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Winners of $1m prize for sustainable city transport announced
by Beth McKechnie 02 Jun '23

02 Jun '23

Full story: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/02/winners-of-1m-prize-for… Ten months after cities around the world were offered the chance <https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2022/oct/10/cities-around-the-world-offe…> to bid for up to $1m (£800,000) to build or expand new cycling and walking schemes, the money has been awarded to designs in Brazil, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, New Zealand and Albania, among others. The money was put up by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the philanthropic arm of the media conglomerate set up by Michael Bloomberg <https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/michaelbloomberg>, during whose terms as mayor of New York the city sprouted a rapidly expanding network of cycle lanes. Bids were assessed in conjunction with Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI), an urban design NGO founded by Janette Sadik-Khan, who was New York’s traffic commissioner <https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2022/oct/10/cities-around-the-world-offe…> under Bloomberg. As well as the money – $1m for the winner and $400,000 apiece for the other nine cities – GDCI will help the cities with things such as design and local engagement. The top prize went to a plan to build more than 110 miles of protected cycle routes in Fortaleza, a city in Brazil’s tropical north-east, with a focus on helping children and older people use bikes, and promoting cargo bike delivery.

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Winnipeg needs you: Canada-wide Pedal Poll bike count next week
by Anders Swanson 02 Jun '23

02 Jun '23

Friendly reminder Pedal Poll - the cross-Canada bicycle count organized by Velo Canada Bikes - is happening again next week. Go here to sign up <https://signup.com/Group/117695512080/> if you can spare a couple hours on a Tuesday morning or Saturday. For 3 years now, thousands of volunteers across the country have been doing a coordinated count. Here is more general info. <https://velocanadabikes.org/pedalpoll/> There are dozens of participating cities and spaces are filling up! You can help make sure Winnipeg gets counted. We could use a few more folks here. There are 45 counting slots in Winnipeg, so far 10 are filled. Check it out. <https://signup.com/Group/117695512080/> Thank you! Anders Volunteer Chair, Vélo Canada Bikes

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WFP: Province commits to share cost to study Route 90 design (Jun2'23)
by Beth McKechnie 02 Jun '23

02 Jun '23

Province commits to share cost to study Route 90 design https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2023/06/01/province-commits-… MANITOBA taxpayers will foot half of the $1.4-million bill to conduct a design study for an expanded Route 90. Premier Heather Stefanson announced Thursday that the Manitoba government will contribute $700,000 to the City of Winnipeg to move the proposed project into its next phase. “Infrastructure corridors like Route 90 support new housing and business development in Winnipeg and promotes industry and trade, allowing for quicker access to business areas, such as CentrePort and the Winnipeg airport,” Stefanson told reporters gathered in a field just west of Kenaston Boulevard. The funding covers 50 per cent of the city’s identified costs for the project’s next phase, the province said. Widening Route 90 between Taylor and Ness Avenues was identified as a strategic infrastructure priority by the city council in 2011. An estimated 40,000 vehicles use the stretch of road each day. City hall has proposed widening the street to offer three lanes in each direction, add active transportation pathways on both sides and update aging infrastructure, including sewers and the St. James Bridge. A preliminary estimate predicts the project will cost about $550 million, with the majority of that budget dedicated to bridge and road renewal and sewer upgrades to prevent spills into the Assiniboine River. However, final design and analysis work could change the price tag. On Thursday, Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham shot back at critics of the project, saying the infrastructure upgrades are critical to improving active transportation and Winnipeg Transit networks to meet growing traffic demand, and to the development of Naawi-Oodena at the former Kapyong barracks site. “There has been a lot of misinformation about this project shared online and in editorial pages over the past few weeks,” said Gillingham, who campaigned on a pledge to expand the roadway so long as a business case exists. However, the proposal has received pushback from sustainable transportation advocates who argue the development will increase the use of personal vehicles and undermine efforts to combat climate change. “Some of the information that I’m hearing out there… it’s incorrect,” he said. The federal government has also acknowledged the importance of the project, he said. An updated business case analysis and cost estimates are expected to be completed this calendar year, he said. “With the help of the Province of Manitoba, we will do the work necessary to improve the project ahead and to move this project forward,” he said. Stefanson said she supports the project moving forward but appropriate analysis must be conducted before any additional provincial dollars can be committed to the expansion. danielle.dasilva(a)freepress.mb.ca

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WFP Analysis: The evidence says we need fewer cars (Jun2'23)
by Beth McKechnie 02 Jun '23

02 Jun '23

The evidence says we need fewer cars https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/2023/06/02/the-evidence-… RAY Kohanik puts forward in the May 29 edition ( It’s time to make better transportation decisions) that our city missed out by not building freeways in the 1970s, and that we should do it now. He supports this idea with arguments that might instinctively “feel” right, but that are entirely refuted by the city’s own data. I understand why Kohanik, or anyone else for that matter, might hold these views. It has been the predominant narrative around transportation in North America since the Second World War that the continual prioritization of car travel, at the expense of nearly everything else, is the key to economic prosperity and a higher quality of life for all. I used to hold these views. After all, it’s all we’ve ever been told since before many of our parents (or grandparents!) were even born. But despite this continent-wide, decades-long experiment in car-oriented transportation, we now have the benefit of hindsight and data. Loads and loads of data. So rather than make major infrastructure decisions based on what “feels” right, most Winnipeggers would agree that we should make evidenced-based decisions instead. On the economic side, it’s important to understand that while cars can be extremely useful, a transportation system built around everyone using one every time for every trip is prohibitively expensive. Simply maintaining the 8,300 lane-km of roads that city reports tell us we already own would require an extra $600 million per year. Every year. To get it, we’d need to eliminate the entire police department, the entire fire and paramedic department, and the entire Community Services department (the one in charge of pools, libraries and rec centres). Or we could double our property taxes. And no matter if Justin, Heather or Scott is collecting it, that money is all ultimately coming from the same pockets. Ours. It’s not just more than the city can afford. It’s more than we can afford. And that’s the problem. Many of us may say we prefer to drive for every trip, but that’s only because we’re choosing from a menu with no prices. And prices affect preferences. It’s why we don’t all live in 1,000-room mansions and fly a helicopter to work every day. We may prefer it, but when we are confronted with the reality of prices, our choices reflect that reality. So here’s some reality. Many of us worry about the cost of transit to the taxpayer, but the $38.7 million per year we’re planning to spend to “improve” driving on what amounts to 0.19 per cent of our road network could fund 27 per cent of our entire transit operations. And the numbers are even starker with active transportation: all the bike infrastructure in the city combined has a replacement value of less than $47 million. Many other cities are figuring that out already. Cities that we are losing young people to every year, like Calgary, Vancouver and Edmonton, are following the data and building more efficient, economical transportation systems. Vancouver, the poster child for transit and active transportation in Canada, doesn’t have any freeways. And they aren’t building any. Calgary is spending $5 billion today to expand its light rail system. Meanwhile, Edmonton, a winter city like ours, is spending $100 million over the next four years to expand their cycling infrastructure. Edmonton’s Mayor Sohi says they’re doing it because “active transportation is the cheapest way to move people around.” Despite all this, there are still some who say we should be bold and expand Kenaston anyway. After all, Duff Roblin was ridiculed for his grand idea, and look how well that turned out. But in drawing comparisons to the floodway, it would be wise to remember that a cost-benefit analysis done at the time showed an expected positive return of nearly $3 for each dollar spent on the flood-proofing megaproject, whereas the cost-benefit analysis we have for the Kenaston widening expects us to lose nearly 90 cents on the dollar. Maybe Duff Roblin wasn’t a visionary, maybe he was just good at math. I agree with Ray Kohanik when he says that an efficient transportation system based in reality is needed. But the reality is that while we may wish prioritizing car travel on ever wider roads was financially sustainable, the numbers consistently show it simply is not. Any way you slice it, the future is in getting more people to walk, bike or take transit on more trips, more times. It’s the only way to pay for all of this. In the end, Kohanik laments that “the city is broke, broke, broke” but that “that’s another story.” We now know that it’s the same story. Cities that don’t figure that out soon will go bankrupt, bankrupt, bankrupt. *Michel Durand-Wood lives in Elmwood and has been writing about municipal issues since 2018.*

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WFP Letters to the Editor: Better options, fewer cars (Jun1'23)
by Beth McKechnie 01 Jun '23

01 Jun '23

Better options, fewer cars I read Ray Kohanik’s opinion piece *It’s time to make better transportation decisions* <https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/2023/05/29/its-time-to-m…> (May 29) with interest. His analysis is correct that widening Kenaston Boulevard is a project out of our budget, whether or not cost-sharing comes through this time from other levels of government. (For those keeping score at home, Kenaston has been twice rejected. Third time’s the charm?) As it stands, by the city’s own analysis, traffic will have returned to Kenaston, and our commute times will be longer than they are now, before we have paid off the bill. The reality is we already have far more roads than we can properly afford to maintain given our tax base. Unless we want to double our property taxes and cut basically all of our services, we need to find a way to use our transportation infrastructure more efficiently if we want to give future generations a fighting chance for financial sustainability. I note that Kohanik points to Norway’s investment in EVs as a solution. While he highlights Norway’s similar climate and sprawl, he missed what is being done in cities. For example, Oslo has committed to radically reducing vehicle trips through investment in transit and its walk/bike infrastructure. They might have been inspired by Finland, where Oulu sees thousands of children biking to school through their cold and snowy winters (and a note that Oulu is quite a sprawling city, much like Winnipeg). As for being “unable to imagine” how people could possibly drive less, I’d encourage Kohanik to reach out to one of the 3,000-plus members of Peg City Car Co-op, which is seeing demand to expand further and faster. It seems like having the choice to drive less is something many Winnipeggers are already doing, or want to do. I sold my vehicle over seven years ago and am happier, healthier and saving a profound amount of money by walking, biking, busing and, when I need to, driving a shared Peg City vehicle. But I could only do this by living in a neighbourhood with services within walking distance, good bike routes, decent transit and access to the car-sharing co-op. We don’t need more lanes, we need better neighbourhood design and more transportation choice so more Winnipeggers can drive less if they want to. Mel Marginet Winnipeg Ray Kohanik’s question: “Finally, can someone please explain to me how someone with a bike picks up their kids from daycare and gets them to sports/activities and then home again on a bike?” Answer: on bikes. Our family did just this until middle school, when kids could bike alone. It was faster than driving. Heidi Klaschka Winnipeg

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WFP Analysis: It’s time to make better transportation decisions (May29'23)
by Beth McKechnie 29 May '23

29 May '23

*It’s time to make better transportation decisions* https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/2023/05/29/its-time-to-m… ARCHITECT Brent Bellamy comments in the May 23 edition ( Need more congestion? Route 90 plan is the $500-M ticket) that improving Kenaston Boulevard will be, in total, more than just the $500 million construction cost, that the bill won’t be paid for up to 30 years, that greater capacity will create further congestion as this becomes a preferred route, and that we should consider the impact on future generations. In all of these points, Mr. Bellamy is correct, although I think he should have mentioned that for something like this, there is cost sharing with the province/feds which typically reduces the cost to the city. The reality is we could have avoided a lot of this pain had we made better decisions 50 years ago. Around 1970, Plan Winnipeg decided that, with minor exceptions, we would be a city without freeways. Today, for a city of our size, we have significant traffic congestion and an inefficient transportation system. Rather than expediting travel from one part of the city to another, it seems like it is more designed to spread the pain, as most routes take about the same time. On that point, traffic is bad enough on major routes at rush hour that we now have restrictions on travel through residential areas because commuters would rather take the “scenic route” than fight traffic on a “major route” studded with light signals (which, by the way, the Kenaston expansion won’t deal with — it still incorporates stop lights). If there is more traffic on a widened Kenaston, there will be less through River Heights. The simple fact is that if we had not made the decision to avoid freeways in 1970, the cost of implementing them would have been significantly less than the cost today. Consider the issue of the Red River Floodway, the initial cost of which was significantly less than $100 million in the mid-1960s. To give you an idea of the cost of deferring capital expenditures, Fargo, N.D., is currently implementing a “floodway- style” Red River diversion. Although it has some more complex details than our own floodway, the cost: US$3.2 Billion. Bellamy, among others, has touted the benefits of active and mass transportation. At the urging of special interest groups such as Bike Winnipeg, politicians have dedicated millions of tax dollars to creating an “active transportation” network — including bike paths — and are considering expansion of the mass-transit system. The reality is these solutions are not realistic for our climate and the busy North American lifestyle of most families. On the matter of bike paths for commuting, I have never heard a convincing argument for this. Someone needs to stand up and say this will never work for the vast majority of people. As it is, the existing system of bike paths are largely unused, let alone considering expanding the system further. While this is a feel-good story, it doesn’t make sense for us for a variety of reasons. Essentially, commuting by bike will work only for those who can shower when they get to work, for people who don’t need a vehicle to make calls out of the office on a given day, who can keep separate attire at work and don’t have a busy family life. If you need to use your vehicle for work, live in the suburbs or don’t have facilities to shower/ change, this will never work. Furthermore, given our climate, this is barely workable for four to five months of the year. Finally, can someone please explain to me how someone with a bike picks up their kids from daycare and gets them to sports/activities and then home again on a bike? Some will say improved mass transit is an answer. The existing system loses a fortune every year, and the ongoing cost of providing frequent and efficient mass transit to overcome climate and distance is unimaginable. As a first step, we need to make the existing system safe. Until we confront that issue, ridership will be limited to those who have no choice or for whom the cost of commuting with a vehicle is prohibitive. Also, building a mass-transit system forces the assumption of where planners think people will want to go in 10, 20 or 30 years. That’s a tough call. It’s a good thing we didn’t build mass transit out to Polo Park to serve the Jets and Bombers. Perhaps an alternative is to accept the fact that personal vehicles are and likely will be the preferred form of transportation for the foreseeable future. In the same manner, single-family homes are likely to remain the preferred form of residence. To try and reconcile these issues, could we perhaps embrace the move to electric vehicles instead and accept the need for an improved traffic system? In Norway, a country with a winter climate and a small population spread over a wide area, the majority of vehicles sold are now electric. Manitoba has the current and potential power resources to be self-sufficient in energy as well as an even more significant exporter. Further development of this resource would allow Manitobans to maintain our lifestyle and help address climate change through export of clean electricity. An expansive charging network would remove one of the main concerns of potential vehicle owners and do so at a fraction of the cost of mass-transit expansion. Either way, an efficient transportation system based in reality is needed. It’s unfortunate that we are where we are, though this is the cost of poor decision making in the past. It’s even more unfortunate the city’s finances are so messed up that we absolutely can’t afford to take this project on, regardless of any benefit. The city is broke, broke, broke. But that’s another story. *Ray Kohanik writes from Winnipeg.*

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WFP: Coalition urges pause on Kenaston, Chief Peguis projects (May27'23)
by Beth McKechnie 27 May '23

27 May '23

*Coalition urges pause on Kenaston, Chief Peguis projects* https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/2023/05/26/coalition-urges-p… THE City of Winnipeg should pause any new spending on two major road projects expected to cost a combined $1 billion, until it determines if they are worth their financial and environmental price, according to a sustainable transportation advocate. On Friday, the Transportation and Land Use Coalition urged city council to avoid committing funds to widen Route 90 (Kenaston Boulevard) and extend Chief Peguis Trail, aside from money needed to complete a cost-benefit analysis and environmental assessment of each project. “We just want to be sure that no money is spent in the upcoming budget until that (analysis and environmental review) is received and assessed,” said Mel Marginet, co-chair of the organization. Marginet accused city council of rushing the approval process by listing the two projects within its strategic priorities action plan, which is expected to help guide the city’s 2024-27 multi-year budget. The coalition fears the city could lose money on the projects and the developments could undermine the municipal government’s efforts to combat climate change. “It’s going to induce the continued reliance on personal vehicles within our transportation system… The bike routes that are included as part of the Kenaston project… are very inadequate and it’s unrealistic to expect that the cycling trips that they will generate will in any way mitigate the induced demand for personal vehicles,” said Marginet. The group also claims the projects are unrealistic, since the federal government already rejected at least one application to help fund the Kenaston work. The city confirmed the senior government declined a request to fund Route 90 improvements in 2017, though the design was different at the time. The Chief Peguis Trail extension would extend from Main Street to Brookside Boulevard, pending council approval and funding. The Kenaston proposal would widen the boulevard to offer three lanes in each direction between Ness and Taylor avenues, while adding transportation paths on both sides. The city is now seeking public feedback on the latest Kenaston design. That project has also drawn complaints from some area residents. Carol Styles said she’s concerned about a lack of information on how the city will assist folks whose homes are removed to create room for the project and those who will be left to live next to a major construction zone. “What is the plan for the people that they’re expropriating and the people they’re leaving behind? There’s… little talk about noise mitigation during the construction, as well as afterwards,” said Styles. While she agrees the road is in desperate need of repair, Styles said some residents have been hesitant to make home improvements since they still aren’t sure when the long-discussed widening project will happen. “Having lived through the process for 15 years and three iterations of these community engagement sessions, as they call them, (my concern) is really about the process… People want to know (what’s happening). Make a decision, let’s do it or not do it.” When asked if the provincial government now expects to fund the two projects, Manitoba Municipal Relations Minister Andrew Smith repeatedly said: “Stay tuned.” Winnipeg MP Dan Vandal, federal minister responsible for Prairies Economic Development Canada, called both projects “very important,” but stressed it’s up to the city to set its own infrastructure priorities. Coun. John Orlikow said the city has conducted extensive consultation on the Kenaston project, and is continuing to seek feedback. However, he agreed it should commit to a clear plan forward soon. “Unfortunately, there are some homes that need to be expropriated… but these people have been living in limbo for the last 15 years… So, it really is time to move this project forward, one way or another.” Orlikow noted the Kenaston project would also improve a sometimes “dangerous” St. James Bridge, crumbling roads and Transit access, while sewer repairs incorporated into the road work would help reduce combined sewer overflows. “The value isn’t just (for) the road, it’s many, many layers,” he said. joyanne.pursaga(a)freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

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Webinar Recording - Rapid implementation of bikeways for healthy, safe, equitable & more sustainable communities
by Kristine Hayward 25 May '23

25 May '23

Hi AT folks – see below a link to the webinar recording of NCCEH Healthy Built Environment Webinar Series held on May 24, 2023: Title: Rapid implementation of bikeways for healthy, safe, equitable and more sustainable communities Presenters: Brian Patterson, Urban Systems; Matt Craig, TransLink The recording of the presentation and slide deck are now available here<https://ncceh.ca/content/webinar-recording-rapid-implementation-bikeways-he…> Kristine Hayward (she/her) Physical Activity Promotion Coordinator Population & Public Health MB Health and Winnipeg Regional Health Authority 2nd floor - 490 Hargrave Street Winnipeg, MB R3A 0X7 Email khayward(a)wrha.mb.ca<mailto:khayward@wrha.mb.ca> Bike racks are available in front of the building at the corner of Hargrave and McDermot. Plan your Winnipeg Transit trip: http://winnipegtransit.com/en/navigo<https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://winnipegtransit.com/en/navigo__;!!IqQd2s…> Metered street parking and pay lots in the area – please note designated loading zones and spots requiring a disability permit. Disclaimer : This email (including any attachments or enclosed documents) is intended for the addressee(s) only and may contain privileged, proprietary or confidential information. Any unauthorized use, disclosure, distribution, copying or dissemination is strictly prohibited. If you receive this email in error, please notify the sender immediately, return the original (if applicable) and delete the email. Avis : Le présent courriel (y compris toute pièce jointe) est destiné à la personne ou aux personnes à qui il est adressé, et peut contenir des renseignements confidentiels, privés ou protégés par un privilège juridique. Toute utilisation, divulgation, distribution, copie ou diffusion non autorisée est strictement défendue. Si vous avez reçu le présent courriel par erreur, veuillez en informer immédiatement l’expéditeur, retourner l’original (le cas échéant) et supprimer ce courriel.

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WFP Analysis: Need more congestion? Route 90 plan is the $500-M ticket (May23'23)
by Beth McKechnie 23 May '23

23 May '23

Need more congestion? Route 90 plan is the $500-M ticket https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/2023/05/23/need-more-congestion-rou… THE projected cost of the city’s plan to widen Route 90 is equivalent to a 6.9 per cent property tax increase for every Winnipeg homeowner. It will take 30 years for Winnipeg taxpayers to pay off the new road, and in the long run, traffic congestion will get worse. The City of Winnipeg is currently asking for public feedback on a new design for widening Kenaston Boulevard between Ness and Taylor avenues, including related sewer upgrades and an expansion of the St. James Bridge. The city is hoping that other levels of government will share the cost, but Ottawa has already rejected applications twice before, in 2015 and 2018, and the province’s Multi-Year Infrastructure Investment Strategy makes no mention of the project. This likely leaves Winnipeg taxpayers to foot the bill on their own. The cost of widening Kenaston is typically reported to be $500 million, but a 2019 city document, Unfunded Major Capital Projects Detail, provides a more accurate picture of the total costs. Using the $500 million construction value, it projects that when borrowing and operating costs are included, the project will require annual payments of $38.7 million, (6.9 per cent of the city’s operating budget) amortized over 30 years. This represents a true project cost of $1.2 billion, and is predicated on construction values not increasing further, having already risen steadily from $129 million in 2009, to $375 million in 2015 and $450 million in 2018. The formula’s operating costs include projected increases in maintenance required for the larger infrastructure. For 20 years, the city has earmarked $100,000 annually for the maintenance of Kenaston Boulevard. The state of the road is evidence of how woefully inadequate that number is, but it’s also evidence of how strained our city’s finances are. The application to the Building Canada Fund in 2015 revealed that additional operating and maintenance costs for an enlarged roadway were projected to be $1.9 million per year, a significant addition to the city’s already stretched road-maintenance budgets. The costs are staggering, but Kenaston is congested and many people believe that needs to be addressed. This is the other bit of bad news found in the city’s reports. The 2023 Route 90 Improvements Study indicates that even after increasing road capacity, traffic congestion will eventually be greater than it is today. The study projects that over several years, driving times between Ness and Taylor will increase to 8.7 minutes in the morning peak and 9.2 minutes in the evening peak, compared with eight minutes and 7.2 minutes today, respectively. The study predicts that if we don’t enlarge the road, those times will increase by several minutes, but this might be challenged, because despite significant growth in south Winnipeg, the number of cars travelling on Kenaston every day (measured at the bridge) hasn’t increased since 1995. People find alternate routes. The traffic study seems counterintuitive, but it reflects something many cities have already learned. You can’t build your way out of congestion. A bigger road always attracts more cars, eventually consuming any additional capacity. This concept is known as “induced demand.” The increased capacity of bigger roads will immediately reduce commuting times. To take advantage of the higher capacity network, drivers divert from different routes, are less strategic with the times they travel and are less likely to use public transportation or carpooling. All of this increases the number of vehicles on the new road. Greater convenience also results in more people willing to commute longer distances, incentivizing suburban sprawl, increasing car dependency and further increasing traffic volumes. Almost invariably, within a few years of a road expansion, traffic congestion begins to return and, as the Route 90 study demonstrates, may get worse than it was before. This large increase in the number of vehicles on Kenaston will also have important impacts on surrounding neighbourhoods, pushing significantly more traffic to adjacent feeder streets such as Academy Road and Corydon Avenue. The design carves a vehicle canyon, lined with concrete acoustic walls, through existing mature neighbourhoods. Large intersections will decrease walkability and pedestrian safety, reducing connectivity between neighbourhoods, and inhibiting any ability for the future development on the former Kapyong Barracks land to integrate with surrounding communities. It’s often suggested that enlarging Kenaston will generate economic growth as a long-haul trucking route that opens new international trade opportunities, but without a marked long-term improvement in congestion, it’s unclear why a road through residential neighbourhoods would inspire new trade and commerce. Currently, only four per cent of vehicles on Kenaston are large trucks, and the road’s role as a trade route was significantly diminished when the CN Intermodal Terminal moved to Symington Yards, replaced by the outlet mall. Provincial investments in CentrePort Canada Way and the Perimeter Highway are more appropriate catalysts to this growth. With all of Winnipeg’s post-pandemic challenges, widening a single road may not be the best way to spend such a staggering amount of money. There are so many more impactful quality-of-life improvements that could be made. We could invest in the tree canopy, neighbourhood parks and community centres. For that same money, we could build 7,000 new affordable homes as an impactful way to address homelessness and poverty. Winnipeg’s full 25-year rapid transit plan connecting the entire city — an investment that might actually reduce congestion — could be built for the same projected cost. We could even just fix the pothole-blighted roads we already have. As we evaluate widening Kenaston, we should remember that we are not making a choice just for ourselves. Our children and grandchildren will be paying for it as well, and we should ask ourselves if they will believe we spent their money wisely. *Brent Bellamy is senior design architect for Number Ten Architectural Group.*

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Globe column on EV reality
by Charles F 21 May '23

21 May '23

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/commentary/article-stellantis-ev-b… government is enchanted – obsessed even – with the idea of building batteries for electric vehicles on home soil. Already, Volkswagen is soaking up about $14-billion in public subsidies to build a battery factory in Southwestern Ontario, and Stellantis, owner of Jeep and Fiat, and LG Energy Solution are demanding equal treatment for their joint venture.The mission to make Canada (well, Ontario) part of the global EV supply chain was inevitable and, from a purely industrial point of view, makes some sense, even though the per-employee job creation bill may emerge as the most expensive in Canadian history.But on so many other levels, the decision to lunge into the EV supply chain lies somewhere between irresponsible and crazed; it locks us into an ever-expanding car culture for generations when we should be downgrading the car as a transportation tool, as some European cities are doing. EVs, and hybrid cars to a lesser extent, enjoy a global image that is entirely unjustified. The pitch – buy an EV and save the planet – is just nonsense.Never mind that EVs are still cars that need to be parked. Their presence will still disfigure cities, pushing politicians and developers to build new parking lots, roads and highways to gratify the endless swarms of drivers (see Ontario’s proposed Highway 413, an assault on the wetlands, waterways and farmland in Southern Ontario’s Greenbelt).And never mind that EVs are hardly “clean,” even if they have no tailpipe emissions. The EV supply chain is notoriously ugly and carbon-intensive. Yes, EVs can make urban air more breathable, but at what cost to the greater environment?Cleaner air in cities does not mean climate change will slow down. The EV revolution could even accelerate global warming as forests in sub-Saharan Africa, Indonesia and elsewhere are razed to make way for the mines and smelters that produce the nickel, copper, cobalt and lithium required to build EV batteries. The Washington Post recently reported that the high-pressure, acid-based nickel-leaching process used in Indonesia, the world’s largest producer of the metal, generates 20 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of nickel. After a slow burn, there is no doubt that EVs will sound the death knell for diesel- and gasoline-powered cars. European Union law requires all new cars to have zero carbon emissions from 2035. In the United States, President Joe Biden wants the Environmental Protection Agency to tighten car-emission standards to the point that two-thirds of new cars and light trucks will have to be electric by 2032. Canada is considering an even more aggressive zero-emissions mandate, backed by the lavish investments in battery production.The debate virtually worldwide is the speed at which governments should banish internal-combustion engines; it is rarely about the need to banish cars regardless of what power source they use. EV production could actually increase the number of cars on the road, since families will probably buy them initially as second cars – urban runabouts – while they keep their longer-range fossil-fuel cars for as many years as possible.As EV use soars, so will the demands on regional and national power systems. Already, there are fears that plugging in millions of cars at night could blow grids in areas where there is barely enough electricity to meet peak demand. Last September, California asked residents to avoid charging EVs during a brutal heat wave, when all the juice was needed to keep the lights and air conditioning on. As the planet heats up, so will the battle to find enough power to keep EVs charged up and homes running.More power plants will have to be built and, in many countries – perhaps most – that means building coal and natural-gas plants. The International Energy Agency says that about two-thirds of global energy comes from fossil fuels and that ratio is unlikely to change much any time soon, since nuclear plants are costly and renewable energy is unreliable and rolling out slowly, if steadily.It may make sense to plug in an EV in Ontario or Quebec, where zero-emissions energy is the dominant power; it makes little sense to plug in an EV in Alberta, where almost 90 per cent of the electricity is generated by fossil fuels. EV owners in Alberta are merely transferring emissions from the tailpipe to the smokestack.In some enlightened cities, the debate is not whether EVs are a net benefit but whether cars of any size, shape or power source are. In Paris, Mayor Anne Hidalgo doesn’t want her streets cluttered with fossil-fuel or battery-powered cars. The city has banned heavily polluting diesel cars, added bike lanes to most of the streets in the centre, eliminated most cars from a few main roads like the Rue de Rivoli and is expanding the metro network. The result is that car trips in Paris have fallen by almost half since 1990, according to a study by Les Cahiers Scientifiques du Transport.Which brings us to Canada. If there is one project that would create thousands of jobs, improve business productivity, clean up the air, reduce the output of greenhouse gases and cut the demand for endless highway construction, it would be high-speed electric rail between Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal, where population densities are high enough to make the project sensible. Cost estimates are all over the map. The University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy put the price tag at about $12-billion, which is $2-billion less than the bucks being thrown at the Volkswagen battery plant alone. But forget it – the Canadian government wants more cars, not fewer. Canadian cities will remain car sewers forever.Sent from my phone.

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