- AT-Network - University of Manitoba Mailing Lists

WFP: Plenty to like about storing people’s bikes (Oct18'21)
by Beth McKechnie 18 Oct '21

18 Oct '21

Velotecha to employ youths being helped by Macdonald Youth Services Plenty to like about storing people’s bikes https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/plenty-to-like-about-storing-people… AS colder weather looms, a new bike storage facility is opening — one that doubles as an employment program for youth in care. Through Velotecha, up to 150 bikes will be stored, repaired and maintained during the winter. Winnipeggers can choose from packages offering varying levels of maintenance, to be performed by teenagers and young adults through Macdonald Youth Services. “We really put... (the) pedal to the metal this summer,” Nicole Barry, the non-profit’s chief financial officer, said of starting the project. The WRENCH, a charity that builds and repairs bikes, has been training eight people on bike mechanics since August for the venture. A new cohort will join soon. Cyclists can choose a basic package, which includes storage and tire inflation, for $55.99. Prices increase for those who want more in-depth fixes, like part replacements, realignments and brake adjustments. Organizers will collect bikes curbside beginning Monday. Pick up will continue into November, if space is still available, Barry said. “We want people to use their bikes if the weather’s nice, but we also have a limited capacity,” she said. Velotecha staff will deliver owners their rides in April. The bikes’ seasonal home remains private for safety reasons, Barry said. “The beauty of a bike storage program is that it solves a lot of problems,” said Kate Sjoberg, executive director of The WRENCH. More people have turned to cycling as a pandemic-era hobby, to combat climate change and for health reasons, Sjoberg said. But, many Winnipeggers end their two-wheel adventures when the temperature drops. Velotecha will assist people who don’t have room to store their bikes, Sjoberg said. And, it will allay the tune-up backlogs cyclists face in the spring. “It’s really hard to find a shop that will fix your bike in the springtime,” Sjoberg said. “(Also), training kids to be bike mechanics in the spring, when there’s a rush happening, is not a great way to learn.” The youths who Velotecha will employ have participated in Macdonald Youth Services’s life skills programs and were chosen by staff. “They’ve been really consistent and really awesome to be around,” Sjoberg said. “We have a lot of confidence in their ability to do great work.” Many kids using Macdonald Youth Services don’t get the same access to jobs others do, according to Barry. “Most of us have gotten help or were even handed our first job,” she said. “That’s what we’re trying to provide them... We’re kind of giving them a shot at real, meaningful work.” Macdonald Youth Services plans to expand Velotecha next year: it wants a bike lab where Winnipeggers can buy refurbished bikes or get their own repaired. The hub will likely be at 175 Mayfair Ave., the non-profit’s location, and will potentially employ this winter’s mechanics- in-training. Then, Macdonald Youth Services can invite a new group to work at the storage site next fall. Velotecha’s current staff could also work for The WRENCH post-storage season. “There is a need for bike mechanics in the city,” Sjoberg said. “We’re interested in this particular cohort, if anyone is interested in working with The WRENCH following it, and they’re the right candidate.” Canada is “not hitting the mark” to support youth transitioning from care, in terms of ensuring they have liveable incomes and communities where they’re safe, Sjoberg said. “We know that many other organizations and people in the city are interested in creating that safety and those communities of support for kids,” Sjoberg said. “This is a small contribution to that.” More information about the program can be found at velotecha.com. gabrielle.piche(a)winnipegfreepress.com

1 0

WFP: Velo Renovations - pedal to the home-reno mettle (Oct16'21)
by Beth McKechnie 16 Oct '21

16 Oct '21

PEDAL TO THE HOME-RENO METTLE Environmentally committed Winnipeg company’s owner, associates aren’t reinventing the wheel, but they’re using fewer of them to get to job sites https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/arts-and-life/life/greenpage/pedal-to-the… SEEING is believing. Velo Renovations is a home reno company with a twist: instead of loading tools and supplies into a van or half ton, employees rely on pedal power to get from one job site to another, 12 months of the year. The business’s website doesn’t disguise that fact, openly charting how many kilometres workers have collectively covered to date — a tick under 15,000 — along with the estimated amount of carbon emissions saved by doing so (2.73 tonnes and counting). Still, clients who enlist them to paint a living room or patch a wall continue to be surprised when they arrive on two wheels, especially during a torrential downpour or January cold snap. “To be honest, the fact we get around by bike is a big reason why many of our customers choose to go with us in the first place,” says Nathaniel De Avila, who founded Velo, French for bicycle, in October, 2020. “But there have certainly been days when it was 30 below or whatever, when we pulled up and the person answering the door went, ‘I know you guys bike to work, but I didn’t think you’d actually do it today.” De Avila, 33, laughingly describes Velo Renovations as a “mid-COVID pivot.” Around this time last year De Avila, a professional music producer who moved to Winnipeg from his native Iowa in 2016, found himself unable to work in his chosen field because of pandemic-related restrictions. He’d long been comfortable with a hammer in his hand; he toiled part-time for a reno company during high school and again while he was attaining a master of arts in music from the University of Iowa. To stay busy, he figured that might be an avenue worth pursuing. Why bikes? That’s easy, says the veteran winter cyclist, tracing his environmental consciousness to a book he read when he was in junior high titled More-With-Less by Doris Janzen Longacre and, more recently, to a documentary called Freightened, which details nightmarish statistics in regards to pollution attributable to the shipping industry. “Most of the world is doing things on bike, it’s just North America where it’s a bit of a novelty,” he says. “Are we going to save the planet by having the eight of us pedal to work? Of course not. But that doesn’t make it unimportant, either.” ON the day we met, De Avila and one of his associates, Maraleigh Short, were doing exterior repairs to a home in Fort Richmond, an hour-long trek from Velo’s home base in West Broadway. De Avila arrived on his personal 10-speed while Short took one of two official company “vehicles.” “Colin Bock from Freedom Concepts (a Winnipeg firm that designs and builds special needs bicycles and mobility devices) helped come up with this, based on an Xtracycle (an elongated, load-carrying bike developed in the U.S.),” De Avila explains, running his hand along the frame of a two-metre-long contraption that joins a full-size chromoly mountain bike to a chopped-up, 20-inch BMX model. “It has a rechargeable battery unit that slides out, but is designed to be pedal-assist. There’s a running board on the back for tools and such but lots of times we’ll attach an extension ladder on wheels, upon which we can load even more stuff.” (Not present is a custom-built tricycle-and-trailer unit, canary yellow in colour, that always draws stares — and occasionally requests for a business card — when motorists pull up alongside it at a red light.) Short, sporting sweats and sneakers speckled with white primer, says one of the factors that attracted her most to Velo, more a co-op than a company, is its people-first approach. Not only do workers set their own hours and pick and choose job assignments, they also determine their individual rate of pay and are afforded the opportunity to view the business’s finances as a whole. It’s a model De Avila came up with long before Velo was even a “thing,” based on conversations he had with a university professor well-versed in businesses that place people and planet ahead of profits. “It could be a gendered thing, or it could be my personality, but I probably wouldn’t have sought out working in construction or reno if I hadn’t found (Velo),” Short says, seated on an empty, overturned paint bucket. “Initially, I didn’t bring a lot of skills to the table, nor did I have a ton of confidence, but because there’s a strong teaching structure in place here, I’ve been able to learn so much from Nate and the other people I work with. Now I really feel part of a team.” Velo Renovations tackles the same projects as most so-called, conventional reno operations, namely, painting, drywalling, restructuring and tiling. At the same time, it’s not like you’ll spot them hauling a kitchen counter or panels of sheetrock behind them any time soon. Knowing their limitations, they obligingly work with in-place delivery systems when it comes to larger items, De Avila says. He adds it’s certainly not a condition of employment that employees must pedal to work, and a few of their subcontractors do not. That said, if any certified plumbers and/or electricians reading this aren’t averse to hopping on a bike, feel free give him a call, he says with a grin. Another manner in which Velo differs significantly from many of its counterparts is that it’s not uncommon for on-staff designers to talk potential customers out of jobs that would probably net the company a bigger payday if they feel there are better options available from an environmental standpoint. “‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ or ‘Is there a way to consume less?’ are questions we ask all the time,” De Avila says. “For example, somebody might want to make their home’s footprint larger by putting in an addition. To which we might suggest changing a couple existing walls, thus avoiding having this bigger space you’re now going to have to heat for the next 50 years, draining valuable resources. “When we’re doing consults with clients, we try to provide them with all kinds of alternatives, whether it be using reclaimed building materials from ReStore or plant-based or sustainable products. Lots of renovators will say after they fix your home it will be worth whatever amount of money more. But as soon as you spend that money, you’re indebting yourself to a structure more so than you already have with a mortgage, which forces you to work X number of hours to make X amount of money, all of which goes against our general philosophy.” Finally, with the bikes, in the last 12 months De Avila, who also owns a car, says he’s noticed a discernible difference in his demeanour on days when he’s biked to work versus those when, for whatever reason, he was forced to get behind the wheel. Whenever he’s snarled in traffic due to lane closures or a mishap, he finds himself getting short or angry more quickly than when he’s pedalling here and there. “That makes me wonder if the actual mode of transportation fundamentally changes the way I interact with others,” he says, adding another benefit of biking to work with co-workers is that it affords everybody the opportunity to discuss the day ahead, where they left off yesterday... the same type of things they probably would have spent the first 30 minutes deliberating had they gotten there separately by car. “So if I compare the two, I’d much rather get on a bike at the start of the day. Plus it’s pretty hard not to be awake and alert when you arrive for work, especially when it’s on the chilly side.” david.sanderson(a)freepress.mb.ca

1 0

New bike repair social enterprise launching
by Beth McKechnie 15 Oct '21

15 Oct '21

*** please share with your networks *** Check out the new bike repair social enterprise in Winnipeg called Velotecha. It’s run in partnership between Macdonald Youth Services and the Wrench. They are launching a Winter Storage and Tune Up service – picking up bikes, fixing them and returning them in early spring. The repair and maintenance work will create paid first jobs for some youth under supervision of qualified bike mechanics. Plus it will get more cyclists on the road earlier in the season. Have a look at the website here: www.velotecha.com Here is a FB post that can be shared quickly: https://www.facebook.com/272671616114244/posts/4455579211156776/?d=n

1 0

WFP Analysis: Car co-op a progressive success story (Oct12'21)
by Beth McKechnie 12 Oct '21

12 Oct '21

Car co-op a progressive success story https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/car-co-op-a-progressive-… YOUR car is likely your second largest household expense, and studies show that it’s probably parked 95 per cent of the time. The typical Canadian vehicle is driven for just over one hour per day on average, and according to the Canadian Automobile Association, the SUV that most people drive for that time costs an average of $33 per day to own, with all expenses included. Imagine if you could, sharing a car with your neighbours, and only paying for it when you are actually using it. No more loan payments, or trips to the mechanic, and as a bonus you would be doing something good for the environment. Ten years ago, this was the dream for a small group of people in Winnipeg who saw the growing car-sharing trend in larger cities across the world and wondered if it could work here. The group organized, found 40 people to pay $500 membership deposits and, in June 2011, Peg City Car Co-op was born. The idea started small, with three cars in Osborne Village; keys were stored in lockboxes and transactions recorded on paper. As Peg City celebrates its 10th anniversary, it has grown to more than 2,000 members with 60 vehicles parked across 11 central neighbourhoods, and has hopes of growing to 100 vehicles in 2023. Members can now conveniently make bookings online up to a year in advance, for as little as an hour at a time, and they are automatically billed for their time and distance. The people at Peg City have worked hard to grow their reach, and some of their success can be attributed to progressive change happening in our city. Even slow-growing, car-dominant Winnipeg is becoming more urban. Nearly 60 per cent of all new homes built today are apartments, and almost three-quarters are multi-family buildings, compared to only 15 per cent 20 years ago. Higher-density development is happening across the city, and more people are embracing an urban lifestyle with walking, biking and transit becoming preferred transportation options. In neighbourhoods such as Earl Grey, Osborne, Wolseley and the West End, between 40 and 50 per cent of people don’t use a car to commute to work. These are the types of neighbourhoods where car-sharing can be successful. A shared vehicle isn’t typically primary transportation, but when people are walking, biking and busing, the ability to sometimes drive can be an attractive added convenience. To be successful, a critical mass of members must live within a short walk of a shared vehicle location, which typically requires neighbourhoods to be higher density and more diverse. Dense neighbourhoods allow a grid of shared vehicles to be located within walking distance of each other to give people alternatives in higher demand times. For people living in neighbourhoods with effective access to car sharing, the personal advantages of membership are easy to understand. Vehicles are always newer, with no maintenance headaches, depreciation or parking costs. With a range of vehicle types, members can choose the appropriate model for their use — a pickup truck for moving furniture, a hatchback for a grocery run. Most significantly, car sharing provides a method of private transportation without the inefficient financial burden of owning a car. Peg City has found the average member spends about $1,200 per year on car sharing, about 10 times less than the cost of individual car ownership. This can create more equitable neighbourhoods, allowing lower-income households more affordable access to a private vehicle. Higher-income households might find car sharing effectively replaces the need for a second car. Car sharing also has several collective advantages for cities. The North American Shared-Use Vehicle Survey found that each car-share vehicle typically removes 13 privately owned vehicles from the road. This means Peg City’s 60 cars are removing almost 750 others from traffic, and from creating road wear and air pollution. Parking for 750 vehicles would require five acres of land — more than three football fields. Almost 20 per cent of Peg City’s vehicles have come from partnerships with developers, who are allowed by the City of Winnipeg to reduce the number of required parking stalls in a new development when car-sharing is included. This has been a successful initiative that helps infill development in mature neighbourhoods become more feasible. The success of Peg City Car Co-op demonstrates that when we build higher-density and more diverse communities, new lifestyle choices become available. Ten years ago, most people would have believed car sharing was a big-city idea that could never work in Winnipeg, but our city is changing. If we embrace this change, and welcome multifamily options into our neighbourhoods, promote street-focused local retail, support the construction of protected bike lanes and wider sidewalks, and invest in frequent, high-quality transit service, our children will be able to find the urban lifestyle so many relocate to other cities in search of. If we can accomplish that, organizations like Peg City Car Co-op will be celebrating many more milestone anniversaries in the future. *Brent Bellamy is senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural Group.*

1 0

WFP: City snapshot shows spike in winter cycling numbers (Oct7'21)
by Beth McKechnie 07 Oct '21

07 Oct '21

City snapshot shows spike in winter cycling numbers https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/city-snapshot-shows-spike-in-winter… A growing number of Winnipeggers are cycling long after snow hits the ground, according to a recent city count. The total number of local cyclists who used some key active transportation routes during the winter nearly doubled during a March survey period, rising to a daily average of 236 in 2021, up from 119 in 2020, a report notes. “It shows there is a pretty sizable demand for people to actually be able to bike in winter… I think there’s a bigger barrier (with winter weather) in perception than necessarily in the reality,” said Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg. City officials note last winter’s unusually mild weather made active transportation especially appealing. The report also credits the change to increased interest in cycling, especially as Winnipeggers engaged in more recreation during the COVID-19 pandemic. The counts were taken on 10 key routes over four days in early March in 2020 and 2021. The results offer a “snapshot” of general increased interest in cycling, Cohoe said. He believes the trend is clearly linked to improved snow clearing on the routes, since those selected were prioritized for more frequent snow clearing a few years ago. “It’s not really a surprise finding that when we plow our roadways and bike routes, people respond by actually biking,” he said. Coun. Matt Allard agreed. “(It needs to be) where snow clearing is at the level of service where somebody riding their bicycle to work knows that when they get out the door they’ll have a path cleared of snow so they’ll get to their destination on time,” said Allard, public works committee chairman. The cycling increase builds the case for greater investments in active transportation, he said. In addition to meeting a demand from Winnipeggers, it would also help reduce reliance on personal vehicles and combat climate change, he said. “As we build dedicated cycling facilities and provide proper snow clearing, people will use the facilities more and more on their daily commute and for other purposes.” joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

1 0

Montréal Offers Lessons for All Cities That Want Safer, Better, More Livable Streets
by Beth McKechnie 06 Oct '21

06 Oct '21

Last month, Clarence Eckerson journeyed to Montréal to see how much progress it has made in reining in the car culture, creating more livable communities, encouraging cycling, making roadways safer and, most important, bringing back freedom to inhabitants long oppressed by car drivers. Of course, Montréal has fewer open streets than New York City does, but the open streets in the Paris of North America are much better. Montréal’s 13 open streets are much longer and operate almost entirely car-free — car-free, meaning no parking, either! — 24 hours a day, all summer long. “It’s about making the city accessible for everyone,” Montréal’s mayor Valérie Plante told me. “There has to be more room for cyclists and pedestrians, and arts and parklets.” On Montréal’s open streets, you don’t just see people walking or biking as you see in New York, but also art installations, benches, bioswales, swings (with cupholders!), play areas for kids and bollards to keep out the cars. “It just brings so much joy and fun and, of course, safe spaces for our kids,” Plante added. And local business owners confirm that pedestrianized zones bring in more money for struggling merchants. Read the full article from Streetsblog here: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2021/09/16/see-it-montreal-offers-lessons-for-a… Watch the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oi5wmsK-3Zk

1 0

WFP Metro: New bike lanes praised, questioned (Oct4'21)
by Beth McKechnie 05 Oct '21

05 Oct '21

New bike lanes praised, questioned https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/metro/New-bike-lanes-prai… The new, nearly-complete bike trail system running through West Broadway and Wolseley is garnering mixed reviews from cyclists. The trail begins where Memorial Boulevard meets Granite Way just north of the Osborne Bridge. From there, it winds through the two neighbourhoods up to the intersection of Walnut Street and Westminster Avenue. Though many were pleased the city is investing in bike infrastructure, some cyclists pointed out several points along the trail that can cause confusion or potentially dangerous situations with drivers and other riders. Some believe more signage and painted lines will only do so much to solve the bike path's flaws. One of the most contentious spots, according to cyclists who spoke with *The Metro*, is at Westminster Ave and Young Street in front of Balmoral Hall School. Here, the path splits from a bidirectional trail to two unidirectional routes. To negotiate a turn onto the one-way westbound lane from the two-way path, cyclists must take a sharp turn and cross the roadway at a three-way traffic stop. "It really breaks up the flow of your riding, because there is signage that says to turn right, but I guess they don’t have the directional signs on the ground yet," said cyclist Reynold Beniza. Beniza, 30, is a digital marketing manager who lives in the Exchange District and has followed this route to work for the last year, in summer and winter. While Beniza is happy the city is focusing on active transportation, he doesn’t believe this stretch of road needs bike lanes. "I would much rather see this sort of work done on, say, Portage Avenue or Main Street and getting more of these protective barriers on the really car-heavy roads," he said. "Or, even adding more active transportation routes from the North End." At press time, there were directional markers painted on the east and westbound bidirectional lanes, but not in the intersection itself. A draft of the finished design can be found in the city’s Wolseley to Downtown Walk Bike Project plan. Just to the northeast, another tight turn on the bidirectional path makes for some "pretty hairy situations," especially during morning and afternoon commutes, Beniza said. Mark Campbell lives in the heart of Wolseley and uses the bike paths almost every day. Campbell said he really likes the paths and has found them useful, but the 33-year-old software developer has a gripe with the west end of the trail. At this junction, cyclists are forced to merge with vehicle traffic. "The cars just speed up and there’s parking, so you’ll still fighting with cars, right." he said. "Turning across Westminster is extremely dangerous." Campbell is a fan of the bi-directional path because it allows him to bike alongside his partner and daughters. Michael Falk, a 42-year-old self-employed festival worker, lives in the West End. Falk uses the new bike paths three to four times per week. "I’m super-glad to have a bike path, but there’s little decisions here and there that feel like they’re weird budget decisions resulting in little peculiar moments," he said. While Falk knows there’s more signage on the way, he said the stretch where the path splits into two is "a bit clunky" regardless. The slow introduction of signs and painted lines has left Falk perplexed. "When they build a road, signs go up right away. You don’t just have six lanes of road going with no signs," he said. Looking beyond their neighbourhoods, Campbell and Falk are in step with Beniza’s sentiment that there needs to be more bike routes connecting downtown with the North End. Campbell and Falk also noted that there’s room for the city to improve on existing bike paths by closing the gaps. Both pointed to the fractured bike lane on Sherbrook Street just north and south of Portage Avenue.

1 0

Police tickets issued to cyclists
by Orly Linovski 04 Oct '21

04 Oct '21

Hi all, Sharing some recent research on tickets issued to cyclists in Winnipeg: https://findingspress.org/article/28345-police-enforcement-of-cycling-offen… Best, Orly

1 0

Globe editorial on bike lanes
by Charles Feaver 04 Oct '21

04 Oct '21

The Globes editorial today; note the last sentences: The shift in direction is decisive. The arguments over bike lanes are settled. Theyre becoming what they should have long been: an ordinary way of getting around our cities. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-is-the-war-agains t-bike-lanes-finally-over/ On Vancouvers downtown peninsula, crews are at work on the citys newest bike lanes. Both of them, on Richards and Smithe streets, will be physically separated from car traffic. Once theyre finished, Vancouver will have an extensive and connected network of protected bike lanes throughout and in and out of the citys core. Whats more, the latest projects are being built free of the controversies of yesteryear. It is the opposite of the late 2000s, when the city opened its first protected bike lane on the Burrard Bridge into downtown. Chaos feared, blared one headline. Doomed to failure, opined a columnist. All that proved incorrect: The Burrard Bridge bike lane, billed as the busiest in North America, saw <https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/how-we-collect-bike-volumes.asp x> 1.4 million rides in 2020, 40 per cent more than its first full year a decade earlier. Bike lanes, in Vancouver and across Canada, have grown from political flashpoints and ideological signifiers to standard-issue civic infrastructure. Theyre being built everywhere. Penticton, in the British Columbia Interior, this summer opened its Lake-to-Lake bike lane; it plans <https://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/news/penticton-looks-to-spend-over-15- million-on-bike-lanes-over-the-next-5-years/> to invest $15-million over the next five years. Sarnia, Ont., is <https://www.sarniathisweek.com/news/local-news/bike-lanes-extension-on-russ ell-street-planned-2> extending its bicycling network. In Halifax, about a third of a <https://www.halifax.ca/transportation/cycling-walking/expanding-network/reg ional-centre-bikeway-update> planned 57 kilometres of protected bike lanes is complete. It includes Hollis Street through the heart of the city. Montreal last November opened a long north-south route on Saint Denis Street as part of its <https://montreal.ca/articles/le-rev-un-reseau-express-velo-4666> Réseau express vélo network. Toronto, <https://www.toronto.ca/explore-enjoy/recreation/covid-19-activeto/covid-19- activeto-expanding-the-cycling-network/> spurred by the pandemic, has installed protected lanes across the city. One new <https://twitter.com/TO_Cycling/status/1441110656644640768> segment on Bloor Street East opened in late September. These lanes are billed as temporary, but it would be a short-sighted mistake to reverse course. The key element in each is the bike lanes are physically protected from traffic. In years past, cities would take the cheap route and paint some lines on the street. Without real separation from cars, they were underused. Many potential riders did not feel safe in between moving and parked vehicles. Data have long indicated protected bike lanes are essential to draw riders. A flurry of new research underlines that conclusion. A <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1361920921002145> study from Ryerson University in May, one that looked at the Toronto region, found that protected bike lanes were <https://www.ryerson.ca/city-building/news-research/2021/05/new-cycling-data -dashboard/?mc_cid=1b91686d73&mc_eid=24ee3949b9> more than two times as likely to attract riders than unprotected ones. A <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213624X21001097?dgc id=author> study in Boston showed that a protected bike lane increased bike-share traffic by 80 per cent. This is a sort of induced demand build it, and they will ride. Its no surprise. A protected bike lane is obviously safer than a faded line painted on the street. Whats fascinating is the findings from <https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2214140518301488> research in 2019 that concluded such bike infrastructure can make a citys streets safer for all users drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. The goal of protected bike lanes isnt to get every single person on a bike, or for cars to be forever abandoned. Bike lanes are neither a disaster nor a saviour. Theyre about options. A well-built network means a family can ride for fun on a weekend, and that workers can commute by bike when able. (The arrival of October is a reminder that weather in Canada will always be a challenge.) Vancouver recognizes this. The citys goal is to have 12 per cent of all trips walking, car and transit included be made by bike by 2040. The <https://vancouver.ca/streets-transportation/annual-transportation-survey.as px> most recent figure was 8 per cent double the rate in 2013. A little change can make a big difference. Research suggests that if Canadians drove <https://www.fastcompany.com/3062989/50-reasons-why-everyone-should-want-mor e-walkable-streets> one day less a week, it could cut almost four megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Ditching the car once in a while isnt unrealistic. The advocacy group Vélo Canada Bikes points to Statistics Canada data that show almost 40 per cent of commuters in cities live within five kilometres of their workplace. Canada has made gains but Europe is home to the worlds <https://copenhagenizeindex.eu/> top bicycling cities starting with Copenhagen. It is sometimes said, Well, were not Europe. Forty years ago, European cities such as Amsterdam <https://twitter.com/BrentToderian/status/1436961474837024777> were clogged with cars. Not any more. Paris of late is going through <https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/opinion/paris-bike.html> a total overhaul. The Rue du Rivoli, adjacent to the Louvre in the centre of the city, is now closed to private vehicles. Canadian cities can likewise change. The shift in direction is decisive. The arguments over bike lanes are settled. Theyre becoming what they should have long been: an ordinary way of getting around our cities. Charles Feaver Bike Winnipeg

1 0

WFP: Councillor wants 2022 budget to increase funding for green transportation (Oct1'21)
by Beth McKechnie 01 Oct '21

01 Oct '21

Councillor wants 2022 budget to increase funding for green transportation Boost to cycling options peddled https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/boost-to-cycling-options-peddled-57… THE public works committee chairman is calling for a major increase to the City of Winnipeg’s active transportation spending. Coun. Matt Allard wants the 2022 budget process to consider such funding that equals 10 per cent of the annual road construction budget. The investment could build up cycling and pedestrian routes, which would help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change, he says. “Every year, we emit more and more carbon, and we need to find ways to reduce the amount of carbon that we’re putting into the atmosphere,” Allard said Thursday. “In order to make (Winnipeg’s) climate action plan deliver what it intends to, we need to add that meat on the bones to ensure we (complete the active transportation network).” At $1.7 million, dedicated spending for active transportation falls far below that amount in 2021, with a roads budget of $152 million. If Allard’s change is approved for 2022, it would increase the AT budget from a forecast $2.3 million to $16.2 million (based on a projected road budget of $162 million). The St. Boniface councillor said some AT spending occurs separately within specific road projects. But he said many road renewals don’t include it, including 2021 projects at Roblin Boulevard and Day Street. Allard also wants council to make active transportation investments eligible for revenue raised through annual tax hikes. Mayor Brian Bowman has promised to cap the property tax hike at 2.33 per cent again in 2022, with two per cent earmarked for roads and bridges and 0.33 per cent for rapid transit. Allard said increased AT funding would help the city ensure half of all local trips involve greener modes of transportation than single-passenger vehicles by 2030, one of its key climate change goals. “For every bicycle used in a commute, that’s one less car on the road,” said Allard. The proposed funding hike is welcome but meets the minimum investment needed for cycling and pedestrian routes, said Mel Marginet, a workplace commuter options co-ordinator at the Green Action Centre. “That will give us a fighting chance to move forward on the pedestrian and cycling strategies that the city already has,” said Marginet. In 2015, city council approved a 20year, $334-million cycling and pedestrian strategy but actual investments have delayed its implementation. With roughly 80 per cent of Winnipeggers choosing personal vehicles for their trips, much more investment is needed to make the green transportation options of walking, biking and bussing more convenient, said Marginet. “It’s really a shift in the paradigm… At this current time, cars go first (in budget priority).” Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg, said active transportation has been persistently underfunded in recent years, which leaves gaps in cycling routes. “(The current budget is) really just a fraction of what’s been needed... We see it in an unconnected network,” said Cohoe, adding the extra funding would spark a huge improvement. Coun. Janice Lukes, a former public works chairwoman, said she supports Allard’s proposals. However, she said he and other executive policy committee members should never have allowed the AT budget to drop to its current level. “We would have been much further ahead (on active transportation) at this time (if they hadn’t),” said Lukes. “It’s gone down millions.” In 2019, for example, the preliminary budget included $3 million for active transportation, down from a previously forecast $5.7 million. The current forecast predicts the funding will drop to $1.7 million in 2023, and $1.4 million per year from 2024 to 2026. Allard said provincial funding cuts played a role in the reduced investment in recent years. His motions will be considered by council’s public works committee Oct. 12. joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

1 0