spoof GPS systems to direct riders to unintended locations. Vendors of e-scooters can suffer denial-of-service attacks and data leaks.
<https://bioage.typepad.com/.a/6a00d8341c4fbe53ef0240a4e0cc6e200d-popup>
HAPPY TRAILS
Terry Zdan, BA MEDes
*Crosswalk collision leaves man in hospital *
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/crosswalk-collisions-continue-after…
FOR the second time in as many months, a pedestrian was hit by a car near a
crosswalk on Ness Avenue Wednesday.
The crosswalk collisions follow a year that saw the highest number of
pedestrian deaths ever in the province.
And the city is already looking to see if improvements need to be made at
one of the crossings, according to a city councillor.
Brian Smiley, a spokesman for Manitoba Public Insurance, confirmed on
Wednesday that 17 Manitoba pedestrians — nine in Winnipeg, three in other
urban centres and five in rural areas — died after being hit by vehicles in
2019.
Until last year, the most pedestrian deaths in a single year in this
province was 16 in 2007, Smiley said.
“Both pedestrians and motorists are entitled to use the roadways. It’s
hoped both groups are safety aware and act accordingly. One death is too
many,” he said.
According to MPI statistics, on average about 12 pedestrians are killed by
vehicles in the province. About half of them are killed at an intersection,
while one in 10 deaths occur while they are walking on the road or crossing
between intersections.
On Wednesday, a man was hit by a car in the Sturgeon Heights area at about
6:30 a.m. The man was rushed from the site in front of Sturgeon Heights
Collegiate in critical condition, but later was upgraded to stable, police
said.
The stretch of Ness Avenue was closed following the accident, but reopened
later in the morning.
Last month, two teenaged pedestrians were struck by a car as they walked
across the street at the crosswalk at Ness Avenue at Woodlawn Street.
The teens were taken to hospital in unstable condition, but later upgraded
to stable.
Area Coun. Scott Gillingham (St. James-Brooklands-Weston) said on Wednesday
he will look further into how the latest collision occurred.
The city is already exploring whether the crossing where the teens were
injured needs to be upgraded with eye-level, flashing LED lights,
Gillingham said. That type of system was installed at the crosswalk on St.
Anne’s Road in the wake of a 2018 collision where an eight-year-old child
was struck and killed while crossing the busy street at Varennes Avenue.
“They’ve been installed at a handful of locations,” he said. “The
department is looking to see if that is an appropriate place to put them.
Now I will be looking into this one to try to understand the events
surrounding this collision.
“Unfortunately, it is another reminder that motorists really need to be
aware while they are driving and that they are driving to conditions, and
for pedestrians to always be aware of the vehicles around them.”
kevin.rollason(a)freepress.mb.ca
Pedestrian safety, business development cited as reasons for change
Speed limit reduced on Marion, Goulet
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/permanent-speed-reductions-for-sect…
TRAFFIC on two major streets in St.
Boniface will have to slow down starting today and the councillor for the
area calls that a sign of progress.
“Marion and Goulet are not freeways through the heart of St. Boniface,”
said Coun. Matt Allard in a statement.
The speed limit on Marion and Goulet between St. Mary’s Road and Youville
Street has been reduced to 50 km/h, from 60 km/h.
Allard said the speed reduction is needed to make the area safer for
pedestrians and promote development.
“It has long been a goal of the St. Boniface community... to grow Marion
and Goulet into the neighbourhood main streets they can be, and indeed once
were,” Allard said. “The (60 km/h) speed limit is a barrier to the
realization of that goal.”
The streets, which have a mix of businesses and restaurants, are near St.
Boniface Hospital and other community resources.
Allard and the local business improvement zone have wanted to reduce the
speed limit for years.
In 2017, Allard launched his bid to change the speed limit, and St.
Boniface neighbourhood associations passed resolutions in its favour. The
motion failed. At the time, the provincial Highway Traffic Board had
jurisdiction over municipal speed limits, and it ruled against the
reduction.
After lobbying by the Association of Manitoba Municipalities, the province
passed the Traffic and Transportation Modernization Act, which eliminated the
Highway Traffic Board and gave municipalities control over speed limits.
The act came into effect in March 2019.
Marion and Goulet are the first major Winnipeg streets to have their speed
limits reduced under the new protocol.
ben.waldman(a)freepress.mb.ca
Hi Beth,
Please share with the network.
Wendy Chapman
Injury Prevention Coordinator
Injury Prevention Program
Winnipeg Regional Health Authority
2nd - 490 Hargrave Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3A 0X7
Phone: (204) 391-0949
Scent Free Facility - visitors are asked to refrain from wearing perfumes/colognes/heavy-scented lotions/oils
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Ce courriel et tout document dans cette transmission est destiné à la personne ou aux personnes à qui il est adressé. Il peut contenir des informations privilégiées ou confidentielles. Toute utilisation, divulgation, distribution, copie, ou diffusion non autorisée est strictement défendue. Si vous n'êtes pas le destinataire de ce message, veuillez en informer l'expéditeur immédiatement et lui remettre l'original.
*Thanks to Terry Zdan for the share...*
*Data Mining to Improve Planning for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety*
https://www.vtti.vt.edu/utc/safe-d/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/01-003_Final-…
*Abstract*
Between 2009 and 2016, the number of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities
saw a marked trend upward. Taken together, the overall percentage of
pedestrian and bicycle crashes now accounts for 18% of total roadway
fatalities, up from 13% only a decade ago. Technological advancements in
transportation have created unique opportunities to explore and investigate
new sources of data for the purpose of improving safety planning. This
study investigated data from multiple sources, including automated
pedestrian and bicycle counters, video cameras, crash databases, and
GPS/mobile applications, to inform bicycle and pedestrian safety
improvements. Data mining techniques, a new sampling strategy, and
automated video processing methods were adopted to demonstrate a holistic
approach that can be applied to identify facilities with highest need of
improvement. To estimate pedestrian and bicyclist counts at intersections,
exposure models were developed incorporating explanatory variables from a
broad spectrum of data sources. Intersection-related crashes and estimated
exposure were used to quantify risk, enabling identification of high-risk
signalized intersections for walking and bicycling. The modeling framework
and data sources used in this study will be beneficial in conducting future
analyses for other facility types, such as roadway segments, and also at
more aggregate levels, such as traffic analysis zones.
*Conclusions and Recommendations*
While statistics show an increasing trend in using eco-friendly modes of
travel, such as walking and bicycling, historical crash data shows a
growing trend in road crash victims involving pedestrians and bicyclists.
Utilizing multiple data sources, such as automated pedestrian and bicycle
counters and video cameras, this study estimated pedestrian and bicyclist
exposure and identified signalized intersections with the highest risk for
walking and bicycling within the city of San Diego, California.
A sampling strategy was used to identify a representative sample of
intersections to collect short-term video data by applying cluster analysis
and stratified sampling. A vision-based monitoring system was developed to
automatically detect, track, and count pedestrians and bicyclists at the
selected intersections. Situations where high-quality videos were used, a
sufficient number of pedestrians and bicyclists were annotated, pedestrians
and bicyclists were not too far from the camera, did not cross the
intersection in groups, and good lighting was present, led to a high
counting accuracy of 95%. Utilizing permanent counters, an extrapolation
and a novel matching method were employed to estimate yearly counts that
were used for estimating exposure by direct demand models. Exposure
analysis identified transportation network, population, traffic generator,
and land use variables as statistically significant in estimating
pedestrian and bicyclist volume. Accounting for exposure as a normalization
factor and considering other factors, such as frequency of victims and
crash severity, in quantifying risk had a significant impact on the
selection of high-risk intersections; not all intersections with the
highest number of pedestrian and bicyclist victims were identified as
high-risk. In addition, the variables were found to be influential at
multiple buffer areas and showed differences across pedestrian and bicycle
activity. The results underscored the importance of location and community
in characterizing non-motorized demand, and targeted improvements to
encourage non-motorized activities.
The modeling framework and data sources used in this study will be
beneficial in conducting future analyses for other facility types, such as
roadway segments, and also at more aggregate levels, such as traffic
analysis zones. The approach is also beneficial to public agencies, as it
can help quantify the risk of walking and bicycling at intersections, which
in turn can aid in the development of procedures to identify high-risk
facilities and prioritize them for countermeasure implementation. It should
be pointed out that safety performance functions were not considered in
this study, and thus potential future work might focus on how a combination
of risk quantification and performance functions can assess safety. Since
crashes are rare events, the identification of high-risk facilities will be
lengthy, and a potential future direction is to proactively assess safety
by discovering near-crash situations in video analysis. This would enable
researchers and practitioners to quantify risk and evaluate safety in a
much shorter period of time.
--
Beth McKechnie (she/her) *| *Green Action Centre
<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/>
3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x102 | Find us here
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>
Green Action Centre is your green living hub
Support our work by becoming a member
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at
CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/>
<http://www.gomanitoba.ca>
*Please note we are circulating this as information in case you want to
view this free APBP webinar on your own. We are not able to host a group
viewing at the EcoCentre. Sounds interesting!*
January 17 at Noon-1:30pm
Free Island Press Webinar: New Discoveries and New Work: Jeff Speck and
Jarrett Walker Explore Lessons Learned from Walkable City and Human Transit
Register here
<http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001H6HvCU7VhjCB7du_g-BVhmC-pEj1Sn96i6vLpzvHQEwc…>
Walkable City and Human Transit, both published in 2012, are two of the
most important planning books of the past decade. A lot has happened since
2012, however, and authors Jeff Speck and Jarrett Walker have had ample
opportunities since then to put their ideas to work, evaluate the outcomes
and refine their positions.
Join the Smart Growth Network and the Maryland Department of Planning at
noon on Friday, January 17th, as they share their recent insights, projects
on the boards, and take part in what promises to be a lively conversation
with each other and webinar participants. Have your questions ready!
--
Beth McKechnie (she/her) *| *Green Action Centre
<http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/>
3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x102 | Find us here
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/>
Green Action Centre is your green living hub
Support our work by becoming a member
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at
CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/>
<http://www.gomanitoba.ca>
Please join Green Action Centre and Bike Winnipeg for a group viewing of
the monthly APBP webinar in the EcoCentre
<http://greenactioncentre.ca/uncategorized/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-o…>
boardroom.
This will be followed by discussion for those who wish to stay.
* * * * *
Wed, Jan 15th, 2-3pm
Active Transportation Planning Through Health in All Policies
Public health and planning professionals working together to advance active
transportation goals is not a new idea, but has become increasingly more
popular as both professions have seen the value in partnership. This
webinar will focus on a Health in All Policies approach to active
transportation planning through data collection, prioritization, and
cross-sector collaboration. Health in All Policies is a collaborative
approach to improve the health of all people by incorporating health
considerations into non-health decision-making sectors and policy areas.
Presenters:
Alison Redenz, Marion County Public Health Department
Logan Lane, Health by Design
Jodi Raymond, Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health