- AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

WFP: Amber-light times and speed-limit signs set up for profit rather than protection, critics charge (Feb26'22)
by Beth McKechnie 26 Feb '22

26 Feb '22

Amber-light times and speed-limit signs that failed to meet Canadian standards deliver clear evidence Winnipeg’s photo-enforcement system was set up for profit rather than protection, critics charge Better sorry than safe? RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT NO OVERSIGHT A Free Press investigation into the city's transportation division https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/better-sorry-than-safe-576244922.ht… IF a car is going faster than a car going slower, does the car going faster need more time … [View More]to stop than the car going slower? For years, that was the question independent researcher Christian Sweryda would ask the class when he was invited to guest lecture at universities in Winnipeg on traffic issues. Then he would tell everyone who thought the faster car needed more time to stop to raise their hand. “The whole class would put their hands up, thinking: ‘What’s the catch?’” Sweryda says. “And I’d say: ‘You guys are now more qualified to do traffic engineering than the City of Winnipeg’s own engineers, because this is what we’re fighting over.’” The city’s long standing policy was to have uniform yellow light times — four seconds long— at every intersection, regardless of speed limit. Sweryda waged a battle against the city for more than a decade in an effort to get it changed. His research into traffic-related issues, which has uncovered evidence of financial mismanagement in the public works department and triggered an audit, is the subject of the Free Press investigative series Red Light, Green Light, No Oversight. ●●● On Oct. 16, 2015, when James Aisaican-Chase was on his way to a chemotherapy appointment, he approached the intersection of Bishop Grandin Boulevard and River Road and the green light turned to yellow. Instead of slamming on his brakes in a panic stop, Aisaican-Chase maintained a steady speed and sailed through the intersection, clearing it in 4.3 seconds— roughly one-third of a second longer than the four seconds allotted. The speed limit on Bishop Grandin is 80 kilometres per hour. When Aisaican-Chase received a red-light camera ticket in the mail, he decided to fight it, believing his decision to clear the intersection was the safest thing to do in the moment. The decision to fight the ticket led to a complicated and protracted court battle, which was bankrolled by Todd Dube, founder of Wise Up Winnipeg. Over the years, Dube spent more than $100,000 of his own money fighting the city’s yellow-light policy. When the case went to court, Grant Lindgren, a Winnipeg Police Service crash reconstructionist, was called to testify as an expert witness for the Crown. On the stand, Lindgren conceded the city wasn’t following Institute of Traffic Engineering standards and said he wasn’t aware of any other jurisdiction that runs its yellow lights the way Winnipeg does. “Maybe they could reconsider their timing,” Lindgren said. Dube hired Darryl Schnarr, a forensic engineer and accident reconstruction expert from Ontario, to write a report on the case. “In order to evaluate the reasonableness of Mr. Aisaican-Chase’s decision to proceed through the intersection, the appropriateness of the current yellow traffic signal duration must be evaluated,” Schnarr wrote. His report was scathing. Schnarr noted that Winnipeg’s harsh winters negatively impact road conditions and make stopping more difficult, which means the city should be erring on the side of caution when it comes to yellow-light duration. The yellow-light timing at Bishop Grandin Boulevard-River Road intersection was shorter than the ITE standard by 1.2 seconds. Using photo-radar enforcement data, Schnarr calculated that if the city did follow the ITE standard, 93 per cent of the tickets at the intersection in 2015 would not have been issued. In 2016, 88 per cent would not have been issued. “It is clear that a 4.0 second yellow traffic signal duration is appropriate for some roadways and not appropriate for others,” Schnarr wrote. He said that four-second yellows were fine for streets with 50 km/h speed limits, but for anything beyond, the yellow-light timing should be extended. But the city’s policy wasn’t just increasing violations at intersections, it was also impacting safety. Schnarr noted that short yellows on high-speed roads increase the risk of broadside— also referred to as T-bones, the most dangerous kind of crash— and rear end collisions. “(It is) clear that the 4.0 second yellow traffic signal duration does not comply with competent traffic engineering practices,” Schnarr wrote. “Continuing to employ a 4.0 second traffic signal duration will contribute to traffic fatalities in the future, and may have contributed to traffic fatalities in the past.” His report proved prophetic a year later. On Sept. 4, 2018, a 61-year-old man was killed while riding his bike at the T-shaped intersection at Bishop Grandin and Lagimodiere boulevards. He was hit by a truck that failed to stop at a red light. Eventually, Sweryda was able to convince Coun. Matt Allard, the chair of the public works committee, that the city’s yellow-light times were wrong. Allard (St. Boniface) moved a motion on Sept. 16, 2020 to fix it. “It’s another one that was talked about for years.… Basically, Chris convinced me the yellow light timing was off for high-speed roads,” Allard says. The city increased the yellow-light timing to 4.3 seconds on roads with a 70 km/h speed limit, and 4.7 seconds where it’s 80 km/h. All told, 110 intersections were affected by the change— although the yellow-light durations are still below ITE standards. During the next two months, photo-radar violations at Bishop Grandin and River dropped from 357 to 50 when compared to the same time period in 2019. At Lagimodiere and Grassie boulevards, the number fell to 44 from 280 the previous year. “Winnipeg’s amber light times used to be a uniform 4.0 seconds, but we have been able to more precisely calibrate individual intersections’ timing based on national and international best practices, engineering knowledge and awareness of local context,” a city spokesman said in a statement. “This is reflected in the Traffic Signal Timing Guidelines we use to determine duration of lights on all city streets. For further context, the Traffic Signals Branch has evolved considerably since previous full review of the timing guidelines (in 2014).” ●●● The short yellow-light duration wasn’t the only city traffic policy Sweryda believed was negatively impacting safety but benefiting photo-radar revenue. On April 8, 2014, he filed a complaint to the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Manitoba, targeting three city traffic engineers. Sweryda argued the city did not post speed-reduction signs on both sides of divided roads and one-way streets, a practice “not consistent with Canadian engineering standards.” That amounted to a “serious engineering deficiency” and “malpractice,” because motorists may “fail to see the speed reduction signs, particularly when there is a large semi-trailer truck between the motorist and speed reduction signs.” A three-person committee was tasked with reviewing the complaint. They eventually determined that only one of the three engineers— Luis Escobar— was responsible for the policy. During the investigation, Escobar admitted he had conducted no engineering analysis to depart from the speed-reduction signage standards detailed in theManual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Canada. Ultimately, the panel cleared him of malpractice. “The purpose of this investigation is not to determine whether or not the policy is correct,” their decision read. But there was one dissenting opinion from engineer Ian McKay. “Evidence on speeding ticket reductions when dual signs are posted… clearly demonstrates that there are circumstances in Winnipeg where drivers are failing to see the primary sign,” McKay wrote. “In my view, Mr. Escobar’s actions of not completing any analysis or documenting any justification to vary from an advisory issued by Canadian Traffic Engineers constitutes professional misconduct.” That was also the position of Ted Clarke, a retired former City of Winnipeg director of streets and transportation, who wrote to the investigating panel in support of Sweryda’s complaint. “For what it’s worth, I think Chris Sweryda is quite correct in his complaints about speed signing,” Clarke wrote. “When every other major Canadian city and the Province of Manitoba are all following a particular practice, and Winnipeg is not, and the result is tickets issued to law-abiding, well-intentioned drivers, something is wrong.” Clarke, who retired in 1995, called the city’s policy “predatory” and a “blatant revenue grab” aimed at “tripping up responsible drivers on minor technicalities.” But Michael Jack, the city’s current chief administrative officer, defended Escobar in the matter in a series of letters sent to APEGM obtained by the Free Press. In response to Sweryda’s claim the city did not follow national engineering standards and established practices on dual signage, Jack wrote there was nothing in the law requiring it. Last week, however, the city told the Free Press in a written statement its engineers “adhere to national and local practice guides.” On March 10, 2017, the Law Society of Manitoba issued two “reminders” to Jack of his professional obligations due to his role in the case. Jack had changed his practising status to “inactive” on June 30, 2015, which meant he shouldn’t have been working as a lawyer. The law society — which regulates the profession in Manitoba— charged that by defending city employees while a member of the administration, he was in a conflict of interest. “You continued to represent to APEGM that you were acting on behalf of the three engineers and you continued to be involved in their legal matter on their behalf,” reads the letter. “It is the belief of the Law Society that you ought not to have been representing the three engineers at all. You certainly ought not to have continued to act for them after changing your status to ‘inactive.’” In a written statement, the city noted the Manitoba Law Society handled this matter on an “expressly confidential basis.” “Michael Jack provided an explanation to the Manitoba Law Society and they determined that the complaint was resolved with no further action required by them,” a city spokesman wrote. Around that time, Sweryda also launched a petition asking the city to change its policy on dual speed-limit signage. It got more than 2,000 signatures. By August 2015, the petition made its way to Mayor Brian Bowman’s desk. In a written statement, a city spokesman said the department is now supportive of dual signage. “The historical interpretation of the (Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices for Canada) by the City had been that the dual provision of signage was optional rather than mandatory, however the department is now supportive, prepared to, and committed to making the change to add the dual signage,” the statement said. “We are still investigating the total number of locations where the additional signage would need to be installed (we believe there are 52 locations where this is required), and have committed money… to fund the installation. We anticipate it will be completed within the calendar year.” Jeremy Patzer, an assistant professor in the department of criminology and sociology at the University of Manitoba, says he believes Sweryda’s research proves the city has been deliberately sacrificing road safety to increase photo-radar revenue. “There are actions and policies undertaken by the authorities that would seem to want to lead us to break the Highway Traffic Act.… Safety is the rationale that is always sold to us, but when it comes down to it, you can see policies that actually sacrifice safety,” Patzer says. “We actually see what seems to be the sacrifice of safety for revenue streams.” A city spokesman shot back in a written statement: “The assertion that the City of Winnipeg would deliberately sacrifice safety for revenue is outrageous, unfounded, and categorically untrue.” *On April 6, 2021, Allard moved a motion at the Riel community committee seeking to change the way Winnipeg’s photo-radar system is operated*. *He wanted the revenue generated from violations in school zones to be earmarked for road-safety improvements instead of going to police operations.* “The (photo-radar) program needs to be reformed. The program legislation is to better safety. It doesn’t specifically say the dollars should go to police. It says safety. I think for the program to continue to be viable, it needs to look at the roads themselves,” Allard said at the time. *The motion was shot down by councillors Brian Mayes (St. Vital) and Markus Chambers (St. Norbert-Seine River).* Chambers, chair of the Winnipeg Police Board, called it “premature.” Mayes went further. “I think I have concerns as well. Perhaps slightly different concerns than Coun. Chambers. We both sit on the police board. *This would be a pretty big reallocation of budget from the police,” Mayes said*. Sweryda believes the city’s behaviour is breathtakingly cynical. “When I started this, people were saying, ‘Photo radar is about safety.’ Most people now accept that photo radar is a cash grab. But there’s still this attitude of, ‘Well, if you don’t like the ticket, don’t break the law. Don’t give them the chance to get you,’” he says. “The next step that people need to understand is that it’s not just a cash grab. It’s a cash grab and a trap, sure, but it’s not safety-neutral. It’s actually a detriment to safety.” ryan.thorpe(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe [View Less]

1 0

WFP: State of Winnipeg’s sidewalks challenged (Feb25'22)
by Beth McKechnie 25 Feb '22

25 Feb '22

Visually impaired man consider human rights complaint against city State of Winnipeg’s sidewalks challenged https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/state-of-sidewalks-challenged-57624… A VISUALLY impaired St. Vital man is considering filing a human rights complaint against the city over the state of its snow- and ice-packed sidewalks. Raymond Slipetz, who lives alone, is legally blind and uses a cane to walk in the winter, said the city’s refusal to clear sidewalks in a timely manner has … [View More]affected his quality of life. Getting his groceries delivered and accessing a taxi are difficult because the plowed snow blocks his driveway. “If you’re in a wheelchair or you’re in a situation where you need to use a cane or a walker, you’re not going anywhere on the sidewalks,” the 69-year-old told the Free Press Thursday. Slipetz said he’s considering making a complaint with the Manitoba Human Rights Commission on behalf of Winnipeggers with disabilities. He said they’ve been denied basic needs because the city doesn’t make sidewalk clearing a priority. “But the fact of the matter is that if you’re in a wheelchair, use a walker or a cane, or are a legally blind person, you don’t have any rights at all,” he said. “You rely on what other people are willing to hand you down.” The city has three priority levels for snow clearing. Typically, the priority level of a street and a nearby sidewalk are the same (for example, some sidewalks near schools get a higher priority than nearby streets). Priority is determined by several factors, including the amount and type of traffic. First and second priority streets and sidewalks are plowed after five centimetres of snow fall, while third priority streets and sidewalks are plowed after eight centimetres. While corresponding streets and sidewalks are supposed to be cleared at the same time, that isn’t happening. On Thursday afternoon, Priority 2 streets in the south end of Winnipeg were considered 100 per cent cleared, while their sidewalks and pathways were listed as nine per cent complete. “We start at the same time, but sidewalks take much longer than streets,” said Michael Cantor, Winnipeg’s manager of street maintenance. “Usually, you’ll see streets at 100 per cent after 24, 36 hours, while the sidewalk stays much longer. Although the policy states 36 hours, this year, it was very hard to meet those timelines.” City policy states that Priority 1 and 2 sidewalks should be fully cleared within 36 hours of a snowfall, while Priority 3 sidewalks should be plowed within five days. Cantor acknowledged that hasn’t happened this winter. “What limits us, usually, is the amount of equipment to finish our inventory within 36 hours,” he said. “And with this long winter and cold temperatures, we have a lot of equipment that is down.” He added the city is behind on clearing Priority 3 sidewalks because of excessive snowfall this winter. Cantor said his department is closely monitoring its sidewalk clearing this winter, with a report on snow clearing to be presented to the city in July to determine gaps in service. However, Cantor defended the city’s response. “In other cities, they don’t plow sidewalks of residential streets at all,” he said. “Winnipeg has, I think, one of the best policies. We just sometimes struggle to facilitate it if we don’t have the adequate resources to do that. And we’re working on it. But otherwise, the policy itself is a very good policy.” But Slipetz, who said he’s reached out to the city with little to no response, said the priority system isn’t working. “To me, it’s ridiculous that they would be following this old policy and not giving any consideration to those who are disabled,” he said. Elmwood resident Adam Johnston agrees. Johnston, who was hit by a car in October, said he finds it difficult to navigate the city’s snowy sidewalks with his injuries. He said the need for accessible pathways is vital in lower income neighbourhoods where more people walk and take public transit. “We’re in an area that’s not of high income… and it feels like we have been ignored this winter. It just seems like roads and higher income areas seem to get priority,” he said. Johnston said he gets anxious about scaling the piles of snow that line city sidewalks. “Often I’m jumping over snowbanks to walk on the street where it’s been cleared, where the cars go, and obviously that’s not the greatest, but it’s often the only alternative,” he said. malak.abas(a)freepress.mb.ca [View Less]

1 0

WFP: Winnipegger’s effort to replace hundreds of missing signs in school zones thwarted by public works department (Feb25'22)
by Beth McKechnie 25 Feb '22

25 Feb '22

Winnipegger’s effort to replace hundreds of missing signs in school zones thwarted by public works department CAUTION: apathy zone RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT NO OVERSIGHT A Free Press investigation into the city's transportation division https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/caution-apathy-zone-576241702.html IT was sometime in 2011 when Christian Sweryda, an independent researcher and traffic-safety activist, started to notice locations where school-zone signs were missing in Winnipeg. He … [View More]began to count the places where they should have been installed. When his list hit 30, he contacted the transportation division of the public works department to flag the issue. Sweryda said based on how many signs were missing just in his area, there were likely hundreds more around the city. He suggested someone do an inventory. Someone in the department told Sweryda it would not do a count, but would replace missing signs on a case-by-case basis. They told him to stop calling and instead contact 311. Sweryda had a deep fascination with traffic-related issues inWinnipeg and began looking into a range of safety concerns. His research— which has uncovered evidence of financial mismanagement in the public works department and triggered an audit — is the subject of the Free Press investigative series Red Light, Green Light, No Oversight. After the department rebuffed his efforts, Sweryda decided to take the matter into his own hands. He compiled a list of all city schools, both public and private, and used Google Street View to check every location for missing signs. He spent the next six months driving to the locations to verify his findings. He compiled a 73-page list of every sign location in the city and flagged each spot where one was missing. He noted undersized signs, misplaced signs and school-zone signs on streets with no schools. All told, there were 206missing school-zone signs. Sweryda took the list to the department and asked for the problem to be addressed. He was told it wouldn’t be. “I was floored,” he said. “I hadn’t grown cynical yet.” In November 2012, Sweryda got the National Post to do an article on the topic. It profiled one location, near John Pritchard School onHenderson Highway, where school-zone signs were missing. Sweryda thought the media coverage would force the department to act. Instead, the missing signs at John Pritchard were replaced, but the city ignored hundreds of locations elsewhere. A freedom-of-information request revealed the signs were replaced only after the River East Transcona School Division complained to the city after reading the National Post story. In late November 2012, former city councillor Harvey Smith set up a meeting with Sweryda and department staff. He again produced the list and, this time, he was told they would “assess each location” on it. At the time there were discussions about lowering the speed limit in school zones to 30 kilometres per hour. Sweryda was told it made no sense for department workers to replace all the missing signs if they were going to have to repeat the work after a speed-limit reduction. The argument, at least to him, was nonsensical: while refusing to replace missing school-zone signs — a safety issue — they were saying they wanted to reduce speed limits to improve safety. In 2014, the speed limit in school zones was reduced, but only on residential streets adjacent to elementary schools— where only a small minority of the missing signs were located. Many more were on major roads, or roads approaching schools or at high schools. The only signs the department replaced were those affected by the lower speed limit. In 2015, Sweryda repeated his inventory and found there were 173 signs missing; only 33 of the 206 he’d initially identified had been replaced. Many were on major roads with high traffic volumes and increased safety risks. At that point, Sweryda gave up. He’d done what he could to get the department to act. But his concerns remained, and by 2018 he was back on it, and this time he teamed up with Coun. Matt Allard, who chairs the public works committee. That year, Allard (St. Boniface) moved a motion asking for a civic report on missing school-zone signs. In November 2018, the department was granted 180 days to report back on the matter. In May 2019, the timeline was pushed to October. Then in November, an extension was again granted, followed by yet another in February 2020. The department requested additional funding to create a database and GPS monitoring system for the signs. But the proposal for the additional funding was not approved. Once again, Sweryda couldn’t make sense of the department staff’s logic. They didn’t want to replace the missing signs he’d catalogued until they’d developed an internal GPS system that could keep track of missing-sign locations in the future. In the fall of 2021, Allard took the matter up with the department again. This time, public works department director Jim Berezowsky said he would get someone on it. And once again, Sweryda’s list of missing school-zone signs was provided. “I have been working for years asking the public service to address missing school-zone and playground signage as researched by Chris Sweryda, through council motions and communications. Unfortunately, many issues remain outstanding,” Allard said. On Thursday, the city said in a statement it is in the process of reviewing Sweryda’s submitted information “in order to determine exact locations where signs may need to be repaired or replaced. We would attend to any locations where signage is in fact missing as quickly as possible.” Sweryda shares an anecdote that sums up his frustrating battle. The signs near John Pritchard School on Henderson Highway— which were replaced after the 2012 National Post story— were ones Sweryda drove by every day on his way to class at the University of Manitoba. Month after month, he watched as the school-zone sign on northbound HendersonHighway began to lean, seemingly a little more each time he passed it. On Oct. 31, 2016, it fell to the ground. It was left on the sidewalk until the following summer, and then it vanished. It had not been replaced by December 2018, so Sweryda wrote an email to David Patman, manager of transportation for the public works department. If he couldn’t get public works to replace all of the missing signs, surely he would be successful at one spot he passed all the time. Or so he thought. “I have a staff member who can review and act on missing signs; I will forward this to her. Note that we are in the process of developing a plan to inventory and update all signage in Winnipeg,” Patman wrote in response Dec. 23, 2018. By April 3, 2021, nothing had been done. Sweryda emailed Patman again. “Considering that it has been over 27 months since that correspondence, I wanted to inquire as to whether there has been any progress in putting this sign back up?” he wrote. Patman responded three days later. “This appears to have fallen through the cracks, but as of this morning, I have been advised that traffic services is going to inspect the site promptly and will reinstall the sign if it is missing,” he wrote. That was 10 months ago. The sign is still missing, as are hundreds of others. ryan.thorpe(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe [View Less]

1 0

WFP: City ignored pleas to install eye-level warning lights (Feb24'22)
by Beth McKechnie 24 Feb '22

24 Feb '22

City ignored pleas to install eye-level warning lights Decade of deadly delay RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT NO OVERSIGHT A Free Press investigation into the city's transportation division https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/A-decade-of-deadly-delay--576238171… FOR the past 11 years, independent researcher and traffic safety activist Christian Sweryda has been urging the City of Winnipeg to install eye-level safety lights at pedestrian corridors. It has been a long, drawn-out battle, featuring … [View More]a forgotten report, a pilot project bordering on the absurd, a spate of major crashes and dead children. Despite the deaths and near-tragedies, the city has resisted the mass rollout of a cheap and proven safety initiative. To this day, the vast majority of pedestrian corridors inWinnipeg do not have eye-level safety lights. The financial cost of delays is minuscule, but the human cost has been immeasurable. On April 4, 2011, a 22-year-old woman was killed at the pedestrian corridor near HendersonHighway and Leighton Avenue as the overhead lights flashed. At that time, Sweryda— who currently works for the Winnipeg School Division and is a second-year law student— had been studying traffic-related issues inWinnipeg for more than two years. His work had become an obsession, and he’d been mulling over the woman’s death for a month. One day he was stopped in his car at a rail crossing on Lagimodiere Boulevard when a figurative light bulb went off in his head. The solution was staring him right in the face: eye-level safety lights. At the pedestrian corridor on Henderson Highway where the woman was killed, the only lights were overhead, which were flashing when the driver entered the crosswalk. Sweryda concluded drivers whose vehicles were closer to the intersection when the lights began flashing would have a more difficult time seeing them. If lights were also installed at eye level, it would increase visibility. It seemed like common sense — Sweryda contacted the transportation division of the public works department and advocated for the installation of eye-level lights at pedestrian corridors. His efforts were rebuffed. In 2012 he contacted former city councillor Harvey Smith — the first municipal politician receptive to Sweryda’s research. Smith got department staff to sit down and hear Sweryda out on this and other traffic-safety issues, but they made no commitments to install the lights. By March 5, 2013, the same idea occurred to traffic-signals engineer Michael Cantor. In an inter-department email obtained by the Free Press, Cantor said the city should consider conducting a pilot project on eye-level safety lights at pedestrian corridors. “We can increase safety… with a cheap and effective solution,” Cantor wrote. Email correspondence shows there was initial pushback within the department, but the pilot project was eventually approved. Google Street View images show lights were installed at the pedestrian corridor at Notre Dame Avenue and McGee Street sometime between March 2013 and May 2014. The lights remained inactive and hooded until September 2016, when they were activated for a single eight hour period. That was the extent of the pilot project. While the sample size was small, the engineering report said the project had been a success, with driver “yield compliance” improving, and it recommended further study. The city did no further study at the time. Instead of rolling out eye-level safety lights at pedestrian corridors across the city, work crews went in and removed the pilot project lights at Notre Dame and McGee about a year later. A freedom-of-information request seeking an explanation for the decision to uninstall the lights turned up no records and an admission the department had co-ordinated the work through “word of mouth.” Then came the deaths. On Feb. 13, 2018, at the pedestrian corridor on St. Anne’s Road at Varennes Avenue, eight-year-old Surafiel Musse Tesfamariam was killed while on his way to school. The driver remained at the scene. The overhead lights were flashing. Eleven days later, a 16-year-old boy was hit at the crosswalk on Roblin Boulevard at Hunterspoint Road while chasing after his school bus. He was taken to hospital in unstable condition. On Aug. 30, 2018, a woman was left in critical condition and a man in unstable condition after being hit at a newly built pedestrian corridor on Keewatin Street at Santa Fe Drive. The 65-year-old driver remained at the scene. On March 18, 2019, four-year-old Galila Habtegerish was killed at the pedestrian corridor on Isabel Street at Ross Avenue. Her mother was also hit and taken to hospital in critical condition. The driver remained at the scene. She was charged with six offences, including two counts of disobeying a traffic-control device. The overhead lights were flashing. On July 31, 2019, a 23-year-old woman was killed at the crosswalk on Sargent Avenue at Simcoe Street. An 89-year-old man was charged with driving carelessly causing death and disobeying a traffic-control device. The overhead lights were flashing. On Sept. 10, 2019, a 37-year-old woman was killed while crossing the pedestrian corridor on William Avenue near Health Sciences Centre. The 57-year-old driver remained at the scene and was charged with dangerous driving causing death and disobeying a traffic-control device. The overhead lights were flashing. Nineteen months, six crashes, four deaths, two of them children. Sweryda remembers the moment he heard the boy had been killed on St. Anne’s Road. A friend broke the news to him. “I cried,” Sweryda said. “It was extremely frustrating, depressing. Whenever another person died I would just get so mad. Basically, screaming-at-the-wall mad. Of all the social problems in the world, we’re fighting over this? No wonder we can’t get anywhere.” Charlene Sacher has lived in that area with her husband and three children for 13 years. Her 11-year-old daughter was friends with Surafiel, the boy killed in the corridor. In the years before the boy’s death, Sacher said neighbourhood residents repeatedly took safety concerns about the corridor to the city. At first they requested a speed-limit reduction, but the city said that was not possible. “Then we asked for the trees to be trimmed back, because coming up to that crosswalk, sometimes it is very difficult to see the lights. We asked for better signage. There were lots of comments about looking into it,” Sacher said. “It took what everyone thought would be a worst-case scenario to actually make changes happen.” After the death on St. Anne’s Road, the transportation division of the public works department did a safety review of the corridor, concluding that eye-level safety lights were needed. An engineering report pegged the installation cost at $500, later upgraded to $5,000 per corridor, or just under $1 million for the 184 corridors throughout the city. After the four-year-old girl died on Isabel Street in 2019 (shortly after the lights were installed on St. Anne’s Road), the city did a safety review of that corridor. As was the case with the St. Anne’s Road review before it, the report recommended installing eye-level safety lights at the location. There was no mention of Sweryda’s advocacy dating back to 2011, or to the city’s 2016 pilot project, or to the St. Anne’s Road review. In 2019, by which time eye-level lights had been installed at nine corridors, the city hired a consulting firm to further investigate the issue, which looked at driver yield compliance rates at three pedestrian corridors in Winnipeg that had been equipped with the lights on St. Anne’s Road, Corydon Avenue and Maryland Street. The contract was awarded to a consulting firm owned by the wife of a long-standing manager within the transportation division of the public works department — although he was no longer employed by the city at the time. In a written statement, a City of Winnipeg spokesman summarized a key finding of the report as “the addition of the low-mounted beacons to the pedestrian corridor treatment system… did not result in a statistically significant change in driver yield compliance.” But the report concluded that yield compliance rates on St. Anne’s Road and Corydon Avenue had indeed increased, from 90 per cent to 93, and from 86 per cent to 89, respectively. Meanwhile, driver yield compliance rates fell at Maryland Street, from 88 per cent to 85; the report does not speculate as to a possible explanation. Nevertheless, the report noted benefits to the installation of eye-level lights beyond the increase in driver yield compliance at two locations. “As a vehicle moves closer and closer to a pedestrian corridor, it becomes impossible for the driver to see the overhead flashers because they pass out of a driver’s (line of sight),” the report reads. “As such, the Public Service concluded that (eye-level safety lights) do provide conspicuity to pedestrian corridors for drivers that are within the stopping sight distance (ie: are close to the corridor when the lights are actuated), and in dense urban settings for vehicles turning right onto a corridor.” In other words, as drivers get closer to the pedestrian corridor, they are less likely to see the overhead flashing safety lights, so installing eye-level lights improves visibility. Eight years after Sweryda first brought the matter to the attention of the department, the city had conducted two different studies — in one case hiring an outside consulting firm — to arrive at the same conclusion he had. The city spokesman said that moving forward, the department will install eye-level safety lights at all pedestrian corridors impacted by capital projects. “There is no identified funding source to support a network-wide upgrade for pedestrian crossings,” the spokesman said. The Free Press explained the series of events to Brent Toderian, an internationally recognized thought leader on cities and city-building with more than 30 years of experience in advanced urbanism, city planning and urban design. As he has not reviewed the reports, he did not want to comment specifically about the effectiveness of the lights. But he was willing to make some general comments. “One thing I’ve seen in city after city, whether or not you have the money depends entirely on your priorities.… Too many cities are still keeping old standards because of momentum and a disinterest in changing the status quo,” he said. But the saga, according to Toderian, points to deeper, structural problems in Winnipeg, and it’s ultimately a debate over “doing the wrong thing better.” “Never forget that’s what you’re doing. You’re trying to retrofit failure. And the failure is you didn’t design for pedestrian safety in the first place,” he said. Sacher has already seen tragedy up close and worries about more deaths. “So many of these crosswalks are near schools…. There is a potential for a tragedy to happen at all of these. Being proactive now could save the life of someone’s child,” Sacher said. In 2020, Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface), the chair of the public works committee, moved a motion asking the department to develop plans for a city-wide rollout of eye-level safety lights at pedestrian corridors — nine years after Sweryda’s advocacy began. To date, the public works department says it has installed eye-level safety lights at 25 pedestrian corridors in Winnipeg, with 159 locations to go. According to Sweryda, the city’s numbers are wrong: it’s actually 28 of 184, roughly 15 per cent. A department memo reviewed by the Free Press said plans are in the works for 15 more. They say they’ll get around to them later this year. ryan.thorpe(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @rk_thorpe [View Less]

1 0

The Alpine Country Going All-You-Can-Ride (Transit)
by Beth McKechnie 23 Feb '22

23 Feb '22

*Austrians now have access to every form of public transit in the country through a single affordable ticket. Is it enough to make a dent in carbon emissions? * For Romina Mayer, there was no question that she had to buy the KlimaTicket (the “Climate Ticket”) when it launched. For just €1095 per year, it gives her unlimited access to every form of public transportation in her country of Austria: All buses, undergrounds, trams and local, regional and national trains — private and public. “I … [View More]bought it immediately,” said the 57-year-old musician and music teacher from Vienna. She was even able to get in at the early bird rate of €949 (€1 is about USD$1.14), amounting to a 30 percent drop from her transportation budget the previous year. Since then, her mobility behavior has changed a lot. “I think less about where I’m going and how much it costs, so I sometimes get to places I’ve never been before,” she said. Hiking in Brand-Laaben, for example, a community in the so-called Mostviertel region of Lower Austria. “Only the bus goes there, and it’s usually very expensive.” She also uses the KlimaTicket professionally, traveling to Graz and Salzburg for rehearsals and performances. “It’s a great relief because these performances are usually not well paid.” The KlimaTicket was introduced in late October 2021. Selling 134,000 tickets in the first two months, it shattered the government’s first-year target by over 30 percent before 2022 had even begun. Queues formed in front of the ticket counters in the country of nine million. Even the initiators were surprised. “The KlimaTicket is a revolution in public transport,” says Leonor Gewässler, Green Federal Minister for Climate Protection, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology. “This has more than exceeded our expectations.” There’s a question on everyone’s mind, though: will the KlimaTicket live up to its name and actually make a dent in the country’s carbon footprint? It turns out, this might be a trickier question than it seems. The Austrian government’s mobility master plan lays out a goal to make mobility in the country climate-neutral by 2040 <https://www.bmk.gv.at/themen/mobilitaet/mobilitaetsmasterplan/faq.html>. To achieve this modeling shows that, in addition to their electrification strategy, they need a reduction of almost 20 percent in the share of private motorized transport and an increase in public transport usage by a third. The KlimaTicket was launched with the intention of contributing to that switch. Whether it will work remains a question. The role that an inexpensive and simplified tariff system can play in promoting public transport within cities has been proven in Austrian already. In Salzburg, the number of transit users has multiplied since the introduction of a low-cost annual travel pass. In 2012, Vienna introduced an annual transit ticket for public transport in the entire city area at the low cost of €412. Last year 800,000 users bought it — more than 40 percent of the capital’s population and more than the number of car owners in the city. Romina Mayer was one of them. “Driving in Vienna is madness,” she says. Now the annual ticket for Vienna is included in the KlimaTicket, though it’s still available separately for those who aren’t KlimaTicket holders. Sebastian Kummer doubts that this evidence from urban transit will translate into lower rates of car ownership and usership throughout the country. “The difference between the cost of a car and the cost of using public transport was already very large,” says the Head of the Institute of Transport and Logistics at the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. In very few cases are economic considerations the real reason for using a car. Travel times and convenience are much more important. “In this respect, the incentive to switch from car to public transport through the KlimaTicket is minimal,” he says. While it does simplify access to public transport and make it more affordable, it is mainly used by people who already use transit anyway. In fact, the ticket encourages those users to ride the systems even more often, he says, without contributing more money to it. This, he argues, actually puts a strain on a system that is already working at high capacity and lacks the money to expand its services. In the case of the KlimaTicket, that extra money is coming from the state. It is financed partially through its sale, and a subsidy of nearly €150 million per year from the federal government. The government is also supporting the introduction of regional KlimaTickets within the states with €100 million annually. The Ministry of the Environment refers to a “record budget” of more than €18.2 billion over the next six years for the expansion of rail infrastructure and another €1 billion for trains and wagons. It has also commissioned an accompanying study on the KlimaTicket to provide insight into user behavior and ecological impact. While it is still too early for results in Austria, Switzerland provides some insight. The neighboring alpine country has been offering their yearly pass, the General Abonnement*,* since 1898. A good three decades ago, the entire country’s public transport system was integrated into the ticket, including the ferries. Today, for €3650 (a number reflective of the high incomes and cost of living in Switzerland but that many still argue is overly subsidized), users have access to a network of 23,500 kilometres <https://www.sbb.ch/de/abos-billette/abonnemente/ga/ga-im-ueberblick.html>, more than half the circumference of the earth, in a country half the size of South Carolina. In 2019 half a million Swiss bought the General Abonnement — a high number in a country with a population of 8.6 million. The Swiss make 40 percent of all journeys on public transport, compared to just 10 percent in Germany and Austria. The key? In addition to the simple fare system, the country offers a high frequency and very good accessibility by public transport. Trains run between cities every hour, for example. In remote villages, one can call a bus when they want to travel. “This is a key prerequisite for the success of a transport transformation,” says Andreas Knie, a traffic expert at the Technical University of Berlin and the Berlin Social Science Center. The advantages of the private car are enormous, simply because of the door-to-door transport. Even free transit isn’t enough to convince many to leave their cars behind. The tiny nation of Luxembourg, which is equipped with an excellent network, recently introduced free transportation <https://www.vdl.lu/en/getting-around/bus/free-public-transport-and-exceptio…>. It is too early to know the results in Luxembourg, but a simulated study by the Technical University of Dortmund has shown that it will not substantially curb car use or emissions <https://www.tu-dortmund.de/nachrichtendetail/detail/soziologen-der-tu-dortm…>. The upshot? In order to convince people to make a switch to public transit, driving a car must become more difficult and more expensive, accompanied by significant improvements in the offerings of public transit. Nevertheless, Knie considers the Austrian KlimaTicket positive, and not without potential impact: “Ten to fifteen percent of car drivers are sensitive to a change, and you can give them a push in the right direction with such an offer.” However, public transport is also facing new challenges, he says. More and more people work at least temporarily in a home office. They need a simple and flexible, pay-as-you-ride fare system rather than an annual ticket. Until then, the primary winners of the KlimaTicket will remain users like Mayer, and people like Robert Püringer, a 39-year-old producer at a scientific book publishing house. Püringer lives in Unterötzbach, in the Austrian countryside near the Czech border. In non-pandemic times, the father of two commutes to Vienna every weekday. The journey takes one hour and 15 minutes each way. “I use the way there to sleep, and the way back to read, chat or watch films,” he says with a laugh. So far he has travelled with an annual ticket which, at €2032 was considerably more expensive than the KlimaTicket. Of course, Püringer also immediately bought the KlimaTicket, even though he does not use the local transport in Vienna because he walks from the main station to the publishing house. Among his friends and acquaintances in the countryside, however, he is the only one. The current public transport connections there are far too poor for most journeys to be made without a car. “For me the KlimaTicket means, apart from the ecological advantages, above all a relief of our family budget,” he says. As a reward for choosing the ecological option, that might not be such a bad thing. https://reasonstobecheerful.world/the-alpine-country-going-all-you-can-ride [View Less]

1 0

WFP: Liberals offer transit help for cities (Feb18'22)
by Beth McKechnie 18 Feb '22

18 Feb '22

Liberals offer transit help for cities https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/liberals-offer-750-million-to-citi… OTTAWA— The federal government is offering cities a one time cash infusion of $750 million to help make up for shortfalls in transit revenues linked to COVID-19. But the pledge comes with what FinanceMinister Chrystia Freeland calls two “reasonable requirements.” Provinces must match the funding, and work with cities to more quickly increase the supply of housing. Freeland … [View More]

1 0

SAVE THE DATE! | The Confessions Tour: Transportation for a Strong Town
by Mel Marginet 16 Feb '22

16 Feb '22

SAVE THE DATE! On Wednesday, April 13th Green Action Centre will welcome Strong Towns’ Charles Marohn to Winnipeg. Registration will begin soon for The Confessions Tour: Transportation for a Strong Town. Tickets will be available from greenactioncentre.ca. Like many cities in Canada, Winnipeg has gone through a period of record growth, and yet our financial position has never been worse. Winnipeg also has the highest rate of injury and death of vulnerable road users in Canada. What did we get … [View More]wrong, and what can we do now, and into the future, to ensure we have a successful transportation system that contributes to the quality of life of all residents? The lessons Charles shares will apply to those in Winnipeg as well as municipalities across the province. Whether you are a planner, developer, transportation engineer, municipal leader or community advocate, you will want to attend this important event. Following Charles’ keynote, attendees will be divided into groups to participate in a series of breakout sessions to bring the high-level concepts to the local reality around us. Be part of the transportation transformation in your town! ABOUT CHARLES MAROHN Charles Marohn, known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues, is the founder and president of Strong Towns. He is a professional engineer and a land use planner with decades of experience. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning, both from the University of Minnesota. Marohn is the author of Strong Towns: A Bottom-Up Revolution to Rebuild American Prosperity (Wiley, 2019), And of Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town (Wiley, 2021). He hosts the Strong Towns Podcast <https://www.strongtowns.org/podcast> and is a primary writer for Strong Towns’ web content <https://www.strongtowns.org/>. He has presented Strong Towns concepts in hundreds of cities and towns across North America. Planetizen named him one of the 10 Most Influential Urbanists of all time. Thank you to our sponsors for making The Confessions Tour: Transportation for a Strong Town possible! [image: ad400345-7b39-4199-b4a4-72cbe6b11940.jpg] *Mel Marginet* | Workplace Commuter Options <http://greenactioncentre.ca/>Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x112 | Find us here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> **Note: I work two days a week at Green Action Centre and it may take a few * *days to respond to you. * *We are located on Treaty 1 Territory and the homeland of the Métis Nation. The water we drink comes from Shoal Lake First Nation. * Green Action Centre is your green living hub Support our work by becoming a member <http://greenactioncentre.ca/support/become-a-member/>. Donate at CanadaHelps.org <http://canadahelps.org/> <http://www.gomanitoba.ca> [View Less]

1 0

OUT, DAMN SHARROWS: Vote For the Sorriest Bike Infrastructure
by Beth McKechnie 16 Feb '22

16 Feb '22

Active transportation infrastructure is one of the most important things a community can build, but some so-called “bicycle amenities” barely deserve the title. Last week, the good people behind the must-watch YouTube channel Not Just Bikes <https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0intLFzLaudFG-xAvUEO-A> took to Twitter <https://twitter.com/notjustbikes/status/1491499943265284099> to ask their followers a critical question: what’s the worst “bike-centered” road project you’ve ever seen, … [View More]

1 0

WFP: Taking a Nordic-style kicksled out for a spin is a pretty Swede ride (Feb9'22)
by Beth McKechnie 09 Feb '22

09 Feb '22

Go with the snow Taking a Nordic-style kicksled out for a spin is a pretty Swede ride https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/go--with-the-snow-5761… WEARING a dusty pink snowsuit and a face mask emblazoned with colourful Dala horses, Sonja Lundstrom is excited. “This is going to be my 80th birthday present to myself,” she says, pointing to a nearby wooden kicksled poised for takeoff. “My grandma had one of these and my dad made me one out of hockey sticks for all my children… … [View More]but these are the new modern ones and I haven’t had one of those.” But today’s frosty jaunt is less of a test drive and more of a diplomatic adventure. Lundstrom is the president of the Swedish Cultural Association of Manitoba and is at The Forks to give Urban Ahlin, the Swedish Ambassador to Canada, a little taste of home. “In my part of Sweden we use the (kicksleds) when we go out on the ice for ice fishing,” says Ahlin, who was in town recently with several other Nordic ambassadors to meet with the premier. “This is a very climate-friendly means of transportation and you can use it for lots of different reasons… it’s actually pretty fun to ride as well.” A kicksled is a simple winter vehicle made up of a chair mounted on two long skis. It can be pushed from behind with a kicking motion, like a scooter, or pulled by a dog. It’s been a popular mode of transportation in rural Nordic towns for decades and has been gaining traction among Winnipeggers in recent years. Today’s sleds have been provided by the Plain Bicycle Project, a social enterprise of the Winnipeg Trail Association. The organization got its start importing cargo containers of Dutch bikes to the city and has since opened two retail and repair shops while expanding its vision for multi-modal active transportation into the winter months. For Winnipeg Trails executive director Anders Swanson, kicksleds are the perfect entry point. “Kicksleds are kind of indicative of a culture that really understands winter, really understands how to plow and maintain their paths,” he says. Swanson first encountered kicksleds during a winter biking conference in Finland. While his personal sled is currently stocking the Plain Bicycle mobile ski library, he has used the apparatus locally for short trips to pick up groceries or grab beer from his neighbourhood brewery. Since the skis are designed for use on ice or packed snow, most people view kicksledding as a recreational activity rather than a viable way to get around Winnipeg. To make it more accessible, Swanson says better winter infrastructure is needed. “What we’re trying to bring here is a respect for snow… we’re a winter city, but we’re terrible at using snow as a building material and we have a very combative approach to snow,” he says, adding that he would like to see the city create a network of packed snow paths that could be used for biking, skiing, kicksledding and everyday active transportation. “There are systemic ways of designing this city that could really celebrate the human being in every season.” Working with the snow and prioritizing pedestrians over vehicles is a decidedly Scandinavian way of thinking. “The first thing we plow is actually the walkways,” Ahlin says of his home country. “We need to look at other things than the car’s needs.” Kicksledding is having a resurgence in Sweden as a direct result of changes to snow-management policies, says Ahlin. Many cities have cut down on their salt usage, leaving less bare concrete and more snow for residents to enjoy. “For a period of time it went away,” he says. “But nowadays we’re using less salt and the kicksled is coming back again into the Swedish tradition.” The country may have its winter walkways figured out, but Ahlin says Winnipeggers could teach Swedes a thing or two about dealing with extreme cold. “You have a much colder weather than we have,” he says. “I don’t think Swedes are experts when it comes down to winter, but it’s good to have an exchange of views and see how different kinds of cultures deal with stuff.” It’s one of those bitterly cold days when the convoy of kicksleds and Swedish flags pushes away from The Forks market and heads down to the Assiniboine for a tour of the river trail warming huts. The Nestaweya River Trail is also a favourite sledding spot for Dan and Viola Prowse, who purchased a kicksled last winter as a way to stay active and get outside amid the pandemic. The husband and wife duo are both in their 70s and try to take their sled out at least once a week for trips through local parks and winding rivers. “A huge part of it has been discovering the city from the vantage point of the river,” Viola says. “People are doing all kinds of things on the rivers — there’s skating rinks and they build these big ice patios with all sorts of furniture,” Dan adds. “We would maybe walk to see some of that stuff, but now we can just go so much further.” The Prowses own one kicksled, so they take turns walking and scooting. It’s an ideal situation because Dan — who is something of an exercise fanatic — can go as fast as he pleases and Viola can set her own pace. “It suits our different levels,” Viola says, adding that the kicking motion is easier on her knees than running. “It really gets my heart pumping and it has its moments of sheer fun.” “And it’s great if you have grandkids; they love the ride,” Dan says. The couple owns an Elsa-brand kicksled that can be folded down and transported in the back of their Toyota Corolla. The skis have a removable plastic cover for snow and thin metal blades for ice. While they have yet to come across another kicksledder in the wild, they’re often approached by curious passersby. “The first thing (people say) is, ‘Oh, you lost your dog,’” Dan says with a laugh. “It is kind of intriguing, especially if you see some old grey-haired people passing you.” Plain Bicycle has kicksleds for rent or purchase at its Sherbrook Street and Forks locations, with prices starting at $320. Sleds and dog harnesses are also sold by Canvasback Pet Supplies in Lockport and Prairie Dog Supply Co. near Selkirk. Snow Motion, a local winter dog sport club, has sleds available to rent for members and groups that meet regularly for kicksledding excursions. eva.wasney(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @evawasney [View Less]

2 1

FW: [EXTERNAL] 8 80 Cities School Streets Webinar & Workshop
by Kristine Hayward 09 Feb '22

09 Feb '22

From: 8 80 Cities <info(a)880cities.org> Sent: Wednesday, February 9, 2022 2:39 PM Subject: [EXTERNAL] 8 80 Cities School Streets Webinar & Workshop [https://mcusercontent.com/49b51d71f0a96500f24124fb7/images/8dd7059d-020b-04…] Dear Colleagues, 8 80 Cities, along with Green Communities Canada<https://880cities.us10.list-manage.com/track/click?u=49b51d71f0a96500f24124…>, is pleased to announce two learning opportunities designed for anyone interested in active safe travel to … [View More]

1 0