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CBC: Electric car share program aims to break transportation barriers in rural Manitoba (Jul13'26)
by Beth McKechnie 13 Jul '26

13 Jul '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Red River Rides offers accessible transportation option in St-Pierre, RMs of Ritchot and De Salaberry https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/rural-electric-car-share-program-9.… For many people in rural Manitoba, buses, taxis and public transit are simply not an option. But a new car share program, which features a fleet made up entirely of electric cars, is working to make getting around a bit easier. Red River Rides launched in February this year in the village of St-Pierre-Jolys — about 50 kilometres south of Winnipeg — and the neighbouring rural municipalities of Ritchot and De Salaberry. The three municipalities are jointly operating what they call the "community-based" program, and say it's the first fully electric rural car share program in the province. The car share allows residents in those regions to book one of 10 vehicles — including electric SUVs, vans and trucks. Tina Bubenzer, the chief administrative officer for the Village of St-Pierre-Jolys, says the lack of public transit in rural communities can make it hard for many people, including seniors, students or newcomers, to get around. She thinks the car share will help. "Rural communities are a great place to live and raise your family. You have quality of life here," Bubezner said. "The village is growing and we want to continue to make the village an accessible option for different people to come and live." The car share can also help address affordability issues, she said. "A student can use this vehicle … to make transportation affordable for them to go to university." Bubenzer said it's taking some time for people in St-Pierre to adopt the program, but the village is holding information sessions about what the car share is and how to use it. The program is open to anyone in the participating communities who has a regular Class 5 driver's licence and is over the age of 18. Users download an app that allows them to make bookings, up to a month in advance, and also unlocks the vehicles. The first three months are free, and users can then choose between a $5 per month or $20 per month subscription, based on how frequently they plan to use the vehicles. They then pay an additional usage charge based on either how many hours or kilometres the vehicle is used for. There are public Level 2 charging stations — higher-voltage chargers that charge vehicles much quicker<https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/level-2-ev-charging-1.7527822> than standard power outlets — in several communities within the municipalities, including Île-des-Chênes and St. Adolphe. Funding for the program comes from all three levels of government, but Bubenzer said partnering with other communities has been valuable in rolling out the program. Rural Municipality of Ritchot Mayor Chris Ewen said he was skeptical at first about whether residents would adopt the program, but he's now "full force" behind it, after hearing positive feedback from community members and taking part in the program himself — despite owning two vehicles of his own. He hopes the car share will make it easier for more people to consider life in the country. "I have seen missed opportunities with immigration, where people are looking at living in larger hubs because they don't have the availability of a vehicle," Ewen said. "If we can kind of cross that off their concerns, that's one step closer to [them] becoming a member in rural Manitoba."

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Engineer helped create modern mountain bike era
by Beth McKechnie 11 Jul '26

11 Jul '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Engineer helped create modern mountain bike era CHARLIE Cunningham, a pioneer of modern mountain biking who viewed bicycles as a means of combining technology and nature in a friendly symbiosis that the automobile could never match, died June 2 in San Anselmo, Calif., north of San Francisco. He was 77. His death, at a care facility, was from complications of a 2015 biking accident in which he sustained severe head trauma, said his wife, Jacqueline Phelan, a writer and former national offroad biking champion who is his only immediate survivor. While cyclists have ridden on dirt roads and trails since the 1800s, the era of modern mountain biking began in the late 1960s and early ’70s. In Marin County, Calif., enthusiasts bombed down unpaved fire roads on what were known as klunkers — single-speed cruisers with balloon tires. As the sport became more sophisticated, bikes began to be built specifically for off-road terrain. The term “mountain bike” was coined, and downhill races were organized. Cunningham, who had a background in engineering, joined other germinal figures in the sport — including Gary Fisher, Joe Breeze, Tom Ritchey and Charlie Kelly — in creating innovative designs and developing this emerging branch of cycling. Starting in 1978, he built the CCproto, which is considered the first mountain bike with an aluminum (rather than steel) frame, made of oversized tubes that were light and strong. His other innovations in off-road biking included knobby tires built for traction and control; a unique braking system that allowed for controlled stopping; and a patented lubrication system that flushed out old grease, water and dirt from a bike’s sealed bearings, injecting fresh grease. “To put it bluntly, if it had to do with mountain bikes and it was either invented or became popular before 2000, there is a good chance that Charlie Cunningham had either filed the patent, sketched a drawing, made a prototype or discarded the concept as fruitless,” Richard Cunningham, a bike designer and cycling journalist who is not related to Charlie Cunningham, wrote in 2018 on Pinkbike, a biking website. He added, “Cunningham laid down the DNA of the modern mountain bike so early in its history that many so called inventors are still congratulating themselves for reinventing his inventions.” Cunningham and Phelan belonged to the first class inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame, in 1988. Yet he seldom raced or wore traditional cycling gear, preferring corduroy pants and collared shirts. Mountain biking, for him, was more than a sport: It was a way of expressing his love of nature and his concern about the effect of cars on the environment. Hiking in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado, the one and only time he dropped acid, Phelan said in an interview, Cunningham peered down at the town of Silverton and was overcome by the feeling that “cars were the boss and people were the servants of the cars.” In the 1970s, he had been known for wearing a mask around the Bay Area, breathing with an oxygen tank to protect his lungs from air polluted by cars. Other machines could also drive him to distraction. He and Phelan, who married in 1988, regularly slept in what was essentially a tree house outside their home in Fairfax, Calif., near San Anselmo — for the fresh air and the nightly respite from the plugged-in world of cellphones, fax machines, televisions and computers. Cunningham “had a strong belief that the bicycle has a role in saving people and the planet, health-wise and mentally, too,” Phelan said. “Everybody that rides a lot knows it’s hard to maintain a bad mood on a bike.” His interest in mountain biking also stemmed from his attempt to recover from a shattering experience in 1972, when his brother, Doug, his only sibling, died by suicide after receiving a low draft number and facing the possibility of having to fight in the Vietnam War. For Cunningham, off-road cycling became a way to “get on top of the grief,” Phelan said. Charles Burr Cunningham was born Aug. 23, 1948, in Washington, D.C. His family eventually settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. His mother, Carol (Snell) Cunningham, was a highly regarded book artist who printed miniature books at her company, Sunflower Press, in Mill Valley, California. His father, Bruce Cunningham, was a Second World War fighter pilot who also served in the Korean War, then became an avid outdoorsman and a surveyor for an engineering firm; he built the family home in Mill Valley after reading do-it-yourself books. He shared his expertise with Charlie, who became an accomplished plumber, electrician and woodworker, and went on to study mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, leaving one semester from graduation, irritated that he was not permitted to take a course on nutrition. Cunningham began building bikes in 1977, turning his garage in Fairfax into a workshop. In 1982, he and two partners, Steve Potts and Mark Slate, founded Wilderness Trail Bikes, one of the first companies to design and produce components for mountain bikes. After Cunningham left the company in 2002 amid a legal dispute, he continued to build custom bikes and did freelance engineering work. On Aug. 3, 2015, he was riding alone on a twisty road in Fairfax when he fell from his bike, perhaps after colliding with a deer, Phelan said. He suffered broken bones and a head injury that impaired his vision and scrambled his sense of direction. He struggled to read, but was able to write in journals and, eventually, to take walks by himself. He also rode on tandem bikes with his wife. In a 2002 interview with Rivendell Reader, a cycling magazine, Cunningham called bicycles the “perfect means for ‘right living.’” “They make people healthy and happy, and they free us from the tyranny of cars and the guilt of waste,” he said. “Of course, there’s a time and place for cars, but most of us use them too much.” — The New York Times

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WFP Editorial: Anything seems possible now (Jul4'26)
by Beth McKechnie 04 Jul '26

04 Jul '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. EDITORIAL Anything seems possible now https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/2026/07/04/anything-se… FOR the sake of history, and accuracy, it’s important that Winnipeggers should record and reflect on all of the bad things that did not happen when the City of Winnipeg finally, thankfully, re-opened Portage and Main to pedestrians just over one year ago. Traffic did not gridlock. Pedestrians were not mowed down like traffic cones. It did not divert much-needed financial resources away from more important infrastructure projects. The sky directly over Winnipeg’s iconic heartbeat of an intersection did not fall. Those are valuable observations given that all of these awful things, plus many more, were predicted by the forces on city council that sought to keep the intersection closed to pedestrians. Those forces include — again for the sake of an accurate historical account — councillors Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) and Janice Lukes (Waverley West). A brief flashback: In 2014, then-mayor Brian Bowman promised during the municipal election campaign that he would re-open the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street to pedestrians, ending an ugly, decades-long policy of using barricades to keep citizens out of the intersection and driving them down below, or around, the intersection. In 2016, as council inched closer to officially re-opening the intersection, Browaty, along with Lukes and others on council, concocted a plan for a plebiscite to allow voters in the 2018 municipal election to have the final say; Bowman, despite having pledged to re-open the intersection, supported the plebiscite with the knowledge it was likely to kill his idea; suburban voters then quashed the re-opening plans. Browaty had been committed to stopping the re-opening. He said repeatedly that allowing pedestrians to cross the intersection was going to “cause delays and cause problems.” He said Bowman’s “expensive, unnecessary plan” was a wasteful diversion of road-repair funds. “It’s simply wrong.” The Browaty-Lukes plebiscite was a perfectly crafted poison pill, a vehicle that allowed voters to do what they do well — vote against something, rather than for something. Two-thirds of those who voted in the plebiscite turned their thumbs down on the re-opening plan, most of them from outlying areas of the city. Flash forward to March 2024 and current Mayor Scott Gillingham stunned people on both sides of the debate when he said he was introducing a plan to re-open the intersection to pedestrians. Gillingham, correctly as it turned out, noted that much-needed repairs to the intersection and the leaky membrane which prevented the underground from flooding would be far more expensive than closing the underground concourse and re-opening the street to pedestrians. So, the barriers were demolished and hauled away, repairs were made to the intersection and sidewalks, and the first pedestrians since 1976 crossed the intersection legally. Gillingham, acknowledging the volatile politics of the issue, walked across the intersection on June 25, 2025, and immediately hailed it as a success. “It’s working well, it looks great,” the mayor said. The saga of the re-opening revealed a lot of the intrinsic and, in some instances, unseemly elements of municipal politics in Winnipeg. This is a city that has been largely governed by cautious mayors and councillors who have shown an unwillingness to try new things. Gillingham’s decision to revive the re-opening may have been driven largely by financial concerns, but he should be thanked for realizing that the people who live and own businesses in the core — people who had campaigned for the re-opening — had a greater stake in the future of Portage and Main than suburban voters, many of whom rarely, if ever, come anywhere near that part of the city. The intersection is open again. A historic wrong has been righted. Wouldn’t it be nice if we used this as an example to embrace other new and bold ideas? After Portage and Main has re-opened, anything seems possible.

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WFP: Overhaul needs one new stop: public trust (Jun27'26)
by Beth McKechnie 27 Jun '26

27 Jun '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Overhaul needs one new stop: public trust OPINION - TOM BRODBECK https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2026/06/26/city-report-makes-it-eas… IF Winnipeggers had expected the city’s sweeping transit network overhaul to produce major improvements in service by now, the latest performance report offers a sobering reality check. One year after Winnipeg Transit launched its redesigned route system, many of the problems that frustrated riders from the outset remain unresolved, a Transit report released this week noted. Worse still, Transit officials have signalled that some of those shortcomings are unlikely to improve substantially any time soon. That should raise serious questions about whether the city is on track to deliver the kind of transit system residents were promised. The network redesign was supposed to be transformational. It was marketed as a modern, high-frequency system that would improve reliability, shorten travel times and encourage more people to leave their cars at home. Instead, the first year has been defined by technical failures, rider complaints, declining ridership and missed performance targets. Some progress has been made since last summer’s troubled rollout. Additional evening service has been added. Scheduling changes have been made. Routes have been adjusted based on feedback. But after a year of operation, the standard should be higher than simply saying things are better than they were during the launch. The real question is whether the system is performing at the level riders were promised. The report suggests the answer is no. The city’s flagship Blue Line rapid transit route, for example, achieved an on-time performance rate of only 66.6 per cent on weekdays during the winter months. That falls well below Winnipeg Transit’s target of 75 per cent. (Transit considers a bus is on time if it arrives between one minute early to five minutes after its scheduled time). The explanation offered by officials is even more concerning. Rather than suggesting the gap can be closed through operational improvements, Transit managers indicated the target may remain out of reach until additional downtown rapid transit infrastructure is built. That infrastructure is years away. In other words, one of the city’s most important transit routes is expected to continue missing reliability targets for the foreseeable future. The results on other routes are hardly reassuring. The D12 crosstown route connecting The Forks and the airport was on time 72.3 per cent on weekdays, but only 28.8 per cent of the time on Saturdays during the winter. That means Saturday riders had far better odds of encountering a late or early bus than one arriving within Transit’s own definition of being on schedule. Transit says performance on that route improved following scheduling changes in April, but the broader issue remains: a transit system cannot build public confidence when some routes perform that poorly. Perhaps the most revealing part of the report, however, is the information that wasn’t provided. Despite releasing route-specific performance figures, Winnipeg Transit declined to disclose an overall system-wide on-time performance rate. Officials argued that route-level data is more useful because it helps identify specific problem areas. That explanation misses the point. The public deserves both. Individual route statistics help identify operational challenges. Overall system performance tells taxpayers and riders whether the network as a whole is succeeding or failing. The refusal to release that information inevitably raises suspicion. If the overall numbers paint a positive picture, there would seem to be little reason not to disclose them. The fact Transit chose not to do so invites speculation that the system’s overall reliability may be worse than officials want the public to see. Transparency is particularly important given the difficulties the city has already experienced. The network overhaul got off to a disastrous start when GPS failures produced inaccurate bus arrival information almost immediately after launch. Riders struggled with missed connections, longer travel times and schedules that often bore little resemblance to reality. Public works committee chair Janice Lukes accurately described the situation as a “nightmare.” Unfortunately for Transit, first impressions matter. Many frustrated riders simply stopped taking the bus. The financial consequences are becoming apparent. Winnipeg Transit expects fare revenue this year to fall $18.4 million short of budget projections. People do not abandon transit because they dislike buses. They abandon transit when it becomes too unpredictable to depend on. That reality should concern city hall because Winnipeg needs a successful transit system more than ever. The city continues to grow. Road construction costs continue to rise. Traffic congestion is becoming a bigger challenge. Encouraging more transit use is not merely a transportation objective, it is an economic necessity. It requires a system people can trust. Right now, trust appears to be in short supply. Perhaps the most troubling part of this report is that officials appear to be managing expectations downward rather than presenting a clear path toward meeting established targets. When riders hear that reliability goals may remain out of reach for years and when the agency refuses to release system-wide performance data, confidence erodes further. Until buses consistently arrive on time (or arrive at all), ridership begins growing again and Transit becomes fully transparent about its performance, the overhaul cannot reasonably be called a success. tom.brodbeck(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca>

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WFP: Transit pilot project reduced to 7 months, capped at 30,000 passes (Jun27'26)
by Beth McKechnie 27 Jun '26

27 Jun '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Youth get free ride … for a while Transit pilot project reduced to 7 months, capped at 30,000 passes https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/06/26/free-ride-pilot-p… WINNIPEG Transit has proposed to let youth ride buses for free for only seven months, stating the $10 million the provincial government provided for a year of that service won’t cover the entire cost. In a new report, Transit says the program, which is meant to offer no-cost rides to youth aged 11 to 17 and high school students aged 18 to 21, would cost at least $16.5 million to implement for 12 months. The program stems from the pledge in the province’s 2026-27 budget to invest “in free transit for kids and youth.” Instead of exceeding the amount of government funding, Transit proposes to offer the free rides from September to March 2027, pending city council approval. “If it was the full program, like they wanted to do, it would be a lot more money that we would be short … We’re going to be monitoring this very closely, month by month, with (the province),” said Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of the public works committee. High uptake for the program could also lead the city to ask for more money, said Lukes (Waverley West). While Transit estimates there are 65,000 youth in the eligible age group, including about 60,000 who attend school, it plans to initially cap the program at just 30,000 passes, assuming a 50 per cent uptake. “The initial distribution of the passes will be capped at 30,000 until the impact to the Transit system and overall demand for the program are better understood. Additional pass distribution will be considered to the extent that the Transit service is able to accommodate it and funding is made available to cover the additional costs,” the report states. Lukes said the city could print more passes later on, if there is enough demand and the province provides more money. The report says schools would distribute the passes. One school division superintendent said he’s “very confident” the province will ensure all students are able to get the free passes and he does not expect his division would need to determine criteria to cap the number of passes given out. “It’s our understanding that any child who needs a bus pass will get one and so that’s how we’ll distribute them,” said Matt Henderson, superintendent of the Winnipeg School Division. If schools were forced to provide passes to only some students, that would undermine the intent of the free program, he said. “We’re not expecting that at all. That (would) actually create more barriers and what this is intended to do is to remove all barriers around transportation to access public education,” said Henderson. The city’s cost estimate for the program includes $12.6 million in lost fare revenue and extra operating costs, such as adding 14.2 more full-time equivalent staff positions by 2027 to meet extra demand. Transit says the program is difficult to budget for because of the lack of information on how many youth will use it. “If more passes are distributed, more funding may be required to add more service,” the staff report states. Lukes said she shares the provincial goal to encourage more kids to ride transit but fears high demand could make the program cost even more, with little time to plan for it. “I think it’s great the province is doing this. I just do really think there should have been a lot more due diligence on this … or just giving us time to turn this around so we can deliver a stellar service. But we’re diving in. We’re going to do it … It’ll be a bumpy ride,” she said. Transit says service will be added during peak weekday periods, doubling feeder route trips that serve most high schools. Transit also warns the program could lead to potential service issues. “There is risk related to Transit’s ability to meet service requirements; if demand exceeds the proposed service, then there could be pass-ups and crowding … Full uptake could overwhelm the system and exceed Transit’s ability to meet peak service requirements,” the report states. Lukes said that potential risk is significant, noting the program will begin in September, when Transit demand traditionally ramps up. “There’s a lot of pass-ups and there’s a lot of things happening (in September) … So, this is just going to add to (it),” she said. Mayor Scott Gillingham said the province has noted it is open to considering more funding to run the program. “They do indicate … that they’ll work with the city to assess it and examine the funds required through future years,” said Gillingham. In a written statement, Manitoba Municipal Relations Minister Glen Simard said the free bus service aims to make life more affordable and the province will “continue to work with the city” on it. Coun. Jeff Browaty, city council’s finance chairman, said he’s not sure the initial round of 30,000 passes will be enough, since youth who don’t regularly commute by bus may seek the option once it’s free. “There will be growing pains … (By) the end of September, we’ll have a better idea of how much induced demand the free passes produce,” said Browaty (North Kildonan). Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre) supports the concept of free transit for youth but is concerned a sudden spike in demand for the passes could stretch Transit’s capacity. “It’d be a really great program to get young people taking transit. The concern is, are we on the hook if things aren’t working out because we have a huge intake?” said Gilroy. Students will be required to display the valid fare pass and their school photo ID to board the buses. — with files from Scott Billeck joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca> X: @joyanne_pursaga

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WFP: Time for city to get handle on e-bike, e-scooter regulations (Jun25'26)
by Beth McKechnie 25 Jun '26

25 Jun '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Time for city to get handle on e-bike, e-scooter regulations https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2026/06/25/time-for-city-to-get-han… TOM BRODBECK Ever been out for a walk, a jog or a casual bike ride only to be startled by an e-bike, battery-powered scooter or some other personal electric vehicle flying past you at high speed? If so, you probably know how urgent it is for lawmakers to bring in regulations to respond to this growing phenomenon. Winnipeg is facing a transportation challenge that barely existed a few years ago. Battery-powered bikes, scooters, electric unicycles and other similar vehicles have become common sights on city streets, cycling routes and multi-use pathways. Their popularity is growing faster than the rules governing them. And that should be a concern for city hall. There’s no question personal electric vehicles offer people significant advantages. They’re cheaper to operate than cars, produce no direct emissions, reduce traffic congestion and provide people with another option for getting around the city. In many respects, they represent exactly the kind of transportation alternative governments have been encouraging for years. But every new form of transportation comes with challenges. The challenge with e-bikes and similar devices is that many are capable of travelling at speeds far greater than those traditionally seen on cycling infrastructure. Granted, many riders use them responsibly. But others operate them in ways that create risks for pedestrians, cyclists and even themselves. Anyone who regularly uses Winnipeg’s active transportation pathways has likely witnessed it. The problem is not the technology itself. The problem is the absence of clear and consistent rules. Morden became the first Manitoba municipality earlier this month to address the issue by amending its traffic control bylaw to regulate all personal electric vehicles, including e-bikes, e-scooters and e-skateboards. The new rules require helmets for all riders, prohibit riding on sidewalks and boulevards, restrict vehicles to one rider, require lights after dark and mandate compliance with traffic laws. Those measures are neither controversial nor excessive. They simply establish basic expectations for safe operation. The provincial government has recognized the issue as well. Earlier this month, the legislature passed Bill 43, creating a framework for regulating personal electric vehicles. The legislation includes provisions related to minimum ages and speed limits, although it has not yet been proclaimed into law. The province still has to draft regulations, which can take months, sometimes years. Importantly, though, municipalities retain the authority to create local bylaws that reflect their own circumstances. Winnipeg should take advantage of that. The city faces unique challenges because of its extensive network of active transportation corridors and the sheer volume of people using them. A one-size-fits-all provincial approach may not adequately address local concerns. The growing body of evidence from other jurisdictions suggests action is warranted. Hospitals in London, Ont., report increasing numbers of injuries involving e-bikes and e-scooters. Doctors there say they are seeing more severe fractures, facial injuries and head trauma than they typically encounter with conventional bicycles. Researchers elsewhere have documented similar trends. The explanation is simple. Vehicles capable of higher speeds create more force during collisions. Crashes become more serious and injuries become more severe. That reality is particularly concerning when these vehicles share space with pedestrians. The point is, Winnipeg shouldn’t wait for local injury statistics to reach alarming levels before acting. City hall needs to establish clear speed limits for personal electric vehicles on multi-use pathways. It should require helmets for all riders, regardless of age. It should clearly define where different classes of vehicles may operate and where they may not. The city says e-bike regulation is already on its radar and that it’s studying the new legislation. Fair enough. But it shouldn’t drag its feet on this. No doubt, enforcing bylaws around personal electric vehicles would be difficult. Police resources are limited, and bylaw officers cannot be everywhere at once. But regulations can be valuable even without aggressive enforcement. They establish expectations, provide a framework for education and create consequences for dangerous behaviour when intervention becomes necessary. That is largely the philosophy behind Morden’s approach, which emphasizes compliance and safety rather than aggressive enforcement. Winnipeg should adopt the same mindset. To be clear, the goal shouldn’t be to discourage people from using e-bikes or other personal electric vehicles. Far from it. Those modes of transportation should be encouraged. But the city needs to ensure they can be integrated safely into Winnipeg’s transportation network. These vehicles are here to stay. Their benefits are too significant to ignore. But so are the risks associated with leaving them largely unregulated. The longer Winnipeg waits to establish sensible rules, the greater the likelihood that preventable injuries and public frustration will continue to grow. tom.brodbeck(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:tom.brodbeck@freepress.mb.ca>

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WFP OpEd: Closing Corydon to traffic will be good for business (Jun25'26)
by Beth McKechnie 25 Jun '26

25 Jun '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Closing Corydon to traffic will be good for business KELE SCHRECKENBACH https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/2026/06/25/closing-coryd… LAST week, the City of Winnipeg and Corydon Avenue BIZ announced that a stretch of Corydon Avenue between Daly and Lilac streets will be closed to car traffic on Sundays from July 5 through Sept. 6, the day before Labour Day. This is a great move for the city. However, one concern brought up when people hear about such initiatives is “What about the businesses? Won’t they suffer from reduced visits and lose revenue because people are unable to reach them by car?” The short answer to this question is “no.” Businesses not only do not go under, they usually end up doing better than before the initiative was announced. I would like to present two case studies to prove this: Copenhagen, in Denmark, and Groningen, in the Netherlands. In 1962, Copenhagen closed the Strøget, an area of shops in the city centre, to drivers and car traffic. Business owners were very unhappy, thinking they would lose lots of customers. It got so bad that the man who proposed the project, Alfred Wassard, the lead city planner of Copenhagen at the time, got death threats and had to travel with bodyguards. What was the result of the pedestrianization? The shops are still there and in fact doing better than ever. Huge brands such as Hermes, Gucci and Louis Vuitton have opened stores there, which points to how much business is done. The street is also a popular tourist attraction in and of itself. Groningen started its pedestrianization in 1977; in its case, it blocked cars from the entire city centre. While the reactions were thankfully less extreme (no death threats), people were still unhappy. Drivers complained, and businesses worried about losing customers, especially those from out of town. As with Copenhagen, Groningen went ahead with its plan. After about four years, a study measured the effects of the blocking of cars. It found, as in Copenhagen, that a large majority of businesses had not lost foot traffic. People switched to visiting via public transit and bike and enjoyed walking around the area even more when there weren’t as many cars driving through. The common thread between these two cities, and the Open Corydon initiative, is that despite initial reactions and predictions that businesses will be negatively impacted, the opposite usually happens. Not just in Europe, either. Montreal recently started pedestrianizing some of its streets, to great success. Look up pictures of Mont-Royal Avenue, Duluth Avenue and Promenade Wellington, for example, and you’ll see the charm and beauty that can be achieved by such a policy. If Montreal isn’t close enough, let me present a case in Winnipeg. The example I want to point to isn’t directly a pedestrianized street, but the St. Norbert Farmer’s Market. The market opened in 1988 with eight vendors and has grown to over 200 vendors after being open for about 38 years. It’s fair to say a lot of Winnipeggers have gone and checked out the market. If that includes you, you’ll know that the market gives you a taste of what a pedestrianized street can feel like. It’s a very nice place to be, even if you don’t plan on spending any money; simply spending time outside in an area filled with people is refreshing. I can understand if you are not convinced. I also tend to believe things only when I see them. But let me remind you that just a 700-metre stretch of Corydon will be closed to traffic on Sundays from July to early September — for 10 days in total. If the initiative is a total disaster we move on. If that’s the case, the city and the Corydon businesses will survive. If it’s a success, we can expand it to more streets (Osborne Street or Pembina Highway come to mind as potential examples) or make it more frequent (or even permanent) on Corydon. In short, while there will be concerns expressed about the closure of Corydon Avenue, this is an amazing step for the city. Plenty of other cities around the world have done this, with success. Let’s hope Winnipeg continues moving in this direction for years to come. Kele Schreckenbach is a student at the University of Manitoba with an interest in urban planning and city design.

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WFP: Troubled Transit needs province to come to its rescue (Jun25'26)
by Beth McKechnie 25 Jun '26

25 Jun '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Troubled Transit needs province to come to its rescue OPINION - DAN LETT https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2026/06/24/winnipeg-transits-route-… WINNIPEG Transit is drowning in a sea of self-created misadventure. As outlined in a “state of the system” report released this week on the first anniversary of Winnipeg Transit’s complete overhaul, the negatives profoundly overwhelm the positives. The much-touted reimagination of routes and schedules has been a disaster, turning off more riders than it has attracted. Now, public transit in Manitoba’s capital city is teetering on the edge of destruction: it is short on buses and drivers, security remains a persistent issue, ridership is tanking and the city is facing an $18-million deficit on transit operations. The big question is, who will come to Winnipeg Transit’s rescue? (Spoiler alert: the “who” in this equation is, obviously, the provincial NDP government.) The province does have a responsibility to help fund transit, and for good reason. The city is revenue-poor and, with ridership declining, it’s unlikely property taxpayers would welcome an increased burden just to keep Winnipeg Transit running. Unfortunately for riders and advocates, Premier Wab Kinew has been cool to the idea of doing anything bold to bolster funding for public transit in the capital city. It should be noted, for fairness, that the province will provide $42 million this year to help cover the estimated $264-million Winnipeg Transit operating budget. It has also provided tens of millions of additional dollars to help buy new buses. However, the problem is that as costs have gone up, the province’s overall contribution to operating expenses has remained flat. With inflation up and with ridership down, the city is trapped in a vicious cycle of underfunding. Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of the city’s public works committee, conceded this week additional investment is needed to bring the new system to optimal performance. However, the Waverley West councillor — who announced Wednesday she won’t seek re-election in the fall — said instead of doing all of the needed enhancements now to attract people who’ve turned to other forms of transportation, the city will have to “pick what we can afford.” That statement is the equivalent of an emergency flare, fired southwest from city hall in the direction of the legislature. Will the province respond? The Kinew government is in the process of unleashing a $10-million initiative to provide free youth transit passes across Manitoba that provincial policymakers believe could push more money to cash-strapped municipalities; it remains to be seen if the result is any net new money for them. For the program to fulfil its promise, it would have to convince youth who are not currently using transit to give it a try. If the new passes are snapped up only by youth already paying for passes, then it’s a revenue wash for struggling municipal transit services. Could there be more funding, even on an emergency basis? There is absolutely no indication that Kinew is planning to bestow a whack of additional money to placate frustrated riders, even in a city where the NDP won 29 of 32 seats in the last election. NDP sources say the premier is frustrated over the way the city has managed the rollout of the new routes and schedules and is, in fact, a little perplexed about why the project was undertaken, at all. That is likely a good question to ask, given that it appears the city never had the money to deliver on all of the new features it promised. Some of the technology that was acquired to improve overall service — particularly GPS tracking to allow real-time information on bus locations — failed early on and wasn’t reliably operational for more than four months. In a world where it’s possible to follow, in real time, the delivery of a pizza or the arrival of a ride-booking vehicle, the failure to provide up-to-date information on city buses would appear to be an extraordinary shortcoming. Other touted upgrades, such as a modern tap-and-go payment system, were pushed back, as well. The city didn’t issue a request for proposals for a new payment system until December, months after the overhauled route map was unveiled. The current payment system — paper tickets, cash and the much-loathed Peggo card — is a huge turnoff for many people who might be persuaded to take a bus, but don’t want to contend with the current fare-payment frustration. The real tragedy here is that there were real improvements that have been obscured by the rollout’s shortcomings. Kyle Owens, president of the advocacy group Functional Transit Winnipeg, told the Free Press that initial complaints about the frequency of buses on main routes and inadequate night-time service have, largely, been addressed. If you can take the good things that happened in the rollout, move quickly to smooth out the rough spots and find the money to make taking the bus a more attractive commuting option, it’s entirely possible that Winnipeg Transit’s tattered brand can be repaired. Unfortunately, the only way that is going to happen is with help from the Kinew government. Left on its own, the city will not have the money to make the necessary improvements. The province should remember this: if transit implodes, there will be more than enough blame to go around. Even for the premier. dan.lett(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca>

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WFP: Transit upgrades could cost $16M (Jun24'26)
by Beth McKechnie 25 Jun '26

25 Jun '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Funding and additional staff needed to comply with province’s new accessibility standards Transit upgrades could cost $16M https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/06/23/winnipeg-transit-… WINNIPEG Transit says it will need millions of dollars in new funding and additional staff to comply with Manitoba’s new Accessible Transportation Standard Regulation, which takes effect on Jan. 1. A report before the city’s public works committee estimates the transit service will require about $11.3 million in operating funding, $5.4 million in capital funding and up to 12.5 additional full-time positions over the next five years to meet the province’s accessibility requirements. Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of the public works committee, said she’s looking to the province to provide more funding. Former premier Brian Pallister’s Progressive Conservative government scrapped a 50-50 funding agreement for Transit in 2016, which had been in place since the 1970s. The city has received a flat $42 million annually since, which critics have argued is a funding cut, due to inflation. “I’m really hoping that the province will come to the table to help us with this,” Lukes (Waverley West) said Tuesday. “We don’t share in the growth. We just don’t.” Municipal and Northern Relations Minister Glen Simard sees things differently. “We’ve increased support for municipalities year after year because we know strong communities depend on reliable, stable and predictable funding increases,” Simard said in an emailed statement to the Free Press Tuesday. “Our 2026 budget included making transit free for kids, which not only is an investment in transit across Manitoba, it helps families with the cost of living while encouraging more people to use public transit.” The ATSR, enacted under the Accessibility for Manitobans Act, sets new standards for conventional transit and Winnipeg Transit Plus, including staff training, support for riders with disabilities, public reporting requirements and upgraded vehicle accessibility standards. “There are lots of really great things coming for Winnipeg Transit, for accessibility, for conventional and para-transit, so it’s a very positive story … really removing barriers for transportation, which is the goal of Winnipeg Transit,” said Teresa Platt, the city’s manager of client services. Manitoba will join Ontario as provinces with accessibility regulations. Transit has already met many of the regulation’s requirements, but several major initiatives remain unfunded, including expanded Transit Plus service, faster eligibility decisions, a support- person program and transit-stop upgrades. The ATSR requires para-transit service to operate hours comparable to conventional transit and eligibility decisions to be made within 14 days. Transit Plus currently takes about 30 business days to process applications. Appeals would also need to be decided within 30 days. The report also says as many as 1,100 transit stops may require accessibility upgrades, with common barriers including inadequate snow clearing, blocked curb cuts, inaccessible sidewalks, construction detours and inconsistent stop layouts. “It mentions that 1,100 stops do not meet the new accessibility requirements. That is a shocking statement that tells us how crucial an infrastructure investment gap we’re seeing,” said Kyle Owens, president of Functional Transit Winnipeg. “It is understandable that with new expectations, some stops might not meet those standards. But 1,100 stops shows us how profoundly Manitobans are being underserved by accessibility to transit.” At current funding levels, Transit says it can upgrade about 50 stops per year, pushing a completion time to 2050. Transit says increasing annual funding for stop upgrades could dramatically shorten the timeline, from roughly 22 years under current funding levels to as little as seven years with additional investment. While the regulation does not set a deadline for stop upgrades, Transit recommends accelerating the work to align with the 2042 vehicle accessibility deadline. The ATSR also requires support persons to travel free of charge. Transit currently does not operate a general support-person program and says it would need to create an application and identification-card system to administer one. The service estimates the change would reduce annual fare revenue by about $45,000 on conventional transit and $10,000 on Transit Plus. Separate from the funding requested to comply with the province’s new accessibility regulations, Transit is also seeking additional funding to overhaul the Transit Plus service, which will go before city council. The Transit Plus overhaul would require a phased increase in spending, from about $632,000 in 2027 to nearly $7.9 million annually by 2031, largely driven by additional staffing, contractor hours and technology upgrades. The current adopted 2026 budget for the Transit Plus service is $13.3 million and includes 46 dedicated full-time equivalent positions. An additional 8.5 FTEs would be required for Phase 1, along with three more in Phase 2 and one in Phase 3. The proposed overhaul would replace the current medical-based eligibility system with one based on a person’s ability to use conventional transit. It would also relax some service rules, increase carry-on limits and introduce a “family of services” model allowing riders to combine Transit Plus, conventional transit and on-request service within a single trip. Transit estimates the changes could increase Transit Plus ridership by up to 20 per cent, with annual trips rising from about 312,000 in 2025 to nearly 486,000 by 2031. To handle that growth, the report calls for additional contracted service hours, technology upgrades and new staff, including travel trainers, administrative support workers and customer service personnel. The changes would be rolled out between 2027 and 2029. Officials say the plan would modernize Transit Plus and improve accessibility, but warn that significant new funding will be needed to keep pace with growing demand and to maintain service levels. The funding requests come as Winnipeg Transit faces broader financial pressures. Last month, the service projected an $18.4-million revenue shortfall following last year’s network redesign. — With files from Joyanne Pursaga scott.billeck(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca>

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WFP: A year later, fixes to Transit a year away (Jun24'26)
by Beth McKechnie 25 Jun '26

25 Jun '26

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Rollout ‘a nightmare,’ changes coming in 2027 A year later, fixes to Transit a year away https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2026/06/23/overhauled-transi… THE introduction of Winnipeg Transit’s long-awaited network overhaul last June — designed to provide faster, more reliable service and increase ridership — got off to a rocky start. “Honestly, it was a nightmare…. A lot of people couldn’t connect, they couldn’t get the (bus) times (right), we couldn’t get data,” Coun. Janice Lukes, chairwoman of public works, said Tuesday after the city released a “state of the system” report on the new network’s first year. “That was a big hump to start and I think it was very unfortunate because I think it set a very bad tone.” Instead of convincing more Winnipeggers to leave their vehicles at home and take the bus, the changes led to a sharp decline in ridership and revenue, among other things, and has the people behind the redesign proposing improvements. Almost immediately after the new system’s rollout on June 29, 2025 — which changed almost every bus route — the companion GPS system failed, leading Transit to post incorrect arrival times. At the peak of the problem, almost a quarter of bus location reports were incorrect. The problem was fixed by November, Transit reported. Riders complained that buses stopped running too early for them to return home from work or school, involved too many transfers and made their commute times much longer. Improvements tied to that feedback followed, including adding additional night-time service and increasing frequency, the report says. “The state of the transit system has dramatically improved since we launched it and I do think it’s still got a ways to go,” said Lukes. The report looks at how the system fared over the winter and spring, though the GPS issue prevented some information from being properly tracked last summer and fall. “Overall, I’d say it’s working pretty well … but there’s a lot of small details we still need to work on,” said Bjorn Radstrom, Winnipeg Transit’s manager of service development. For example, the rapid transit Blue Line was on time only 66.6 per cent on weekdays last winter, falling below a 75 per cent target. To be considered on time, a bus must arrive from one minute before to five minutes after its scheduled time. Radstrom said that target will be tough to meet until downtown rapid transit infrastructure is built. Meanwhile, the key crosstown D12 route — which connects The Forks to the airport, was on time 72.3 per cent on weekdays, but fell to 28.8 per cent on Saturdays during the winter. Radstrom said it appears that route became much more punctual after scheduling changes took effect in April, although data is still being gathered. The report found much better on-time winter results for the F7 St. Anne’s-Provencher on Saturdays (78.9 per cent), D10 Panet-Adsum on Saturdays (76 per cent) and 31 Waterfront- North Main on Sundays (75.8 per cent). Transit did not provide an overall on-time average for its routes, as improving the system requires a more detailed look at specific trips, said Radstrom. The latest report proposes another round of updates to the network, pending city council and 2027 budget approvals. The proposals would: change connector route 22 Portage to pass through the Grace Hospital site; add three extra half-trips per evening to community route 671 Dalhousie; add two extra half-trips to community route 672 Killarney; shift some early morning trips on the 672 Killarney to the peak afternoon period; add an extra bus at afternoon peak hours for community route 677 Wilkes; and shift some trips on limited-span Route 889 Sherbrook-Pembina Express from the morning peak period to midday. Winnipeg Transit is also making a second request for city council to fund additional service from Linden Woods to Oak Park and Shaftesbury high schools, extend service to Festival Drive and extend service to Highland Pointe. Implementing all of the proposed changes would require 16.5 more full time staff positions and cost the city $1.15 million in 2027 (when changes would take effect between June and September) and about $2.5 million in each of the following four years. “We’re listening to all the complaints and the feedback that people have, we’re verifying that through the data we’re collecting…. We really are working all the time at improving (the service),” said Radstrom. While Lukes said she’d like to implement all proposed changes, she noted the city could have to “pick what we can afford.” A group that lobbies for more frequent transit wants all of the proposed changes in place sooner. “The city should expedite that spending immediately,” said Kyle Owens, president of Functional Transit Winnipeg. “We can’t afford to wait another year of declining ridership. We need to get that service immediately to address people’s frustrations.” Winnipeg Transit expects to earn $18.4 million less from rider fares this year than the 2026 budget predicted, owing to issues with the new network, fare-evaders and a decline in the numbers of international students and foreign workers (who tend to be frequent riders). Owens said the new network brought some huge improvements by ramping up frequency on main bus routes, and he credited Transit for expanding night-time service following complaints. However, a lack of other investments means too many people are left dissatisfied, he said. “For people taking that (D12) route (on Saturday), there was a 70 per cent chance of their route not being on time,” he said. joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca> X: @joyanne_pursaga

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