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WFP analysis: A new chapter for Portage and Main (Jun30'25)
by Beth McKechnie 30 Jun '25

30 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. A new chapter for Portage and Main https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/2025/06/30/a-new-chapter… REMEMBER that time the entire city of Winnipeg voted on whether people should be allowed to cross the street? That was wild. The whole country looked on in curious amusement as a modern city tied itself into knots over what appeared to be an incredibly mundane issue. As a member of the Vote Open campaign, I can remember spending my evenings going door-to-door, or manning booths and handing out pamphlets at festivals and farmers’ markets. We organized a concert, started a website and argued tirelessly on social media. We had all the data and all the engineering studies. We could rebut any point. In the end, as we know, Portage and Main was a mythical beast too powerful to slay and the vote was a resounding NO. A few years later, we found out that it would be cheaper to take down the barricades than to repair the underground, so one day, Mayor Scott Gillingham announced in a reassuring tone, “It’s just an intersection,” and that was that. On Friday, almost 17,000 days after the last person legally did it, we walked across the street. We shouldn’t expect that rainbows will cascade down from the heavens and all that ails downtown will be instantly swept away. But in time, people on the sidewalks will bring life back to the centre of our city. More people work within 100 metres of Portage and Main than live in Steinbach, the province’s third largest city. Enticing even a fraction of these people back to the sidewalks might be the incentive needed to begin filling the many empty storefronts nearby, developing the 50-year-old gravel parking lot on Main Street and bringing life to the plazas and public spaces. An open Portage and Main will reconnect the different neighbourhoods of downtown so they can build on each other’s successes. It will re-establish the intersection’s traditional role as the centre of an urban pinwheel, a place of connection but also, in its own right, a place to be. Before long, people crossing the street will be the new normal and we will wonder what all the fuss was about. It’s then that we might challenge ourselves to dream bigger. Mayor Gillingham is right — it is just an intersection. But it’s also an opportunity. The windy corner, the gateway to the West, Canada’s coldest and most famous intersection has been celebrated in song and story. It began as a First Nations meeting place, later becoming a Métis trading route, then the birthplace of a frontier city and the economic centre of modern metropolis. It is a place we come to celebrate, a place we come to mourn and to protest. Portage and Main is a special place filled with lore and history, not just in Winnipeg but across the country. As you enter the 'Cities of the Twentieth Century’ exhibit at the Canadian Museum of History in Ottawa, you are greeted with a giant mural of Portage and Main from a century ago. The image represents the very best of what a city can be, the intersection, the beating heart of a city filled with optimism and energy. Imagine if Portage and Main became a place where this spirit and history were woven together and celebrated through art, sculpture, lighting, landscape, interpretive design and storytelling. A place where we can come to learn about ourselves and to have others learn about us. Telling the story of Portage and Main through placemaking is to tell the story of Canada. The ultimate opportunity for Portage and Main is to be a remarkable place that tells a remarkable story. To achieve this, we might at some point reconsider the physical form of the intersection itself, giving more space to people and less to cars. New York City presents a strong precedent for this, closing Broadway through Times Square in 2009 and creating pedestrian plazas that have transformed it into one of the great public spaces in the world. Considering that it took Winnipeg half a century to accept people crossing the street, removing car space would certainly not be an easy sell, but our experience during the last nine months of construction has demonstrated that it can be done. When construction started on removing the barricades last year, two full lanes of traffic were closed on each side of Portage Avenue and Main Street. This effectively cut vehicle capacity in half. The result was a real-world experiment in traffic engineering. For a few weeks after the closures, maybe a month, traffic slowed during rush hour and it would take a couple minutes longer to drive through the intersection. As people got used to the changes, however, traffic found its way. Congestion decreased and for several months the intersection operated normally despite having far less space devoted to cars. Many cities across North America have used a strategy called “road diets” to permanently reduce the number of lanes on wide streets and create more pedestrian space. When road diets are implemented, drivers will frequently find alternative routes, travel at different times or even use different modes of transportation, often resulting in traffic eventually finding equilibrium. Road diets are always controversial, but the experience during construction at Portage and Main demonstrated that it is possible without significant impact to traffic congestion — knowledge that we shouldn’t forget as we contemplate the future of the intersection. Removing the barricades isn’t the end of the Portage and Main story. It’s the closing of one chapter and the beginning of a new one. What we write in that chapter is now up to all of us. The opportunity for Canada’s most famous intersection is to be a place worthy of its fame — Hollywood and Vine, Shibuya Crossing, Times Square and Portage and Main. Why not? Brent Bellamy is creative director at Number Ten Architectural Group.

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WFP: Route-and-branch transit overhaul maps city’s devolution (Jun29'25)
by Beth McKechnie 29 Jun '25

29 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. ROUTE-AND-BRANCH TRANSIT OVERHAUL MAPS CITY’S DEVOLUTION By: Rebecca Chambers<https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/biographies/rebecca-chambers> https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2025/06/27/route-and-branch-transit… 10 Wolseley. 11 Portage. 12 William. 14 Ellice. 15 Mountain. 16 Osborne. 17 MacGregor. 18 Corydon. 19 Notre Dame. 20 Academy… Until this week, I hadn’t realized I could recite just about the full set of Winnipeg Transit routes and numbers by memory. Alas, this newly discovered party trick is destined to go unused as we bury these routes with the streetcar tracks they were originally designed to follow, the veins through a city that are remnants of a time when a much more closely-packed citizenry all needed the same things, and all of which were available in the heart of the city. I have mixed feelings about this evolution. Obviously, changes are needed to transit. Declining ridership and rising safety issues are clear indicators it’s not fulfilling its role of getting us where we need to go. But the days of jumping on the bus for all of our needs are behind us. Even if we wanted to go shopping downtown, we largely couldn’t, as there’s nowhere left to shop. A short walk down Portage or Graham will yield empty shop front after empty shop front. The mammoth department stores of two generations ago are gone, and many of the destinations that would have drawn us are now parking lots haunted by the ghosts of Winnipeggers past and the cars of Winnipeg present. I’m worried our transit overhaul reflects our devolution, instead of our evolution, as a city. It seems to be a reflection and acceptance of our problematic sprawl. With nothing to bump into on the outside margins of our town, we have nothing stopping us from expanding ever outward, trenching new sewer lines and paving new roads while the older ones rot and crumble, building new houses while addresses in older neighbourhoods are left as burnt skeletons or piles of rubble for months on end. Transit has been slow to extend service into newer areas, and inhabitants have been slow to adopt transit as a way to get around. While in some ways this redesign feels like an admission of defeat, a commitment to a future of further sprawl, it does give hope that somewhere in Winnipeg, someone involved in planning is acknowledging we cannot go on just waiting for our boomtown days to come back while more and more of our citizenry are making homes along river banks. In a rare example of cross-sector coordination, there are a few examples of this novel forward-thinking mindset. The city is looking at adding housing along the new “spine” routes, even incorporating residential units into transit infrastructure. The lofty plans for Graham Avenue — a pedestrian mall and shopping district — promise to bring people downtown to socialize, shop and dine. The new routes promise quicker commutes, better coverage and short waits for transfers — all good reasons to pull someone onto the bus who hasn’t considered it in some time. All in all, it’s a noble effort to make a rare and radical change to Winnipeg’s public services in an effort to actually serve the needs of the citizenry. But it’s not going to work. These noble “pull” reasons to take the bus will fail if there aren’t balanced and co-ordinated “push” incentives to get people out of their cars. We cannot simply emphasize the perks of taking the bus without also making driving more unattractive, and we are a woefully car-committed city. The fact we’re still entertaining the thought of widening Kenaston Boulevard is clear communication from the city itself that we don’t believe in public transit to move people. No, we must make way for more cars instead. It’s cars that move people in Winnipeg. And it’s cars that occupy the ever-expanding network of surface parking lots in our downtown: cheap, plentiful spaces have made driving to work easy and comfortable. Why would anyone take the bus where there is very little advantage? Transit is not just failing because the product itself isn’t working well. It’s failing because our city has planned for it to fail. There is no outcome for transit, in the current design of this city, that will strengthen its utility and usage, because we haven’t considered factors beyond the service itself. It’s clear the reliability and safety of transit must be improved, and some of that will be addressed by the changes that go into effect tomorrow, but until the infrastructure surrounding car use makes it preferable, I can’t imagine I’ll be memorizing many new route numbers. rebecca.chambers(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:rebecca.chambers@freepress.mb.ca>

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WFP: Massive murals won’t just brighten Graham Avenue, they will make it safer (Jun28'25)
by Beth McKechnie 28 Jun '25

28 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Massive murals won’t just brighten Graham Avenue, they will make it safer TAKIN’ IT TO THE STREET https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/2025/06/27/takin-it-to-the-… MURALS, not buses, will soon be running up and down Graham Avenue. Winnipeg is one of only 10 cities in North America — and just two in Canada, the other being Ottawa — selected for the US$100,000 Asphalt Art Initiative launched by Bloomberg Philanthropies. The project turns the formerly transit-heavy corridor into a whimsical urban canvas. Beginning Monday, local artists will cover the asphalt with large-scale, street-level murals. The public art initiative is part of the broader Reimagining Graham Avenue, which is seeing the four-block zone from Carlton to Garry Street transformed into a pedestrian-first corridor. “It’s not often where that scale of a (mural) project can happen this fast,” says project lead Stéphane Dorge, an organizer with CoolStreetsWPG, which specializes in transforming community spaces through art. “This is kind of like an arts festival, where we’re going to be up to 10 artists on site, plus helpers and volunteers bringing to life about 18,000 square feet of murals to animate the Graham Avenue space, so it’s a bit overwhelming.” Muralists include Marc Kuegle, Alex Plante, Kal Barteski, Kale Sheppard, Laura Lee Harasym, Mike Zastre, James Culleton, Architects at Play and lead artist Takashi Iwasaki. Like a cinematically colour-graded street scene, the project will have a rich, overarching palette, but each of the artists was given near carte blanche to create, with an emphasis on play and interactivity. Dorge describes Architects at Play’s 13,000-square-foot piece as a “playable mural where you can bring your own pocket dice or use a dice app on your phone to play.” “I can’t wait to unveil it.” Reimagining Graham Avenue dovetails with the city’s new spine-and-feeder transit model launching Sunday. Known as Primary Transit Network (PTN), the new system is a historic transformation that will shift transit’s focal points away from the downtown core towards other major corridors in the city, prioritizing bus frequency and greater neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood access across Winnipeg. But rather than diminish downtown’s place in the city’s civic culture, projects such as the PTN and Reimagining Graham Avenue — which coincide with the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street opening to pedestrian traffic — aim to transform the heart of the city into a more walkable social hub. Look up from the asphalt tableaus, and rather than buses you’ll soon see a public plaza, including street plants, picnic tables, furniture, benches, pingpong tables and access ramps. Car traffic will be allowed along other stretches of Graham, where protected bike lanes are also being added. “When these changes are in place, Graham will be more colourful, more dynamic, more pedestrian-friendly. One more reason for people to visit, explore and enjoy our downtown,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham. The application to Bloomberg Philanthropies, a charitable organization in New York, for the Asphalt Art Initiative was submitted by Public Works and the Planning, Property and Development departments at the City of Winnipeg. “It was just a really well-thought-out, really inspired application,” says Nicholas Mosquera, one of the program leads at Bloomberg Philanthropies for the Asphalt Art Initiative. “It reminded us a lot of work that we’d been doing (in New York City’s Times Square). We saw a lot of similarities in the Winnipeg project and we’re happy to be a part of that effort.” Studies consistently show that pedestrian-friendly design makes neighbourhoods feel more connected. For example, research from a University of British Columbia review found walkable neighbourhoods build civic trust and spark friendlier interactions, while a U.K. study showed that quieter, low-traffic streets made people more neighbourly and less lonely. That same study also found that low-traffic, pedestrian-centric neighbourhoods can create public health gains up to 100 times greater than the costs of those plans. And while public arts and beautification projects are sometimes criticized as a superficial fix to the social problems undergirding urban distress, a growing body of literature shows the social benefits run deeper than fleeting eye candy. The Asphalt Art Safety Study, conducted by Sam Schwartz Consulting in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, analyzed 17 asphalt art sites across the United States. Among the outcomes reassuring them of their good work, they found that crashes involving pedestrians or cyclists were halved, while crashes resulting in injuries decreased by 37 per cent, along with a 27 per cent increase in drivers yielding to pedestrians with the right-of-way. “They’re really striking results. We’re really proud of that — (it’s) some of the first research, certainly to our knowledge, to look at multiple arts-driven street-design projects,” says Mosquera. A number of independent studies, mostly focusing on green projects, illuminate the effects of community beautification on improving mental health and community connectivity. “It’s incredible when we can see that the street is actually going to turn into a large piece of art,” said Kate Fenske, Downtown Winnipeg BIZ’s chief executive officer, of Reimagining Graham Avenue. “I hope this isn’t the full catalyst, though,” says Dorge. “We still need development of the surface lots and Graham. We need more housing downtown. But I hope this draws attention to that need and, hopefully, spurs prioritization from developers to focus on rebuilding that area and making it more vibrant.” conrad.sweatman(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:conrad.sweatman@freepress.mb.ca>

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WFP Editorial: Big changes for your bus trips (Jun28'25)
by Beth McKechnie 28 Jun '25

28 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. EDITORIAL Big changes for your bus trips https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/2025/06/28/big-changes… WELL, fasten your seatbelts! Except you can’t. There aren’t seatbelts on Winnipeg Transit buses, but you know what we mean. Tomorrow starts the biggest set of changes at Winnipeg Transit in years: in reality, the first full-scale revamp of transit routes and services that any transit user is likely to be able to remember. The old route map has been torn up: there are hardly any surviving legacy routes, and it’s a new era for Winnipeg bus travel. The process has been unrolling slowly for several years, with transit officials designing a new feeder system, seeking input on proposed route changes, followed by a final route plan and a redrafted Navigo app, transit signs for new routes being installed, and temporary signs listing the routes that will be vanishing tomorrow. The idea changes the entire structure of the system, moving to a main “spine” Primary Transit Network and feeder system that promises sufficiently frequent buses that riders won’t need to schedule their trips and connections that thread out into different parts of the community from those “spine” routes. It’s a lot different from the system that’s in place now, but the goal is a familiar one — to get you from here to there as quickly and easily as possible. There will be problems. There will be hiccups. There will be angry passengers and frustrations. You can’t massively overhaul a system that had just under 67 million riders in 2024 and not have issues arise. Heck, the system will be brand new for bus drivers, too, and there are something like 1,100 of them who will have to get up to speed all at once. (A quick note here: bus drivers didn’t devise this new system, and if you’re angry about the changes, you’ve got no right to take it out on them, even if they are the first and only face of Winnipeg Transit you see in the flesh.) But keep this in mind: most of the changes to Winnipeg’s bus system in recent years have been incremental, building on a foundation that hasn’t changed greatly while the needs of a changing demographic certainly have. The system, where it worked well, worked well in spite of itself, not because of carefully managed and planned change. This is different. So, now to the “what’s next?” part. No one sets out to deliberately make things worse: there will be winners and losers, commutes that take more time for some riders and, hopefully, more routes that take less. But the whole process has been undertaken in an attempt to improve transit for the largest number of riders possible. Winnipeg Transit is making quite a few claims about the benefits of the new system. “You’ll benefit from a route network that’s more … Frequent: Buses arrive more often on frequent routes. Direct: Major routes are straighter, fewer take slow and winding paths. Connected: Service expands into new areas, and bus stops move to improve connections. Simplified: Routes are easier to figure out.” At least, that’s what the website says, That does all remain to be seen. But the changes are the result of a careful process, one that has tried to deliver the most benefits possible for the most people. Do that hardest of things: if you’re inconvenienced or confused at the beginning, try to give the new system the benefit of the doubt as kinks are worked out and you get used to how it can work for you. And be patient: at least at this point, Winnipeg Transit intends to keep this iteration of its bus routes and schedules in place for a full year before making significant changes. Enjoy the ride.

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WFP: Bring on the buses (Jun28'25)
by Beth McKechnie 28 Jun '25

28 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. New transit system promises faster, more reliable service. It’s now up to Winnipeggers to decide if they like the new ride Bring on the buses https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2025/06/27/bring-on-the-buses FORGET Hamlet, today’s great existential dilemma might be, “Do I wait for the next bus or start walking?” At least according to behavioural economists, who use the wait-walk dilemma to explore trade-offs between waiting for better opportunities or taking immediate action amid uncertainty. Winnipeg Transit gives the dilemma, in its literal form, an especially cruel edge. Winter lasts for months. Buses in many areas are infrequent. Routes can be as winding and indirect as the streets themselves. Miss a transfer and — walk or wait — you could be stuck in Mars-level cold for the next 45 minutes. With choices like these, it’s little wonder that more than 90 per cent of Winnipeggers say “not to be” when it comes to commuting via bus, preferring to drive, bike or walk. Bjorn Radstrom, manager of Transit Service Development at the City of Winnipeg, is the lead behind a new experiment he hopes will nudge ambivalent commuters in the right direction: stand tall and wait for Winnipeg’s public chariot. “I’m an absolute transit nerd… (and) this is a once-in-a-lifetime project,” he says of the Primary Transit Network, the city’s new system of bus “spine” lines, which debuts Sunday. It was designed and planned in collaboration with Stantec, a global design and consulting firm. “Not many cities have done a wholesale overhaul of their entire network like this. It’s probably the biggest ever in Canada or in the United States and it’s one of the biggest ever in the world.” ●●● The new transit network’s backbone is a series of high-frequency “spine” routes, with buses every 10-15 minutes, along major corridors — including St Mary’s, Grant, Portage, Donald, Osborne, Provencher, Pembina and Abinojii Mikanah. Commuters squinting at the display on approaching buses on these lines will spot an “F” or “FX” prefix, standing for frequent and frequent express. “(For a lot of routes), you won’t have to even consult a schedule. You can just walk out because the bus is going to be coming,” Radstrom says. The F lines join the network’s BLUE Line, Winnipeg’s first rapid transit service (arriving every four to 10 minutes during peak hours) connecting the downtown to the University of Manitoba and St. Norbert through the bus-only Southwest Transitway corridor. There’s also the new D (direct), R (regular) and E (Express) lines, which differ somewhat in terms of bus-stop spacing and service speed but like F and FX run along thoroughfares. As well as reducing wait times, the new network allows Winnipeg Transit to wring a de facto “grid” out of the city’s sometimes jumbled topology, a shape generally considered a marker of transit efficiency. All this means scrapping the buses’ oddly cherished naming system, where most were labeled with a number that often stuck for decades. Numbers like the “68”, “20” and “11” that for many evoke years of commuting and colourful, sometimes surreal, encounters with fellow riders. It also means tossing the city’s complex branching patterns — express-only and peak-only services and certain downtown corridors, like Graham Avenue’s transit mall. Those many overlapping routes and their multiple variants are now considered redundant. To ensure commuters don’t have to walk too far before hopping on a main line, the new system has three categories of feeder routes — connector routes (two-digit numbers), community routes (three-digit numbers) and on-request service. These offer lower-frequency buses connecting neighbourhoods to the spine network; little streams flowing into a big river. All the same, it’s easy to find commuters on Reddit and social media eulogizing the loss of a familiar, trusty line or venting about now having to walk longer or transfer more often. “I really value complaints, and I want people to complain if it’s not working for them. My only request is be specific and be constructive,” Radstrom says. “(But) with a change of this magnitude … there’s no way around it. Things are going to get more challenging for some people.” It’s also notable the new system requires more transfers on many routes — changes that may make some Winnipeggers bristle. That’s natural when they associate transferring with standing in the cold and checking their phones for a connecting bus that never seems to come. The redesigned network aims to address that with more reliable, regular service. You may have to catch an extra transfer, but the buses should come more quickly. Radstrom — fond of quoting transit pundit and consultant Jarrett Walker’s motto, “Freedom is frequency” — estimates transit will significantly improve for about 60 per cent of current riders and remain functionally the same for 20 to 30 per cent. On the other hand, he predicts things will become more difficult for the remaining 10 to 20 per cent. For the city, it’s a make-or-break moment. With years of stagnant ridership and revenue shortfalls, the status quo would no longer do. “For those that may be concerned about the changes, I can appreciate that, but I think the general principle I would ask everyone to please remember is that we would not be making these changes to make things worse,” Mayor Scott Gillingham says. “(It’s) the biggest modernization of Winnipeg transit service in 60 years.” ●●● City modernization initiatives almost always have trade-offs and discontentment and it’s no different with public transit. Among transit wonks, one of the hotter debates is whether cities are better off with the hub-and-spoke model Winnipeg is ditching or the spine-and-feeder approach behind the new system. The hub-and-spoke system is a radial one. It gets its name from its wheel-like shape: a central hub — typically downtown — with spokes stretching outward. Downtown has been the heart of Winnipeg’s transit system since 1891, when electric streetcars began running along River Avenue, radiating in and out from the city’s core. The story of Winnipeg’s modern transit system begins about a half century ago. In 1955, the city scrapped its streetcars — marked by a symbolic “funeral” with hundreds gathering at Portage and Main to watch a ceremonial streetcar parade and to flatten coins on the rails one last time. Over the next 15 years, Winnipeg’s transit switched gears, as rubber-tired trolleys — still powered by overhead wires — gradually gave way to diesel buses. In 1963, the city launched the Winnipeg Area Transportation Study. It reflected the post-war modernist ethos — promoting radial expressways, geared towards drivers in their big Meteors, Impalas and Fairlanes. It also recommended that the system be radial and downtown-centric. After all, the country was enjoying its postwar boom. The suburbs were young and multiplying, the middle-class now had cars and commercial life was centred around Portage and Main. A gloom had yet to envelope the downtown. There was still hope it might serve as a civic hub for residents of new suburbs like St. Vital and Tuxedo, with a slew of downtown cultural attractions like the Centennial Concert Hall (built 1967) and Manitoba Theatre Centre (1970) all soon on the way. In the 1970s, the city went all-in with diesel, rolling out Winnipeg’s classic buses, like the 66, the 75 and the 11 — funnelling riders to and from the downtown. “The (old) network doesn’t work because it’s built for the city of the 1950s, maybe 1960s, when everybody’s commuting into downtown in the morning, out of downtown in the afternoon,” Radstrom says. “But it didn’t serve people for all the other trips they want to do, for work, first of all, but also just for daily life — if they want to go shopping, visit their friends, all that kind of stuff.” It’s rare to see a city’s transit switch suddenly from a hub-and-spoke to a spine-and-feeder model. In this shift, Winnipeg joins cities like Madison, Wis. — which launched a new grid-like transit system in 2023 — and Dublin, Ireland, where similar changes began to take root in 2021. Winnipeg’s shift, while reflecting an ongoing downtown malaise, also evokes broader debates about how cities should grow. Urbanists tend to champion gridlike systems for transit and streets, viewing them as a more rational and efficient way to guide people and vehicles. This makes spine-and-feeder inherently attractive. However, large-scale efforts to reform transit with watchwords like “rationality” and “efficiency” are often criticized as too top-down. Conservatives and grassroots progressives alike share these concerns, wary of centralized overhauls that disrupt daily routines with new abstract frameworks — especially if they’re rolled out without public input. Others argue this view underestimates our ability to plan effective transit and that even large-scale systems like spine-and-feeder models can promote a different kind of decentralization. These models push back on the downtown-centrism of planning and reflect that over time cities tend to see jobs, schools and shopping services dispersed across neighbourhoods. They can do this by enabling transit users to travel across town rather than always through the core. When done well, spine-and-feeder systems promote transit frequency and directness — and, as many argue, help knit a city’s diverse neighbourhoods more closely together. ●●● While major city projects still evoke a technocratic image, today’s planners are expected to engage in deeper, more inclusive public consultation than in the past. “The new routes are built on extensive consultation with transit users and a deep analysis of anonymous data from cellphones, really looking at where people are coming from and going to,” Gillingham says. “What this is ultimately about is the people of Winnipeg and customer service to Winnipeg,” The mayor is referring to public consultation going back to 2018, unfolding over three phases through late 2020. It included surveys, open houses, pop-up events, workshops and virtual sessions. Starting in 2019, the city partnered with Stantec on public consultancy and released several summaries highlighting residents’ calls for more frequent service, better cross-town connections, and shorter walks to stops. These reports also detailed how public feedback shaped the new system’s planning. “If we heard from people that the current network mostly works, but it needs a few tweaks and changes and things like that, we would be willing to go in that direction,” Radstrom says. “But if we heard from everybody that, no, it absolutely doesn’t meet the needs of people today and where they want to travel, how they want to travel — we were going to do something completely different.” The city also used anonymous cellphone location data to map travel patterns — showing, among other things, that many trips bypassed downtown. Radstrom says this gave planners added confidence to push ahead with a bold redesign. Winnipeg Transit also says they plan to gather data for the next year, including by collecting feedback from users through 311, before making any significant changes to the new system. And gathering this data, to continue improving the system, means getting more butts on bus seats. “I would encourage all Winnipeggers this summer to get on a transit bus if you haven’t been on one for years — and just enjoy the new transit experience,” Gillingham says. ●●● Though some worry about the scope of change, others worry they’re not dramatic enough. “To get people to use transit, generally transit service has to be comparable to car use,” says Orly Linovski, associate professor at the department of city planning at the University of Manitoba. “Transit nerds (take buses) because we love transit, but even with me, if it’s going to take an hour and 20 minutes instead of seven or 15 minutes — that’s a big ask.” Linovski points out Winnipeg’s relatively low traffic congestion makes driving easy and convenient for most vehicle owners, giving little incentive to switch to public transit. At the same time, it’s not surprising political leaders hesitate to explore policies discouraging car use — and unleash a commuter rage fiercer than a Winnipeg deep freeze. The more popular option for commuters is to make busing more inherently appealing through upgrades and smart reforms. It remains to be seen how commuters will respond to the new network in the long term and the extent to which it will shorten average trip lengths, though Radstrom predicts significant improvements for more than half of riders. And there are other significant upgrades on the horizon for Winnipeg Transit, thanks to significant capital investments coming from all levels of government. This includes a rapid transit corridor design for downtown, rolling out 90 zero-emission buses, installing accessible bus stop platforms and implementing “intelligent transportation systems,” which are supposed to make transit smarter and faster through GPS, sensors, wireless networks and real-time data analytics. For Linovski a key factor is still missing. “The evidence is pretty clear that the way to increase ridership is to increase service vehicle hours and increase them substantially,” she says, noting the total number of hours buses are in service remains unchanged with the new system. Substantially boosting service hours, however, would increase costs for fuel, maintenance, drivers, administration and other expenses, further straining Winnipeg Transit’s operational budget, which is already subsidized at record numbers by the city. Despite those constraints on the new system, few people are arguing the old one was working well enough as it was. With only one in 10 Winnipeggers choosing bus as their primary mode of commuting — and public consultations showing a strong demand for reforms — this isn’t surprising. As Linovski emphasizes, the impact of the upgrades on ridership, users’ experiences and transit’s overall efficiency deserves close study, with challenges inevitable. For Winnipeggers, it may initially feel like the new system walks before it runs. But after decades of unreliable and underused transit, the city couldn’t wait any longer. conrad.sweatman(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:conrad.sweatman@freepress.mb.ca> Tales in transit We want to hear about your experiences with the new Winnipeg transit network. Share your thoughts via the online link: wfp.to/myride<http://wfp.to/myride>. Winnipeg’s transit system is changing. Here’s a survival guide: wfp.to/transittips<http://wfp.to/transittips>.

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WFP: Pedestrians step out onto Portage and Main for first time in decades (Jun28'25)
by Beth McKechnie 28 Jun '25

28 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Pedestrians step out onto Portage and Main for first time in decades ‘Felt great, but also unremarkable’ https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2025/06/27/felt-great-but-al… WINNIPEG’S landmark intersection, Portage Avenue and Main Street, officially opened to pedestrian traffic for the first time in more than four decades Friday morning. No longer will pedestrians be forced to walk for blocks or duck down into the underground concourse to cross the street. Concrete barriers installed at the intersection in 1979 have been a source of contention between pedestrians and motorists. “Today, we’re bringing an end to 46 years of debating whether or not people should be allowed to cross the street,” Mayor Scott Gillingham said, moments before opening the roadway to foot traffic. “Now, reopening this intersection isn’t a silver bullet. It’s not the answer for all of Winnipeg’s downtown challenges, but it’s important for the progress that we are making, step by step, block by block, to build a downtown for everyone.” A large crowd crammed onto the northeast corner, eager to hear the mayor’s remarks and witness what he described as another “historic moment” for the spot. Traffic roared past and people jostled for space, waved signs and cheered before they rushed forward to test the newly painted crosswalks and signals. Gillingham said the reopening would bolster safety and accessibility downtown and is part of the effort to strengthen the inner city. Critics have argued the concrete barriers prevent collisions and traffic delays. Advocates said forcing people underground created unnecessary challenges for pedestrians and people with limited mobility. The debate was settled in 2023, after a city report estimated it would cost $73 million to replace the leaky membrane protecting the underground business concourse. City council voted to reopen crossings last year and construction began in December. The work included removing the barriers; installing new traffic signals, streetlights, sidewalks and curbs; and introducing new transit stops. Signal timings have been adjusted, some traffic lanes have been changed and pedestrians can cross in all directions. Superintendent Chris Ritz, who oversaw the project on behalf of construction company M.D. Steele, said the effort was completed on time, within the $21-million budget and with minimal impact to traffic over the past eight months. Construction crews encountered some challenges, including a badly deteriorated foundation beneath the northwest corner and a pair of “unknown vaults” in the southeast and southwest corners that required significant structural repairs. “Despite these surprises, we knew that the June 27 date was important and we needed to get this met,” Ritz. City officials wanted the project completed by that date, so the reopening could coincide with the overhaul of the Winnipeg Transit system, set to take effect Sunday, Gillingham said. While the ribbon-cutting was not official until around 11 a.m., supporters of the move gathered hours earlier to watch as construction crews cleaned up debris from newly finished sidewalks amid the morning rush hour. “This intersection being closed has been such a chasm or an abyss in the middle of the city. Really, it just takes away from people being able to move,” said Emma Durand-Wood, a proponent of the Vote Open movement, which has long advocated for removing the barriers. Durand-Wood had her two children and bicycle in tow as she mingled with Vote Open supporters and other bystanders. They cheered on pedestrians who crossed the intersection before the official opening, stepping past temporary orange barricades and seizing the opportunity to cross between traffic signals. “I already crossed last night,” Durand-Wood said, smiling. “It felt great, but also, like, completely unremarkable.” Gillingham said the barriers were erected as part of a 40-year deal to shutter the intersection to foot traffic and drive pedestrians to the businesses in the underground concourse. “We were blocking life and economic activity from this intersection for 46 years and it’s preposterous when you think about that. All for the sake of a bad deal,” said Adam Dooley, the spokesperson for the Vote Open campaign. “This is a victory for the Winnipeggers in the 1970s who were against this. It’s a victory for the businesses in the area that wanted it open, for the residents and for people with accessibility issues.” A woman named Isabel, who declined to give her last name, said she worked near the intersection when she was a teenager — before it closed to pedestrian traffic. “I loved it. There was so much activity here and it was energy and people were on the streets. To me, once (the barriers) came, that was the beginning of the end. I’m so glad that I got to see this come back.” tyler.searle(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca>

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CBC: City report proposes protected bike lane, lower speed limit pilot on Wellington Crescent (Jun26'25)
by Beth McKechnie 27 Jun '25

27 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Changes to area where cyclist was killed last June would take effect in spring if approved by Winnipeg council https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-bike-lane-speed-limit-well…

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WFP Editorial: It’s been a long time coming — Portage and Main (Jun26'25)
by Beth McKechnie 26 Jun '25

26 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. EDITORIAL It’s been a long time coming — Portage and Main https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/2025/06/26/its-been-a-… IT’S been a while. Forty-six years, to be precise, since the last time a pedestrian (legally) traversed the corner of Portage and Main at street level. That will change on Friday — to the great relief of many, and undoubtedly to the consternation of no small number, as well — when the city’s most iconic intersection is reopened to foot traffic for the first time since 1979. How long has it been? Well, consider this: when the opening of the below-ground concourse (formally known at the Portage and Main Circus) forced pedestrians off the street in February 1979, the Happy Days spinoff sitcom Laverne and Shirley was the top-rated show on U.S. television, the low-budget street-gang thriller The Warriors was the No. 1 box-office movie and Rod Stewart’s Do Ya Think I’m Sexy sat atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Yes, it’s been that long. Ironically, the decision to bar pedestrian traffic from the intersection — after more than a half-decade of city council debate and deliberation — was defended at the time as a move to revitalize Winnipeg’s downtown by streamlining vehicle traffic through one of its busiest interchanges. The prevailing mindset favoured cars over people, presumably in reaction to Winnipeg’s continuing outward spread. The city’s primary business and shopping stretch, from Main Street west along Portage Avenue, had begun to lose its lustre; suburban sprawl was drawing residential population to the fringes and the creation of major shopping malls in St. Vital and Transcona redefined the retail experience for most Winnipeggers. Downtown was struggling. Mega-project ideas for restoring its vitality were plentiful, including the addition of office towers at Portage and Main, creation of the aforementioned subterranean shopping concourse and construction of the massive Portage Place mall, but most — as visitors to the current version of downtown can readily attest — have proved fruitless. The idea of reopening Portage and Main has been part of the public conversation for at least a couple of decades; in 2014, then-mayoral candidate Brian Bowman pledged to re-introduce foot traffic if elected, but once in office he opted to abide by the result of a 2018 plebiscite on the issue, in which two-thirds of voters (most of whom were from the city’s far-flung suburbs and likely seldom visited the intersection) rejected the notion of reopening. Those who thought the issue was laid to rest received a rude awakening when a subsequent city report revealed it would cost $73 million to repair the leaky membrane underpinning the intersection, and that the work would disrupt above-ground traffic for up to five years. A massive rethinking of Portage and Main became a practical necessity rather than just a political- points opportunity. Afforded the latitude to reconsider the question, current Mayor Scott Gillingham wisely chose to take things in another direction. With a complete overhaul of public transit routing about to launch, and a major reimagining of Graham Avenue poised to reset the attitude of a major downtown component, the reopening of Portage and Main to pedestrian traffic now feels like the right move at the right (albeit long overdue) time. Over the past several months, the familiar and decidedly unwelcoming brutalist barriers have been removed from the corners at Portage and Main. More traditional curbsides have been established, crosswalks have been painted and the necessary electronic signals have been installed. And on Friday, a rather bold political step will result in the illumination of a “Walk” signal welcoming the return of actual steps — by people, who have once again, finally, been granted access to the city’s most famous intersection. Portage and Main. It’s about time.

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WFP: Mayor excited for ‘colourful, more dynamic, more pedestrian-friendly’ Graham Avenue (Jun24'25)
by Beth McKechnie 24 Jun '25

24 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Downtown pilot project will add furniture, art, picnic tables, ping pong tables Mayor excited for ‘colourful, more dynamic, more pedestrian-friendly’ Graham Avenue https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2025/06/23/mayor-excited-for… OVER the next three weeks, the city aims to breathe new life into a four block stretch of Graham Avenue, with a bright new look, ping pong tables, street furniture and art. As the Free Press reported last week, a pilot project will see Graham reserved for cyclists and pedestrians between Carlton and Garry streets, once a new primary transit network removes buses from the area on June 29. On Monday, the city laid out its vision for the pilot, which is expected to continue at least until the end of summer. “The buses will move off of Graham Avenue and in just three weeks … after that, we will completely transform this stretch of Graham,” said Mayor Scott Gillingham. The city says roughly $750,000 has been committed to revamp Graham within and beyond the project so far, including funding from the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, some in-kind donations and $250,000 set aside by city council. The initial pilot project additions will include street furniture, plants, picnic tables, ping pong tables, benches, art installations and access ramps. The city also secured a Bloomberg Philanthropies Asphalt Art grant to fund the painting of street murals. “When these changes are in place, Graham will be more colourful, more dynamic, more pedestrian-friendly. One more reason for people to visit, explore and enjoy our downtown,” said Gillingham. The mayor said the pedestrian-centred idea is worth testing. “Too often we can be a little afraid to give ourselves permission to fail. We have permission to fail here. This is a bit of almost a blank canvas, and we’re going to try some things, and if they don’t work, we’ll move on to the next thing. But I think a lot of what initially is being proposed is really exciting,” he said. Hazel Borys, the city’s planning, property and development director, said the pilot project will help draw visitors to the area, moving toward a vision of filling it with “people and patios, economic activity, and life.” Kate Fenske, chief executive officer of the Downtown Winnipeg BIZ, said another change slated for Graham in the near future will add new lighting from Lights Unlimited. “(This will be) adding vibrancy and … increasing public safety. These lights are going to shift colours and patterns throughout the year. From our signature downtown biz colours to fullon Whiteout mode when the Jets go to the playoffs … It’s incredible when we can see that the street is actually going to turn into a large piece of art,” said Fenske. The new project should help revitalize Winnipeg’s downtown, said Rochelle Squires, chief executive officer of CentreVenture Development Corporation. “Today’s announcement is yet another milestone. Winnipeg’s first signature pedestrian street. What we’re starting on Graham Avenue will mark a turning point in how we envision, use and experience our downtown. “Bold ideas like this have to start somewhere,” said Squires. Karin Kliewer, a senior downtown planner with the city, said planning on how the street is used after the summer will start as soon as the pilot project changes are in place. On Friday, businesses gave a mixed reaction to reserving part of Graham to pedestrians and cyclists only, with some fearing they will lose customers when buses are rerouted. Fenske said the Downtown BIZ will monitor how the changes affect businesses, while BIZ ambassadors will touch base with visitors to Graham to help determine where they are coming from. “We want to learn from that so we can develop that (long-term) plan for the street going forward,” she said. The city also plans to add new protected bike lanes on Graham in areas where vehicles will still be allowed. joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca> X: @joyanne_pursaga

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WFP Column: Righting Portage and Main wrong first step on way to a better downtown (Jun23'25)
by Beth McKechnie 23 Jun '25

23 Jun '25

Caution! This message was sent from outside the University of Manitoba. Righting Portage and Main wrong first step on way to a better downtown OPINION https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2025/06/22/righting-portage-… WINNIPEG is poised for one of the most important do-overs in its long and storied history. If all goes to schedule, Portage Avenue and Main Street will — finally, thankfully — be open to pedestrians this week. The intensive work to remove the brutalist concrete barriers is, rather remarkably, approaching completion. After having debated it for so long, Winnipeggers can now stop talking about if it’s going to happen and start asking themselves what it means. That is an incredibly different question to answer, given there is still likely a deep divide between those who think this is a good idea and those who consider it to be a colossal waste of money. Regardless of which camp you’re in, let’s consider what it could mean. The closure of the intersection to pedestrians was an enormous error. However, it was an error that was very much in lockstep with urban-design thinking in the late 1970s, when the barriers were erected. At that time, cities all over North America bent over backwards to make it easier for cars to move in, about and back out of downtown areas. The Portage and Main barriers, along with the Winnipeg Square underground mall, were considered best practices for helping vehicular traffic and giving pedestrians a safe and warm place to go. Today, we can see rather easily that this kind of approach to downtown design was deeply flawed. Making it easier for cars and trucks to move around is not conducive to a livable neighbourhood. Nor are measures that take people off the streets, even in a city such as Winnipeg, where harsh weather makes going outside a somewhat challenging concept. Cities of all sizes are undertaking do-overs for this kind of design thinking. Boston, San Francisco and Milwaukee have completed projects to remove downtown freeways built as monuments to the automobile. Even Halifax recently replaced its infamous Cogswell Interchange — a multi-level highway that bisected the downtown — with a more traditional street grid design that sought to restore pedestrian traffic and improve active-transportation links. That makes the decision to remove the Portage and Main barriers, which was undertaken rather courageously by Mayor Scott Gillingham and council last year, very much in keeping with current thinking. However, before anyone questions whether this contemporary mindset is, like its predecessors, doomed to be abandoned within a few more decades, consider that we’re quickly moving to a model of downtown pedestrian and vehicular traffic that has proven to be both successful and enduring in other countries. When you don’t spend money on building bigger, longer, wider roads, you have a lot of additional money to spend on other things, including walkability, active and public transportation and promoting densification of residential development. These are the building blocks of sustainable, livable downtowns. In fact, if we should hope for any single consequence from the reopening of our famous intersection, it should be that it’s just the start of more courageous decisions to make downtown more welcoming for foot traffic. The city is already inching closer to this idea in other areas of downtown. Graham Avenue, for example, will undergo an initial conversion, losing its designation as a dedicated bus route and allowing car traffic, albeit with a much lower speed limit. Longer term, Gillingham has talked about the possibility of turning it into a pedestrian mall and cycling route. The same conversation needs to unfold on the future of the west Exchange District. Bannatyne and McDermot avenues, along with Albert and Arthur streets, are ripe for a pedestrian mall. As it stands now, parts of all of those routes are closed periodically during the summer to accommodate music and theatre festivals. Those closures provide valuable insight into how a permanent pedestrian mall would impact that area. Just about everyone who lives or works in the Exchange knows that in the first few days after the barriers are put up for a festival, traffic is a hot mess as drivers get trapped on the area’s network of one-way streets. After the initial shock and awe, however, they choose different routes to avoid the most-affected streets and intersections. It’s proof that like rainwater, traffic that is stopped from going in one direction will eventually leak out and find another way to get where it wants to go. Our aversion to permanent pedestrian malls is one of the mindsets that prevents Canadian cities from taking downtown revitalization to the next level. In the United Kingdom, for example, it is rarer to find a town or city that has not closed its core to vehicles. Sometimes, vehicular traffic is allowed in these areas during business hours but is blocked during the evening and on weekends. Combine pedestrian malls with robust and accessible transit hubs — as is almost always the case in the U.K. — and you’ve got a tried and true way of pulling people into the core. On its own, reopening one intersection isn’t going to transform the downtown, but as an incentive for local government to continue pressing for similar innovations, it could be transformative. dan.lett(a)freepress.mb.ca<mailto:dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca>

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