- AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

What If Riding the Bus Were Free? (or similar to the U-Pass)
by Beth McKechnie 30 Nov '21

30 Nov '21

Interesting article circulated by Functional Transit on fare free transit. In terms of paying for it, a possible funding approach (similar to the U-Pass) would entail every person over 18 years old paying for a monthly bus pass equivalent (with specific exceptions) whether they ride transit or not. This could provide even more funding to enhance and expand transit services than the status quo. https://thetyee.ca/News/2021/11/29/Free-Bus-Fare-Public-Transit/

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It's Time for Public Participation to Evolve With Transportation Planning
by Beth McKechnie 30 Nov '21

30 Nov '21

Helpful article on recommended do's and don'ts of public engagement today: https://www.planetizen.com/features/115279-its-time-public-participation-ev… cheers, Beth -- Beth McKechnie (she/her) *| *Green Action Centre <http://www.greenactioncentre.ca/> 3rd floor, 303 Portage Ave | (204) 925-3777 x102 | Find us here <http://greenactioncentre.ca/content/ecocentre-directions-and-travel-options/> *Green Action Centre is located on the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anishininiwag, Dakota, and Dene Peoples, and the homeland of* *the Métis Nation. We acknowledge that our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation and that our hydro is sourced from numerous First Nations here in Manitoba**. * 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>

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WFP Analysis: A chance to redefine transportation (Nov29'21)
by Beth McKechnie 29 Nov '21

29 Nov '21

A chance to redefine transportation https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/a-chance-to-redefine-tra… OVER the next two weeks, the City of Winnipeg is looking for public feedback on Transportation Master Plan: 2050, a 30-year blueprint to guide development of Winnipeg’s transportation network. In the past, transportation planning has focused primarily on strategies to move cars, but today it’s seen as a central tool for building healthy, sustainable and prosperous communities. Urban mobility is fundamental to economic viability, environmental sustainability and social equity, making Transportation Master Plan: 2050 a key document for the city. The first step in developing a new transportation strategy will be to learn from the past and accept that current economic challenges, including Winnipeg’s $3 billion infrastructure deficit for roads and bridges, are largely the result of previous planning decisions. We have spent decades building a city almost singularly focused on automobile transportation, resulting in a sprawling, low-density urban form that has become economically unsustainable. Despite record-breaking road maintenance spending, our current pace of renewal means new roads built today won’t be replaced for more than 100 years. Nearly 10,000 more cars are added to Winnipeg’s streets every year, and in response we build more roads to accommodate them. This begins the endless cycle of induced demand. The convenience of expanded road capacity encourages more people to drive, increasing the number of cars on the road until the new capacity is met. This results in traffic congestion and pressure to build yet more roads. After decades of designing North American cities around cars, it has become clear you get what you build for. If you build for more cars, you get more cars. Thankfully, induced demand works for all modes of transportation. If you build a more efficient public transit system, you get more people riding the bus. If you build a safe and connected network of sidewalks and bike lanes, you get more people walking and biking. A car-centric city is not only economically unsustainable, but also environmentally unsustainable. Vehicles account for almost half of Winnipeg’s greenhouse-gas emissions, by far the largest contributor. Transitioning to electric vehicles is important, but the climate crisis is far too immediate to rely on that approach exclusively. Strategies that allow people to drive less are much more effective at reducing environmental impact. Winnipeg’s Climate Action Plan has set a target of doubling the number of trips taken by walking or biking by 2030. To achieve this aggressive goal, Transportation Master Plan: 2050 will likely have to reconsider the Winnipeg Pedestrian and Cycling Strategy. Winnipeg’s cycling network has increased by 75 per cent since 2015, but the vast majority of this is suburban, off-street shared-use pathways, directed mainly at biking for recreation. If we want people to use bikes for transportation, we must build protected lanes on higher traffic, main streets. Winnipeg’s plan calls for few larger streets to have cycling infrastructure, focusing instead on easier, low traffic, out-of-the-way residential streets. This summer, Salter Street was rebuilt without bike lanes because the plan is to have a “greenway” on nearby Powers Street. If you have never heard of Powers Street, it’s because unless you live there, or know someone who does, you would never find yourself driving on that small residential street. Salter Street has the destinations that people want to go to — shops, restaurants, schools, libraries — so the cycling infrastructure should be located there. This scenario is playing out across the city on such streets as Sargent Avenue, Corydon Avenue and Provencher Boulevard. If we want to encourage people to use bikes as transportation, we must plan for it in the same way we plan for driving, with direct routes on major streets connected to the places people need to go, particularly in lower-income neighbourhoods where only nine per cent of the city’s cycling current infrastructure exists. A renewed strategy for cycling infrastructure on main streets, dovetailed with Winnipeg Transit’s plan to implement a high-frequency transit model that will transform main streets into transit conduits, presents an important opportunity to redefine many of Winnipeg’s major arteries into complete streets. A complete street is designed to safely support a broad range of mobility options, including walking, biking, transit and driving. A successful complete street supports transportation equity by providing a range of accessible mobility options that improve access to education, employment, and recreation for people of all ages, abilities, and income levels. As mobility hubs, complete streets attract a diversity of people, that can stimulate investment, new development and improve neighbourhood economies. They can create more livable communities, provide local employment opportunities and be catalysts for small business entrepreneurship. Mobility has become a fundamental component of good city-building, and Transportation Master Plan: 2050 is an important opportunity to move Winnipeg in a new direction that makes our city more economically and environmentally sustainable, builds great communities and improves quality of life for everyone. *Brent Bellamy is senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural Group.*

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WFP: Speed limit changes for safety recommendations (Nov28'21)
by Beth McKechnie 28 Nov '21

28 Nov '21

Speed limit changes for safety recommendations https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/curb-protected-bike-lanes-proposed-… A new city report recommends modifying speeds on seven roads, including Bison Drive and Bishop Grandin Boulevard, to improve safety. Winnipeg’s infrastructure committee will review the proposed changes at its Wednesday meeting: ● Changing Bison Drive, between a point 100 m west of Barnes Street and a point 300 m west of Pembina Highway, from 80 km/h to 60 km/h; ● Reducing Marion Street from 60 km/h to 50 km/h between Youville Street and a point 100 m east of Archibald Street; ● Adjusting Youville Street between Marion and Goulet streets to 50 km/h from 60 km/h; ● Lowering Plessis Road’s 80 km/h limit to 70 km/h from 100 m south of Camiel Sys Street and the city’s boundary; ● Setting Ethan Boyer Way’s limit to 70 km/h from Brady Road to Waverley Street; ● Changing the Winnipeg stretch of Hallama Drive to 60 km/h; ● Adjusting Bishop Grandin Boulevard between Lagimodiere Boulevard and Boulevard des Hivemants to 80 km/h.

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WFP: Curb-protected bike lanes proposed (Nov28'21)
by Beth McKechnie 28 Nov '21

28 Nov '21

Parked vehicles a problem for cyclists Curb-protected bike lanes proposed https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/curb-protected-bike-lanes-proposed-… ICY ruts, potholes and poor visibility aren’t cyclists’ only problems in bike lanes — parked vehicles are an ever present nuisance. Curb-protected bike lanes, which separate active transportation from rows of parked cars and vehicle traffic, will be safer than the current standard of painted lines and parking signs, a new City of Winnipeg report says. City bureaucrats recommend the city erect curb barriers on six parking protected bike lanes. However, only one lane route has money set aside for the enhancements. “We need to be spending more to make our city walkable, bikeable and transit friendly,” said Mark Cohoe, Bike Winnipeg’s executive director. “If we don’t radically change what we’re doing, we’re going to see that our climate goals are impossible to meet.” Cohoe said he often encounters parked cars in Arthur Street’s bike lane. It may be hard for motorists to recognize they’re not in a parking spot, he said. “Often times (as a biker), it’s not like you can just shift left and go past that vehicle,” Cohoe said. Instead, cyclists must merge into traffic, hop onto the sidewalk or try and squeeze past in their lane. “It’s an unpredictable manoeuvre,” Cohoe said. “Someone coming up behind you might not expect it, so it’s dangerous.” A big reason why people don’t bike across Winnipeg is a fear of traffic, Cohoe said. “Getting these (barriers) in place really provides people that space where they’re going to feel safe, comfortable and secure,” he said. The city report, to be reviewed by Winnipeg’s infrastructure committee Wednesday, proposes upgrading Sherbrook Street, Arthur Street, Princess Street, Bannatyne Avenue, Notre Dame Avenue and Eastway bike lanes “over time”. The barriers cost about $10,000 per 100 metre of bike lane, based on previous pricing and excluding other concrete work, the report says. Winnipeg has budgeted $177,000 to upgrade the 595-metre strip of Sherbrook Street between Wolseley Avenue and Broadway. Bannatyne Avenue has been left unprotected to accommodate truck loading and turning manoeuvres. The other four roads have “no current plan or funding to upgrade” and must be prioritized against other projects in the city’s pedestrian and cycling program, the report reads. Coun. Matt Allard, who chairs the infrastructure committee, said he’s in favour of constructing more barricades. “(They’re an) effective way of substantially improving the quality, safety, and desirability of existing painted bike lanes and other locations where the (physical) space exists on the current road width,” he wrote in an email. The city considered poly-posts to separate bike lanes from parked vehicles, but the plastic bollards must be removed in the winter. Allard said he’ll ask questions about snow clearing for active transportation at the upcoming meeting. City cycling paths can be treacherous this time of year, depending on the route, according to Currie Gillespie, who’s on the Manitoba Cycling Association’s board of directors. He’d love additional barriers between lanes and parking spots — but in the meantime, he’d appreciate more maintenance. “The sanding on the bike paths has not been appropriate,” Gillespie said, adding it’s gotten better over the years. “We get more butts on bikes by making a safe, efficient, well-maintained route for those people to get where they want to go,” he said. “There’s not enough attention to that principle yet.” The city would need to increase its equipment designed for treating snow and ice in bike lanes, should more become barrier protected, Gillespie said. Vehicles parked in bike lanes could be ticketed. — With files from Kevin Rollason gabrielle.piche(a)winnipegfreepress.com

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WFP: ‘No cheap answer’ to fixing icy sidewalks (Nov23'21)
by Beth McKechnie 23 Nov '21

23 Nov '21

*‘No cheap answer’ to fixing icy sidewalks * https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/no-cheap-answer-to-fixing-icy-sidew… AT least once per winter, Allen Mankewich’s wheelchair loses traction and spills over onto an icy Winnipeg sidewalk. Less than two weeks after winter conditions set in for the season, it’s happened again. “There’s ice buildup on a lot of the sidewalks, it gets really rutted. I actually flipped my chair (Sunday) trying to get through a spot on the sidewalk at Portage Avenue, which is a major route. If they can’t even clear those major routes properly, the side street (sidewalks) are going to be terrible,” said Mankewich. While speeding up to avoid getting stuck, the front wheels of his chair caught on ice ruts, forcing him to be flung out, he said. “It’s a safety risk for people who use any sort of mobility device. It’s even challenging for people who can walk. You see people walking very carefully over sections of the sidewalk that appear really slippery,” said Mankewich. He’s among several residents now urging the city to find ways to better clear the walking paths of ice and snow. “We are a winter city, so we need to properly allocate our resources to making sure that people can actually get out during the winter,” said Mankewich. The city considers its latest snow clearing operation complete but is still monitoring conditions, said Michael Cantor, Winnipeg’s manager of streets maintenance. Fluctuating temperatures have unfortunately led to some ice accumulation, noted Cantor. “When you have temperatures around zero... you have some thawing and frosting again and icy sidewalks. Mother Nature (gave) us some challenges,” he said. While city policy does not include a set timeline to sand sidewalks to add traction, Cantor said crews begin inspecting how slippery sidewalks are right after plowing ends. The length of the sanding process depends on how much equipment is available to get the work done. “We make sure that we use every piece of equipment, we man the equipment we have and we hire every piece of equipment that the industry can provide us. We really do it on an as-soon-as-possible basis… We monitor streets and sidewalks in the same manner,” said Cantor. He said work on streets begins promptly, in part to clear paths for emergency vehicles. Street snow clearing vehicles also tend to move faster than those used on sidewalks, making the former process quicker, Cantor added. City staff are now studying ways to make sidewalks and active transportation routes less slippery and more passable during winter weather, with a report expected to offer suggestions by next spring or summer. Cantor said there are no obvious solutions at this point. While adding more staff and equipment could be considered, it would come with a cost, he cautioned. “There’s no cheap answer,” he said. Cantor urged Winnipeggers to report specific sidewalk concerns to 311. Omar Kinnarath said sidewalks in the West End now resemble skating rinks with icy peaks, conditions that have triggered many complaints among his fellow bus riders in recent days. Kinnarath, who has already fallen twice since the snow set in for the season, said the city should explore several options to improve winter sidewalk maintenance, including the purchase of more equipment, hiring more staff and possibly even reimbursing citizens for clearing snow. He believes the city has consistently cleared snow off roads to a higher standard than sidewalks, which won’t help convince citizens to walk and bike, something the city hopes they will do to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. “We’re pushing active transportation and we’re pushing cycling… (so) the mechanism and the infrastructure needs to be put in place for this to happen. If it doesn’t happen, then we’re back to driving cars,” said Kinnarath. Marilyn Bird argues an “icy, slippery, hazardous mess” of pedestrian paths in the North End would have been greatly improved by quicker snow removal. “The first snowfall of the year is also the most important. They’ve got to get on that way quicker,” said Bird. For sidewalks along major routes, bus routes and collector streets, city policy aims to maintain a compacted snow surface, with clearing to follow five centimetres of snow accumulation or drifting. Plowing should be completed within 36 hours after the end of an average storm. The city also aims to clear residential sidewalks near elementary schools and active living centres within 36 hours of a storm. The target timeline to clear all other residential sidewalks is within five working days after the operation starts, which occurs after eight centimetres of snow accumulates. joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

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WFP Editorial: ‘Winter city’ should be pedestrian-friendly (Nov22'21)
by Beth McKechnie 22 Nov '21

22 Nov '21

‘Winter city’ should be pedestrian-friendly https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/winter-city-should-be-… WHEN the weather outside is frightful, Winnipeg’s sidewalks are often the scariest part. The city received its first real blast of winter in mid-November, a two-day system that dropped 26 centimetres of snow and rendered most of Winnipeg’s sidewalks and active transportation paths anywhere from tricky to functionally unusable. Crews were not expected to begin clearing sidewalks in residential neighbourhoods until nearly a week after the first snowflakes fell, which left pedestrians contending with sloppy, Slurpee-like conditions during mild daytime highs, and then treacherous sheets of rutted ice after temperatures descended at night. For a wide swath of the population — including pedestrians, wheelchair users, disabled people, elderly people, parents with strollers — this is a significant, frustrating and baffling problem that Winnipeggers seem to encounter every winter, despite the fact ours is a winter city that can see snow accumulation as early as October and as late as May. Poorly cleared or uncleared sidewalks and active transportation routes are a legitimate concern. Ice-covered surfaces can lead to injury- causing slips and falls, which eat up healthcare resources — a particularly pressing concern during a pandemic. Impassable routes can also confine wheelchair users and those with mobility issues inside their homes, which is isolating, or it can send frustrated sidewalk users onto the roadways, which is dangerous. Meanwhile, it’s well known that being able to get outside for fresh air, exercise, and a shot of that all-important vitamin D is important for people’s mental and physical health. And if we want the city’s population to become less reliant on cars — as Winnipeg’s climate action plan identifies it does, calling for a 50 per cent reduction in single-occupancy vehicle use by 2030 — then people need to be able to get around safely during the six months of the year snow is on the ground. Still, despite the dozens of reasons cited every year about the need to prioritize improving winter conditions on the more than 3,000 kilometres of sidewalks and 400 kilometres of active transportation paths in this city — not to mention the thousands of complaints the city receives every year from fed-up residents — roads tailored to motor vehicles continue to be the focus of snow-clearing efforts. Last January, St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard, frustrated by the number of spills he has personally taken, called for a study on the health costs linked to slips and falls on sidewalks and how changes to snow clearing and ice treatments could make the surfaces safer. The resulting report, which was released in July, called for the city to track how long it takes to sand sidewalks, as well as better tracking of complaints. In other words: more studies. Other winter cities have figured this out. Oslo, Norway, and Helsinki, Finland, have heated sidewalks in high-traffic areas, for example, that keep them clear of snow and ice. But Winnipeg isn’t just a winter city. It’s also a notoriously pedestrian-unfriendly one, and it shows in its policies and planning. Many streets don’t even have sidewalks to clear. Perhaps it’s time for this so-called winter city to start living up to the description. Until then, however, it seems it will remain up to Winnipeggers — for the sake of their own safety, and the safety of others — to pick up their shovels and take the timely clearing of sidewalk snow into their own hands.

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Transit passes in exchange for old cars (TransLink)
by Beth McKechnie 17 Nov '21

17 Nov '21

Transit Passes in Exchange for Old Cars <https://pedbikeinfo.us15.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7ae385fc8506278c2e45…> (Cities Today) Reports that the Vancouver, Canada transit authority TransLink is partnering with nonprofit SCRAP-IT to offer customers public transit passes worth CAD$802 (US$638) when they scrap their old vehicles.

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WFP: Delay in snow clearing leaves active residents frosted (Nov16'21)
by Beth McKechnie 16 Nov '21

16 Nov '21

Delay in snow clearing leaves active residents frosted https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/snowed-under-575751142.html MOVING as quickly as possible with his blue walker, Joseph Owen stayed close to the curb on Notre Dame Avenue while noon-hour traffic sped by on wet pavement outside the Health Sciences Centre. After struggling with his walker in the rutted, wet snow on the sidewalk, the 61-year-old dialysis patient chose to walk in the street to get to his bus stop. “I hope that all the drivers will notice me when I’m using the street and I hope they understand why I’m doing that,” the senior from Pauingassi First Nation said after making it safely to his stop following an appointment at the hospital. “I can’t make it that far because in these conditions it’s very hard to push my walker,” Owen said. “I had to use the street where it’s a little better.” As of Monday afternoon, the City of Winnipeg said all Priority 1 streets and just under half of Priority 2 streets had been cleared of snow after about 26 centimetres fell between Thursday and Saturday. However, cyclists and pedestrians had to contend with variable conditions on the more than 3,000 kilometres of sidewalks and 400 km of active transportation paths as less than 40 per cent were plowed. Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg, decided to commute by bus this week knowing his route would be inaccessible either because plows had not yet cleared the path, or had dumped snow from the street into the dedicated bike lane. “If you’re someone that doesn’t have a car, if you are someone that’s relying on walking, biking or taking transit, what we’ve seen in the last few days is where the city prioritizes you, and it’s last,” Cohoe said. “We do a good job at plowing streets for cars, but if we’re looking to get more people walking, more people biking, more people taking transit, we’re nowhere near anywhere we need to be.” Cohoe said the City of Winnipeg’s policy to clean sidewalks and active transportation paths at the same time as prioritized streets, or very shortly after, within 36 hours of a storm concluding isn’t always carried out in practice. Meanwhile, crews are expected to begin clearing sidewalks in residential neighbourhoods today, which can take up to five days to complete with the 30 available plows. Cohoe said at that rate getting people to give up their cars in the winter for public transit, biking and other transportation modes will be a tough sell, adding the City of Winnipeg’s climate action plan calls for a 50 per cent reduction in single-occupancy vehicle use by 2030. “To get to that it’s a substantial switch in how we travel, but where’s the motivation, where’s the encouragement?” Cohoe said. For Allen Mankewich, a downtown resident and wheelchair user, every winter brings the same challenge as sidewalks become nearly impossible to traverse, especially when mild conditions mean wet, mushy snow is left covering the pavement. “Nothing seems to change in terms of city hall policy or process or funding into sidewalk clearing. So it’s just really frustrating,” Mankewich said. Mankewich said he is thinking about submitting a complaint to the Manitoba Human Rights Commission over the city’s current snow clearing policy and the funding allocated to ensure sidewalks are accessible through the winter. “It’s one of the ways that things can change. Just encouraging them to make changes and asking them to make changes doesn’t always work,” Mankewich said. “People who don’t drive, they have rights too. They have the right to mobility, they have the right to get around, and if we have to spend more to make the sidewalks clear, we should look at doing that.” Infrastructure renewal and public works chairman Coun. Matt Allard said he hasn’t received many complaints regarding the latest snow clearing effort, but acknowledged there is room for improvement. “Public works keeps saying that we do a very good job relative to other cities,” Allard said. “But regardless of how good a job we’re doing, we want to get people out and about walking and biking in the winter, so we need to keep looking at options to make it easier and better for people.” Allard said the public works committee has asked city administration to provide recommendations on improving winter sidewalk conditions and a report is expected in the coming months, but not before the end of this snow season. In the meantime, Owen hopes he won’t be forced into traffic when he goes to his next dialysis appointment Wednesday. “It’s really poor,” Owen said. “It’s not being cleared the way that they should be doing it.” danielle.dasilva(a)freepress.mb.ca

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CBC: Bikes took a back seat at COP26. Advocates urge Canada to make them a priority in its climate plan
by Beth McKechnie 11 Nov '21

11 Nov '21

Cycling groups say focus on electric cars short-sighted in fighting climate change https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/cop26-climate-change-emissions-bikes-1.6235…

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