It’s been a long and winding road for these married cycling enthusiasts
who are peddling adaptive, electric and traditional bikes at their Wolseley
shop
*VIRTUOUS CYCLES*
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/business/2022/08/10/virtuous-cycles
WHEN the flowers are out, the doors are open. Open to the Wolseley resident
bringing their bike for repair. Open to the Treherne family buying their
first electric bikes. Open to the person in a wheelchair wanting to test an
adaptive bike.
“It’s all about getting people to ride, from whatever health and body
situation they have,” said Suzanne Druwé, co-owner of Prairie Velo.
She and Brian Szklarczuk, her husband, have planted their business at 967
Wolseley Ave., formerly known to locals as the Kit Kat building.
Gone are the freezers, linoleum floors and shelves of candy. Now, rows of
adaptive, electric and traditional bikes line the 1,800 square-foot space.
Outside, cyclists traverse a bike path. “Cycling is such a simple, core
thing that everyone should be allowed to do,” Szklarczuk said.
The pandemic, the rising cost of fuel and a shift towards environmentally
friendly practices have put cycling in the spotlight, Prairie Velo’s owners
noted.
However, the activity isn’t a recent passion for the couple.
Szklarczuk raced in Europe in the early ’90s as a young adult. He did so
with a hearing impairment.
Even when Szklarczuk returned to Winnipeg — pursuing grad school and a
career as an economist — cycling was top of mind, he said.
He and Druwé met on a blind date. Their trips abroad required a “cycling
component” for Szklarczuk, where he’d go on hours-long rides and then
shorter ones with his partner.
The couple visited friends in Sweden around six years ago and were
intrigued at how cycling was incorporated in Scandinavian daily life, Druwé
said.
“We felt that it was something permanent,” she said. “People were
rethinking the way they go about their business.”
The two imagined they could enter the corporate side of cycling back home.
Then, Druwé’s employer at the time — a francophone tourism company — asked
Szklarczuk to create Manitoba bike tours.
He did. And, he published an article called Prairie Velo Tour 2019 on
bikepacking.com.
Readers and tour-goers would ask where to purchase bikes, Szklarczuk said.
“I was sending people to buy bikes everywhere else,” he said. “We realized,
‘Why are we sending people to go shop there when we can do something?’”
Their e-commerce site launched in 2019. Szklarczuk said he used European
connections to secure foreign bike companies’ stock, including adaptive
models.
“Every year it was kind of a slow growth,” Szklarczuk said.
The company transitioned from delivering via a mobile van, to solely online
during the pandemic’s early phases, to a storefront venture that began in
December of 2020.
Renovations and permitting paused the shop’s opening until last fall, where
a nearly non-existent soft launch happened, Szklarczuk said.
Meantime, the couple has distributed electric and adaptive bikes across
Canada.
“You put e-assist on bikes and suddenly it changes everything,” Druwé said.
“Someone can actually take someone on a wheelchair out and cycle and not
kill themselves.”
THE bikes are not cheating, she noted — people use them to battle strong
winds in Manitoba’s rolling hills, to exercise despite joint pain, to keep
up with a spouse and to replace car use.
“We really wanted (Prairie Velo) to be appealing to a segment of society
who doesn’t naturally go into bike shops,” Druwé said.
Adaptive bikes cost thousands of dollars — north of $10,000, depending on
the model.
“These are huge purchases for people,” Druwé said.
The rides largely come from overseas, driving up the price, she said. The
motor for electric assist adds to the cost.
Some families get funding for adaptive bikes through Jordan’s Principle or
the Children’s Rehabilitation Foundation. Charities including the Knights
of Columbus and Make-A-Wish also buy bikes, Druwé said.
“We wish they didn’t cost so much, but they do,” she said, adding the
products are built to last.
“Many people with disabilities live on limited income… Buying a bike is not
often affordable,” said Kaye Grant, operations manager for the Manitoba
League of Persons with Disabilities.
There needs to be more affordable ways for folks with disabilities to
obtain bikes, like government subsidies, Grant said.
“Handi-Transit isn’t the answer to everything,” she said.
Prairie Velo also sells hand bikes, where users pedal with their arms
instead of their legs. The company is beginning to make its own.
“I realized there was a gap in the market for affordable hand bikes and
variety,” Szklarczuk said. “That’s where we really started thinking about
manufacturing.”
Some parts, including bike frames, will come from South American partners.
Much of the constructing will happen in Manitoba, Szklarczuk said.
“This is going to be a huge thing for us this winter,” said Druwé, looking
at a hand bike in the works at her Wolseley shop.
“We’re really going to be doing the whole nine yards on these this winter
because… there’s a real demand for them.”
The bikes will likely come to market in the spring, Druwé said. They’ll be
more affordable than imports, said the entrepreneurs, who hadn’t finalized
prices.
There’s an increased need for hand cycles, according to Jaylene Irwin,
Manitoba Possible’s supervisor of recreation and leisure. Adaptive bikes in
general have gained more popularity in recent years; they were introduced
to Manitoba Possible around four years ago, Irwin said.
“There is such a high need (for them),” she said.
Such bikes increase independence, mobility, strength and social
connections, Irwin said.
Getting people on bikes for the first time is among the best parts of the
job, Szklarczuk and Druwé agreed.
“It’s gratifying knowing that we’re… making a little difference in the
world, one set of wheels at a time,” Szklarczuk said.
gabrielle.piche(a)winnipegfreepress.com
Councillor resurrects timeworn notion of bringing LRT system into Winnipeg
Light rail rolls into city conversation
https://ground.news/article/light-rail-transit-pushed-back-into-city-conver…
THE decades-old debate on building light rail transit in Winnipeg may have
some spark left in it.
While noting city council may be seen as “going boldly into the past,”
Coun. Brian Mayes wants his colleagues to “seriously consider” adding light
rail construction in the future, following the lead of many other cities.
“I feel like we may have missed the generation in which to do bus rapid
transit. The city is growing… and I just feel like, why put in a network of
BRT lines and then, the day you finish, start tearing them out because now
you’re up to a million people and you want LRT?” said Mayes.
Winnipeg city council has debated the best way to ramp up its public
transportation for decades, debating a light rail rapid transit option off
and on since at least the 1970s. Eventually, the city settled on a bus
rapid transit system and completed one dedicated corridor in 2020. The
southwest rapid transitway was a two-phase project with a combined cost of
$556 million.
Last year, council approved a 25-year Transit Master Plan that aims to
create a network of six rapid transit corridors, which are again expected
to rely on buses.
Since the city has only completed one rapid transit line so far, Mayes said
it makes sense to re-evaluate how best to move forward, noting Ottawa,
Calgary and Edmonton all have light rail transit.
“(Light rail) would attract more people. I think some people who wouldn’t
ride on a bus would ride on a train. You can use electric power and
(Manitoba is) rich on electric power,” said Mayes.
The councillor doesn’t have a current cost estimate for a light rail
system, but said the city could seek provincial and federal funding to help
cover it, while the construction could also eliminate the need to add
another lane of traffic for the oft-congested St. Mary’s Road.
While he’s not sure LRT would be feasible for all future rapid transit
routes, Mayes suggests a St. Mary’s Road to Main Street line, as well as a
Portage Avenue to Point Douglas or Portage Avenue to Provencher Boulevard
line, may make sense.
A Winnipeg Transit spokeswoman confirmed the city’s main reason to not
pursue light rail transit was to save money. However, the BRT system also
benefits from creating routes that can be shared with other buses, while
the smaller vehicles may also allow more frequent pickups than some LRT
systems, Alissa Clark said in an email.
Clark said each kilometre of an LRT route would be expected to cost two to
four times more to build than a BRT kilometre.
While the Winnipeg Transit Master Plan calls for bus rapid transit
infrastructure, such as bridges and tunnels, to be designed to fit trains
in the future, “there would remain a significant cost to retrofitting the
line,” wrote Clark.
However, the potential cost shouldn’t stop Winnipeg from considering the
idea, according to Jino Distasio, a professor of urban geography at the
University of Winnipeg. “We have fallen decades and decades behind other
cities… that aren’t necessarily that much bigger than what we’re going to
be… The traffic is going to continue to get worse and worse and worse,
unless we have a credible alternative to the automobile, paired with good
planning,” said Distasio.
While he acknowledged a complete light rail system would require a
“generational capital investment,” the professor said it may be warranted.
“If Winnipeg truly wants to be a competitive city, we at least have to have
a very vigorous debate again about this… The fundamental difference from
all the previous discussions, going back even into the 1970s, is the fact
that the last 20 years have been like no other for this city (with
substantive growth).”
Coun. Matt Allard, chairman of council’s public works committee, said he’s
open to the discussion — though he stressed the current blueprint must
remain the top priority.
“I’m certainly open minded to the idea, but also mindful that we need to
charge ahead with the master plan,” said Allard. “If there was a light rail
transit project to be considered, it’s got to make sense in terms of our
tax dollars, in the staging and where we’re at (with) the plan, citywide.”
Coun. Jeff Browaty, finance committee chairman, said he is convinced the
current plan is the best option.
“To build a (light rail) network that would actually be serviceable, that
would actually go far enough out to be useful, it’s too expensive,” said
Browaty. “I still think a better investment in time and resources is to
provide more frequent service to more places throughout the city network.”
joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga
OTTAWA, ON, July 29, 2022 /CNW/ - Today, the Honourable Dominic LeBlanc,
Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs, Infrastructure and Communities,
announced the launch of public consultations on the design and
implementation of Permanent Public Transit funding in Canada. Feedback will
inform a long-term transit investment strategy that aims to build complete,
sustainable and inclusive communities and unlock opportunities to address
other challenges, including housing affordability.
Investments in public transit will work toward reducing commute times and
improving Canadians' quality of life, aid in providing access to meaningful
employment, services and recreation and will help tackle traffic congestion
and cut air pollution.
*Interested stakeholders can share their feedback through Infrastructure
Canada's web page
<https://c212.net/c/link/?t=0&l=en&o=3607932-1&h=2725479515&u=https%3A%2F%2F…>
until September 30, 2022*.
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/the-government-of-canada-launches-con…