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WFP: Whether he’s playing a symphony or battling the elements on his bike, WSO’s Daniel Perry goes the distance (Jan21'22)
by Beth McKechnie 21 Jan '22

21 Jan '22

Whether he’s playing a symphony or battling the elements on his bike, WSO’s Daniel Perry goes the distance DOUBLE BASS, SOLO RACE https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/entertainment/music/double-… ONE day in December, the sun had yet to rise, the temperature was -30 C and Daniel Perry decided to go for a 250-kilometre bike ride down a snow-packed trail in rural Wisconsin, with Ritz crackers and granola for sustenance, wearing turkey-roasting bags on his feet. Perry is perfectly sane: 30 years old, he is a section bassist with the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, an organization he joined at just 22, and he speaks with clarity and patience. He is mindful: most days, he spends some time sprawled out on his mat, following videos of Yoga With Adrienne on YouTube. He is accustomed to precision and he is not one to shy away from a challenge. But most people who seek to challenge themselves take on tasks that are more attainable as to-dos on a list: to eat more salad, to call their mother, to do the dishes before they pile up to “let’s do a few now and a few later” levels. Most people do not drive eight hours southeast to the Tuscobia Trail in Wisconsin in a rented Hyundai Santa Fe, only to emerge and pedal their heart out of their chest for an entire day. Daniel Perry knows how it sounds. Any extreme endurance athlete is often confronted with two types of questions by non-extreme athletes, including newspaper reporters who happen to fit that criterion: hows and whys. How did you get started? Why do you enjoy it? How do you get ready? How do you stay motivated? How does it feel to finish a race 99 per cent of the population would not consider starting? Let’s start with the first how: Perry was raised in Indianapolis, where his father was the principal trumpet in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra and where his French-horn-playing mother, who comes from Norway, exposed her kids to skiing and Nordic sports. ‘WINTER exists in Indianapolis, but it’s nowhere near a Manitoba winter,” Perry said. So when he graduated from Indiana University and was accepted into the WSO, he had a slightly different reaction than most Winnipeg transplants. “It was fun to come to Manitoba, where it stayed below freezing and the snow stayed on the ground.” A few years after arriving, Perry, who already was an avid fair-weather cyclist and a volunteer bike mechanic, decided to give the foulest weather a try, signing up at a friend’s suggestion for Actif Epica, an icy annual winter ultra race. He rode from Emerson along the Trans-Canada Trail and ended up at The Forks. “I was hooked.” As much as he enjoyed riding in the summer or spring, Perry found winter racing meditative, much like playing the double bass, an instrument he initially chose to pursue as a child because it was too big to drag with him on vacation. He later came to appreciate the role it plays in the orchestra. “It’s a collaborative instrument,” he says. “It plays a supportive role to a larger concept.” While playing the bass, he must be attuned to every other instrument and to his own. On the bike in the winter, racing for hundreds of kilometres, he gets the rare opportunity to play a solo, and to push his physical and mental capacity to meet the perfection a solo demands. ‘I’M very keen on completing my personal goals,” he says. “In some ways, it’s almost therapeutic management to put myself in these situations. It’s like a trauma response. There are a lot of things in our lives that are very difficult and we don’t always have the choice to be in those situations. These challenges are different: I think there’s something liberating and therapeutic about being there by choice.” And then choosing to get through it. The choice is one requiring commitment: in September, in the lead-up to his race in Wisconsin, Perry began working with cycling coach Nick Bergen, recognizing that, as in his musical pursuits, he could not reach his goals alone. Bergen plans workouts for Perry six days a week: low-endurance rides, core work, reverse squats, upper-arm training, VO2 max (maximal oxygen consumption) workouts, and more intense interval training designed to raise the upper limits of his heart rate. “A lot of people can’t finish those workouts,” Bergen says. “Daniel always does.” “His mental fortitude is bar none,” the coach adds. “He spent his whole life playing music, so this ability to hit the right notes translated to the bicycle. That virtue and devotion to perfection transferred to this intense desire to execute.” But not all orchestra members can do what Perry does. Just ask Meredith Johnson, the WSO’s principal bassist, one of several colleagues — two other bassists, both clarinetists, one of the trombonists — whom Perry, an advocate for active transportation, inspired to commute by bike in winter. (No, Johnson says, he doesn’t carry his bass when he rides; he has one at work.) ‘NOBODY else does what Daniel does,” Johnson laughs when asked if others race. “That is where Daniel is, at least thus far, a breed apart. I go out and ride 40 or 50 kilometres in the winter, not during a race, mind you. I’m not worried about my time. But when I come home, the first thing I think about is how on Earth does he manage 250 kilometres in a competitive environment?” Johnson points to Perry’s winning his job in the WSO at 22, the result of rigorous work and a “fervor.” To audition “is almost like being an athlete. I think Daniel has that singularity of purpose.” The training aside, the dressing routine is in itself an ordeal. Perry squeezes his five-foot-10, 185-pound frame into a pair of padded bike shorts, followed by a merino-wool base layer of upper- and lower-body long johns (he likes wool because of the sustainability of organic matter, but also because it stays warm when wet and doesn’t smell as badly). He then puts on a second pair of shorts as wind protection, followed by a pair of ski pants. Onto his cheeks and nose, he applies kinesiology tape to prevent windburn and frostbite. On his feet, he dons turkey roasting bags between his skin and his socks as a vapour layer; these keep the feet dry and are better than standard bags. Then he puts on wool socks, with toe warmers, followed finally by his boots. Up top, he wears a windproof black balaclava, a merino neck buff, a thin merino cap, a neon soft-shell jacket, his helmet, light and tinted sunglasses. On his hands, he wears latex gloves under soft-shell gloves, which he shoves into his pogies — insulated handle-bar mitts. Inside the pogies, he dumps Ritz crackers and Nature Valley granola bars, because they stay edible past freezing. In Wisconsin, he got dressed in the car, and at 6 a.m., he began the longest winter race of his life on his fat-tired bike. The snow conditions were not great: the powder was fresh and very sticky. “It was a practice in pacing to not get too sweaty,” Perry said. He tried to lower his tire pressure to give himself more traction, but the rear wheel lost too much air. He had to stop to pump. Then, the plastic bags on his feet didn’t properly hold moisture, so his socks got wet. He was already worried about frostbite when the nozzle on his Camelbak water mechanism froze. “I was in a bit of a situation,” he says. Fortunately, he was along a regularly traversed trail, serviced by gas stations along the way. About 50 kilometres in, the balaclava-clad Perry walked into a roadside shop, wearing an N95 face mask, to drink, eat, change socks and buy new Ziploc bags for his feet. “The cashier did not bat an eye.” >From there, it was smoother sailing, aside from a missed checkpoint, which caused Perry some mental and physical fatigue. But he kept riding, averaging 16 km/hr according to his Garmin bike computer. Twenty-one hours after he began, at 3:03 a.m., Perry finished the race, in third place overall out of 167 entrants. It felt similar to finishing an audition, Perry said. “There’s a big rush of achieving, and the flood of positive feelings of finishing something I’ve worked so hard toward, but at the same time, there’s a sadness to it. To be done with it. Almost a bit of aimlessness, because so much of my focus leading up is looking toward it and not about looking past it. He went to a hotel nearby and slept in until the afternoon. He got back in the car, drove back to Winnipeg, and arrived at 9 p.m. to his downtown apartment, where he went to sleep again. ben.waldman(a)winnipegfreepress.com

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Upcoming Webinar: From Complete Streets to Complete Networks: A Data-Driven, Performance-Based, Multimodal Planning Tool
by Beth McKechnie 14 Jan '22

14 Jan '22

---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Maryland Department of Planning <planning(a)info.maryland.gov> Date: Fri, Jan 14, 2022 at 1:23 PM [image: Bookmark and Share] <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDAsInVy…> THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3 AT 1:00 P.M. EST ------------------------------ [image: From Complete Streets to Complete Networks: A Data-Driven, Performance-Based, Multimodal Planning Tool] <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDEsInVy…> ------------------------------ >From Complete Streets to Complete Networks: A Data-Driven, Performance-Based, Multimodal Planning Tool *Thursday, February 3 at 1:00 p.m.; EST* *Participants of this live webinar are eligible for 1.5 AICP CM credits.* Moving beyond complete streets to complete networks – entire networks of continuous and connected facilities for transit, bike, auto, freight, and pedestrians – involves conducting a larger review of networks for each mode. Join the Maryland Department of Planning and Smart Growth Network as planners from the Michigan Department of Transportation and Southeast Michigan Council of Governments share a set of tools they have built to evolve the state of the practice for complete streets planning and design. *Find out more and register for this free webinar via the link below.* Register for "From Complete Streets to Complete Networks: A Data-Driven, Performance-Based, Multimodal Planning Tool" <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDIsInVy…> ♦ Upcoming Smart Growth Online Webinars ♦ ------------------------------ [image: Jason Corburn small for social] <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDMsInVy…> January 26 at 1:00 p.m. EST Cities for Life: How Communities Can Recover from Trauma and Rebuild for Health Get more information about this webinar <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDQsInVy…> ------------------------------ *Subscribe to Smart Growth Online Weekly Twitter Updates* <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDUsInVy…> *Smart Growth Information Clearinghouse | 410-767-4949 | SmartGrowth.org* [image: SGIC Logo] <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDYsInVy…> The Smart Growth Information Clearinghouse is a project of the Smart Growth Network and is partially funded by the U.S. EPA, Office of Community Revitalization, and managed by the Maryland Department of Planning ------------------------------ Smart Growth Information Clearinghouse <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDcsInVy…> Follow us on: Facebook <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDgsInVy…>and Twitter <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMDksInVy…> This service is provided to you at no charge by Maryland Department of Planning <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMTIsInVy…> . ------------------------------ [image: GovDelivery logo] <https://lnks.gd/l/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJidWxsZXRpbl9saW5rX2lkIjoxMTMsInVy…>

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The Deadly Myth That Human Error Causes Most Car Crashes (The Atlantic)
by Beth McKechnie 13 Jan '22

13 Jan '22

The Deadly Myth That Human Error Causes Most Car Crashes Every year thousands of Americans die on the roads. Individuals take the blame for systemic problems. By David Zipper <https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-zipper/> More than 20,000 people died on American roadways <https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-business-health-transportat…> from January to June, the highest total for the first half of any year since 2006 <https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/-crisis-road-fatalities-hit-15-year-hi…>. U.S. road fatalities have risen by more than 10 percent <https://injuryfacts.nsc.org/motor-vehicle/historical-fatality-trends/deaths…> over the past decade, even as they have fallen across most of the developed world. In the European Union <https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_20_1004>, whose population is one-third larger than America’s, traffic deaths dropped by 36 percent between 2010 and 2020, to 18,800 <https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_21_1767>. That downward trend is no accident: European regulators have pushed <https://www.euroncap.com/en/vehicle-safety/the-ratings-explained/vulnerable…> carmakers to build vehicles that are safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and governments regularly adjust road designs <http://www.welivevisionzero.com/vision-zero/> after a crash to reduce the likelihood of recurrence. But in the United States, the responsibility for road safety largely falls on the individual sitting behind the wheel, or riding a bike, or crossing the street. American transportation departments, law-enforcement agencies, and news outlets frequently maintain that most crashes—indeed, 94 percent of them, according to the most widely circulated statistic—are solely due to human error. Blaming the bad decisions of road users implies that nobody else could have prevented them. That enables car companies to deflect attention from their decisions to add heft and height to the SUVs and trucks that make up an ever-larger portion <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/business/suv-sales-best-sellers.html> of vehicle sales, and it allows traffic engineers to escape scrutiny for dangerous street designs. The recently passed infrastructure bill will encourage some safety improvements, including technology to prevent drunk people from operating a car <https://about.bgov.com/news/automakers-pushed-to-fight-drunk-driving-in-inf…> and better crash tests to address risk to people outside a vehicle <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-06/u-s-new-car-safety-ratin…>. Yet even as the federal government prepares to shovel out hundreds of billions of dollars for roadwork, Americans’ fundamental misconception of traffic deaths as merely a profusion of individual mistakes will go largely uncorrected. In 2015, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a branch of the U.S. Department of Transportation, published a two-page memo <https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812115>declaring that “the critical reason, which is the last event in the crash causal chain, was assigned to the driver in 94% of the crashes.” The memo, which was based on the NHTSA’s own analysis of crashes, then offered a key caveat: “Although the critical reason is an important part of the description of events leading up to the crash, it is not intended to be interpreted as the cause of the crash.” To understand what the NHTSA was trying to say, imagine the following scenario: It’s a foggy day, and the driver of an SUV is traveling along a road at the posted speed limit of 40 miles per hour. The limit then drops to 25 as the road approaches a town—but the road’s lanes do not narrow (which would naturally compel a driver to apply the brakes), and the lone sign announcing the lower speed limit is partially obstructed. Oblivious to the change, the driver keeps traveling at 40. As he enters the town, a pedestrian crosses the road at an intersection without a stoplight. The driver strikes the pedestrian. By the federal government’s definition, the “critical reason” for this hypothetical crash—the last event in the causal chain—is the error made by the driver who was speeding at the time of the collision. Almost certainly, the police will hold him responsible. But that overlooks many other factors: The foggy weather obscured the driver’s vision; flawed traffic engineering failed to compel him to slow down as he approached the intersection; the SUV’s weight made the force of the impact much greater than a sedan’s would have been. The authors of the 2015 NHTSA report were aware of such contributing factors. But their disclaimer that the “critical reason” for a crash is not the same as the “cause” has been largely ignored. Even a page on the agency’s own website <https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicles-safety> whittles the message down to “94% of serious crashes are due to human error.” Seeking to find a single cause for a crash is a fundamentally flawed approach to road safety, but it underpins much of American traffic enforcement and crash prevention. After a collision, police file a report, noting who violated traffic laws and generally ignoring factors like road and vehicle design. Insurance companies, too, are structured to hold someone accountable. Drivers aren’t the only ones who face such judgments. Following a crash, a pedestrian might be blamed for crossing a street where there is no crosswalk (even if the nearest one is a quarter mile away), and a cyclist might be cited for not wearing a helmet (although a protected bike lane would have prevented the crash entirely). News stories reinforce these narratives, with stories limited to the driver who was speeding or the pedestrian who crossed against the light. Indeed, journalists have disseminated the misleading 94 percent line on influential platforms including *The Wall Street Journal* <https://www.wsj.com/articles/teslas-push-to-build-a-self-driving-car-sparks…> , *ABC News* <https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/study-autonomous-vehicles-make-…>, and *The Washington Post* <https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/more-people-died-i…>. Research institutions such as the University of Michigan <https://www.nhtsa.gov/technology-innovation/automated-vehicles-safety>and the University of Idaho <https://www.uidaho.edu/engr/programs/cybersecurity/osama-al-qahtani> have done it too. Even former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has helped sow <https://fortune.com/2017/02/26/trump-self-driving-car-guidance/> confusion, as have transportation departments in states such as Illinois <https://idot.illinois.gov/dms-contest>, Utah <https://twitter.com/UtahDOT/status/1118995407407681536>, and Texas <https://twitter.com/txdot/status/1291148224120541184>. “The 94 percent line is a repeated reference at almost every state [department of transportation] conference I’ve ever attended,” Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the National Transportation Safety Board, told me. When the Michigan DOT spokesman Jeff Cranson speculated in a 2019 podcast <https://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-9620-514462--,00.html> that human error is actually responsible for more than 95 percent of crashes, the Michigan State University engineering professor Timothy Gates responded, “Yeah, I would agree with that, there’s very few crashes caused by a vehicle defect or road defect, a lot of it really is human error.” That’s a convenient perspective for engineers designing vehicles and roads. And if the buck stops with the driver, automakers feel less pressure to make lifesaving safety features standard across their models—which many of them do not. Last year, *Consumer Reports* found <https://www.autonews.com/commentary/expensive-vehicle-safety-tech-out-reach…> that the average vehicle buyer would have to pay $2,500 for a blind-spot-detection system. Pedestrian-detection technology was standard on 13 of the 15 most popular vehicle models—but unavailable on one and part of a $16,000 optional package on another. With responsibility falling on those directly involved in a crash, it’s unsurprising that so many highway-safety efforts revolve around education campaigns, assuming that if people were just more careful, we’d all be okay. Officials at the NHTSA and state DOTs pour millions of dollars into these programs, but their benefits seem modest at best <https://www.mdpi.com/2313-576X/7/4/66/htm>. Officials “see their role as trying to cajole people on the roads to make smarter decisions,” Seth LaJeunesse, a senior research associate at the University of North Carolina’s Highway Safety Research Center, told me. “Wear a seat belt, don’t be drunk when driving, and signal appropriately. I think it’s misguided. After all, who’s going to address structural problems, if it’s just people being stupid out there on the road?” For now, the idea that human error causes nearly all crashes is a useful talking point for the makers of autonomous-vehicle technology, which supposedly will prevent such mistakes. Companies including General Motors, Google, and the start-up Aurora have touted the 94 percent statistic in promotional materials <https://www.gm.com/stories/self-driving-cars>, press statements <https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2015/12/16/google-disappointed-by-…>, and even SEC filings <https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/0001828108/000119312521259457/filen…>. But, as the Carnegie Mellon University engineering professor Phil Koopman has pointed out <http://safeautonomy.blogspot.com/2018/06/a-reality-check-on-94-percent-huma…>, autonomous systems will make their own errors on the road. He does not expect AVs to reduce crashes by more than 50 percent, even in a best-case scenario. And an all-autonomous driving future is still at least decades away, suggesting that AVs will not reverse the growing death toll on American roads for many years to come—if they ever do. With the infrastructure bill now signed into law, the federal government has a chance to rethink its approach and messaging. Dumping the dangerous 94 percent myth would be a good start; deemphasizing pointless traffic-safety PR campaigns would help too. Encouraging state and local transportation agencies—not just law enforcement—to investigate crashes, which New York City <https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2021/03/25/passed-city-council-establishes-dot-…> is now doing, would be even better. What we need most is a reexamination of how carmakers, traffic engineers, and community members—as well as the traveling public—together bear responsibility for saving some of the thousands of lives lost annually on American roadways. Blaming human error alone is convenient, but it places all Americans in greater danger. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/deadly-myth-human-error-c… David Zipper <https://www.theatlantic.com/author/david-zipper/> is a Visiting Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School's Taubman Center for State and Local Government. He writes frequently about the future of urban mobility and technology.

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Even as they age, US millennials are driving less than older generations
by Beth McKechnie 12 Jan '22

12 Jan '22

US millennials are slowing their roll when it comes to car travel. A new study <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0965856421003165?via…!> published in the peer-reviewed journal *Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice *found a wide generational divide in the daily driving habits of adult Americans. Millennials (those born between 1981 and 1996) are driving 8% less than Gen X (1965 to 1980), and 9% less than younger baby boomers (1956 and 1964). Full article: https://qz.com/2109753/us-millennials-drive-less-than-older-generations/

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CBC: Pop-up ski library helps make winter sports more accessible for Winnipeggers
by Beth McKechnie 09 Jan '22

09 Jan '22

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/winnipeg-trails-association-winterp…

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The ice cycle
by Terry Zdan 08 Jan '22

08 Jan '22

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/i-want-to-ride-my-ice-cycle-1.63084…

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Free Press Weeklies: Path cleared for extension of Pioneers Greenway (Jan7'22)
by Beth McKechnie 08 Jan '22

08 Jan '22

Path cleared for extension of Pioneers Greenway https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/east/Path-cleared-for-ext… The East Kildonan-Transcona community committee held its first regular meeting of 2022 on Jan. 4. An application that would change the alignment of the entrance to the Pioneers Greenway, and open and close some portions of Gateway Road and Elmwood Road, was also discussed during a public hearing. The changes would allow the path to continue south of Nairn Avenue. The proposal, the public service noted, would allow for increased active transportation rates and reduce traffic congestion in the area while being in line with Our Winnipeg and the city’s climate action plan. Coun. Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan), while supportive of the project, noted he did not believe it would in any substantive way affect the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. "I just have to say it," Schreyer said. "I’m doing this for the sake of the active transportation plan." "Promoting active transportation is in line with our climate goals, is it not?" Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) added. "If someone leaves their car in their garage and takes their bike, that won’t reduce our carbon footprint?" "Each small step adds up," Catherine Gagnon, author of the report, told the committee. "This gives the residents of Winnipeg an opportunities to reduce their carbon impact by choosing put their cars away and use these paths as a different, alternate means." [image: image.png]

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PBIC Messenger: Upcoming Webinar on Addressing Child Pedestrian Safety
by Beth McKechnie 07 Jan '22

07 Jan '22

*Webinar Announcement* Upcoming Webinar on Addressing Child Pedestrian Safety *Child and youth pedestrian crashes deserve another look: Why and how to do it Thursday, January 27, 2022* 1:00 - 2:30 pm Eastern Time Register Here <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> In most cities children don’t comprise a large share of pedestrian crashes yet there are good reasons and real benefits for a deliberate approach to give this age group the special protection they need. Starting with a focus on youth also can build momentum to address road safety for all. Presenters will offer an overview of Vision Zero for Youth and the results of a two-year demonstration project with the city of Philadelphia using policy change and testing a systemic process to identify high risk roads for children and youth in combination with an equity analysis. Presenters include: - Nancy Pullen-Seufert, PBIC/National Center for Safe Routes to School - Diane Lambert, Toole Design Group - Lily Reynolds, City of Philadelphia Office of Transportation, Infrastructure and Sustainability ------------------------------ PBIC offers free, public webinars approximately every month. To register for upcoming webinars and to access archived presentations, please visit www.pedbikeinfo.org/webinars <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> . Follow the PBIC on Twitter <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> and Facebook <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> and join the discussion [image: https://twitter.com/pedbikeinfo?lang=en] <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> [image: https://www.facebook.com/pedbikeinfo] <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> [image: http://www.pedbikeinfo.org/index.cfm] <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> ------------------------------ Since its inception in 1999, PBIC's mission has been to improve the quality of life in communities through the increase of safe walking and bicycling as a viable means of transportation and physical activity. The Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center is maintained by the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center with funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. ------------------------------ Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center 730 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd, Suite 300 Chapel Hill, NC 27599 Add us to your address book <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/vcard?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e453ab5d&…> Phone: 1.888.823.3977 Fax: 919.962.8710 www.pedbikeinfo.org <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> View this email in your browser <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…>

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Free Press Community Review: Sharma discusses goals, priorities for 2022 (Jan5'22)
by Beth McKechnie 05 Jan '22

05 Jan '22

Sharma discusses goals, priorities for 2022 https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/Sharma-discusses-goals-pr… Moving into the new year, Coun. Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) laid out some of her goals for 2022. “We have a lot of things to deal with,” Sharma said. “Northwest Winnipeg continues to grow. It’s one of the fastest growing areas of the city. Obviously, with growth comes new amenities that are needed and the regular issues we deal with across the city.” First off, Sharma acknowledged the pandemic has made a “massive change” in the lives of all Winnipeggers, and it has also affected the operation of the city itself. In light of that, Sharma said working closely with community organizations will continue to be important in 2022, as people have relied on community supports to keep themselves afloat during the pandemic. Sharma said she’ll be supporting improvements to the city’s active transportation, including the Northwest Hydro Corridor Greenway, which will run parallel to McPhillips Street. Phase 1 will be approximately 2.4 kilometres from Leila Avenue to Church Avenue. Construction on that project is set to get underway this year, Sharma said. One issue Sharma said she feels strongly about is regulating the growing of medical cannabis in residential areas. “The growing of cannabis in neighbourhoods, there’s a lot of negative impacts that come along with that,” Sharma said. Since cannabis was legalized, Sharma said there’s been a significant uptick in reports of home growers, some that Sharma said are growing “hundreds of plants.” Neighbours have complained of strong odours coming from these residences, she said. Besides that, the operations can cause long-term damage to the houses and attract criminal activity, Sharma said. She’s calling for growers to be licensed in the future. Sharma said the city needs to take the steps to deal with these side-effect issues of cannabis’ relatively fresh legalization. “Winnipeg would be the first major Canadian municipality to actively take steps toward addressing these issues,” she said. Additionally, Sharma mentioned road renewals as a perennial priority in Winnipeg. She said for major projects, she expects to see part of Leila Avenue renewed, as well as the finishing of Keewatin Street north of Inkster Boulevard. However, Sharma acknowledged the upcoming budget makes new projects “challenging.” That budget was put forward by Mayor Brian Bowman, who said he will not be running 2022’s municipal election. Sharma said she’s ready to work with whoever assumes the mayoral title. “I’m excited about new leadership. I think it brings new ideas, a new individual around the table,” she said. “I’m someone that’s a relationship builder. I pride myself on good relations with each member of council, including the mayor, and that’s how I intend on working in the future. I think that’s what gives good results, is co-operation.” Sharma said public safety is also a high priority for the year. She expressed her support for the Northwest Watchers community watch group and said a new group will be forming at North Point. “It’s additional eyes and ears in neighbourhoods,” she said. “It’s getting to know one another, and it’s that culture of safety, in my view, that’s always been important since I was a child.” Sharma has been the councillor for Old Kildonan since 2010.

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re transportation modeling data Winnipeg PERSENTECH-BigDataforTransportation-092015.pdf
by Terry Zdan 30 Dec '21

30 Dec '21

Yours truly has always been a fan for more transportation data..CST produced this vehicle sooed map using on oard gps Ottomate instruments. , see report below investigating excessive idling in Wpg during summer months. The vehicle speed images are real time and document/confirm driving habits in the city. CST student researchers combed the literature for explanations of this phenomenon and came up empty. I have an unpublished non peered story attempting to do that. Cudos to PERSENTECH and their Ottomate...which CST later used in amazing study to document and map bicycle routes in the city. The project was jointly funded by the CoW and FCM (who in my opinion did not understand bicycles as a viable transportation vehicle at that time.) The project was called Ottocycle. Provided a benchmark of active cycling info that was lightyears ahead of it time...at that time. In my opinion.

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