Thousands of residents pedalled and pounded the pavement of Winnipeg's "open streets" routes earlier in the COVID-19 pandemic — but decisions on what will happen with that initiative this spring are still on hold.
The restrictive nature of public health orders in 2020, as the pandemic began, prompted the City of Winnipeg last spring to expand its four regular Sunday/holiday bicycle routes to seven days a week. It later added several other locations across the city.
Sections of Lyndale Drive, Wellington Crescent, Wolseley Avenue and Scotia Street were, as usual, reserved for pedestrians and cyclists during daytime hours until the Thanksgiving weekend last year, with motor vehicle traffic limited to one block on those routes.
The city added sections of Assiniboine Avenue, Churchill Drive, Egerton Road, Kildonan Drive and Kilkenny Drive to that list in April, and Vialoux Drive in July. They remained closed to daytime vehicle traffic until the Labour Day weekend last year.
Now, with temperatures rising and some health restrictions still in place, there are questions about where the city will take the program this year.
Some feel limiting motor traffic on certain streets should not only be continued, but expanded.
"Absolutely. It's been life changing to have a place where we can walk and we can actually space" apart to observe physical distancing, Debbie Kroeker said as she strolled with a friend down Wellington Crescent.
"If we didn't have this, we couldn't walk with more than one person. So it's just a way to really energize the community."
A report on the active transportation routes was ordered by city council last September, but the public administration has asked for, and received, extensions to finish the work — the latest being until the middle of April.
Staff with the city's public works department are expected to find options for other streets across the city that could be closed on some basis to motor traffic, and recommendations for establishing year-round active transportation route.
The chair of the city's public works and infrastructure committee is keen to get going on some sort of expansion of the program, and is chafing at the wait for feedback from staff.
"I, for one, would like to see them open right now," said St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard.
"The public service has had two extensions to produce the report.… Seeing the snow melt and recalling the huge success last year, I'm really eager to get this going, and I don't see why we can't get it going right away."
Not everyone thinks expanding the program would be a good idea.
One Wellington Crescent resident says turning her street into an active transportation route has prompted plenty of friction between cyclists and pedestrians, and residents trying to get to or from their homes.
"The people that are using the street don't really have any regard to the people that live on the street and need to access the street," said Leanne (she declined to give her last name).
"So there's been a lot of confrontations … you know, yelling at people for being on the street or having your vehicle when you're just trying to get to your driveway and get home."
She says she filled out a city survey seeking feedback on the routes last year, and hopes some attention is paid to the residents.
"Think of it from our point of view as well. We want everyone to be safe and walk, and it's a beautiful street and we want to enjoy it too, but we do live on it and we need to get our vehicles out," she said.
Kroeker hopes the people who walk and bike the streets, and the residents along them, can find a way to use them together.
"Everybody needs to dig a bit deeper and be tolerant and patient — and of course, please be respectful of our wonderful neighbours here and vice versa," she said.
A spokesperson for the city's public works department called last year's open streets program "unprecedented" and said it was taking extra time to prepare the report on what to do next.
"The additional time needed to present our recommendations has been a result of doing extensive due diligence in terms of consulting with stakeholders and working to ensure that any identified corridors are able to function as open streets," spokesperson Ken Allen said in an email.