City study of Osborne slip lane due in spring

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2023/11/27/city-study-of-osborne-sli...

A municipal study on getting rid of an Osborne Village slip lane has yet to begin, but a local architect says making pedestrian-friendly changes is long overdue.

Slip lanes, which allow drivers to make a right turn while bypassing an intersection, can speed up car commutes but slow down pedestrians and cyclists who must cross that uncontrolled lane of traffic.

Architect Brent Bellamy, creative director at Number Ten Architectural Group, bikes daily through the slip lane at Academy Road and Stafford Street. He describes them as “highway infrastructure that have somehow crept into the design of residential streets,” and have no place in pedestrian-frequented areas.

“Every single morning I think, this is what they’re going to write on my tombstone: ‘He died crossing the slip lane,’” Bellamy said with a laugh. “Because I’ve had so many close calls and they are just the bane of my existence.”

A City of Winnipeg report on replacing the slip lane at Osborne Street and River Avenue with pedestrian sidewalks isn’t expected to be complete until the spring and submitted to the public works committee on May 7, a city spokesperson said.

The city is considering whether to eliminate that slip lane as part of a traffic-calming proposal that also looks at closing Assiniboine Avenue to vehicles between Fort and Main streets.

The idea to replace the Osborne Village slip lane with some kind of pedestrian scramble was proposed in the spring in a new blueprint for the neighbourhood by the Osborne Village Business Improvement Zone.

The city’s public service has been tasked with studying the elimination of the slip lane and considering, instead, wider sidewalks, continuous sidewalks or a pedestrian scramble, according to an Oct. 10 directive from the standing policy committee on public works.

“We should do everything we can to invite pedestrians to Osborne, not make them feel unsafe or uncomfortable for being there,” Bellamy said.

Other cities, such as Montreal and Edmonton, have removed some slip lanes, sometimes placing planters there instead in a process that is neither lengthy nor too expensive, Bellamy noted.