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WFP: Transit ridership up due to high gas prices (Jul9'22)
by Beth McKechnie 10 Jul '22

10 Jul '22

Transit ridership up due to high gas prices https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/transit-ridership-up-due-to-high-ga… THE jump in gas prices has resulted in a leap in people getting on the bus. The latest City of Winnipeg report on the financial implications of COVID-19, says Winnipeg Transit has had roughly a 29 per cent increase in passengers in the last four weeks. Coun. Jeff Browaty, chairman of the civic finance committee, said Friday that even though ridership is still down about 25 per cent from pre-pandemic levels, it’s a step in the right direction. “It’s because both the world is opening up again, with people going back to the workplace, and people are going back to old patterns, but the cost of running cars has also gone up,” Browaty said. “You hear (that) people who have never taken the bus before are now taking it because of gas prices and others are coming back.” Browaty said the city is facing the same fuel price crunch as motorists, but it helps when there are more passengers on buses. “It’s wonderful to see more people on the bus because the cost of running empty buses is the same as running a full bus,” he said. “Hopefully, people are coming back and will stay.” A civic report shows COVID-19 will put a $41.3-million dent in city coffers this year. The report says transit is looking at a budget shortfall of $7 million this year, in part because of an increase in overtime costs due to employees being off sick or isolating because of the virus. The Fire Paramedic Services is $3 million over-budget because of similar overtime costs, and parking revenue is down about $500,000. Other hits to the city’s budget include the snow clearing and ice control budget: $34.2 million over-budget this year and a possible $5 million to $13 million extra expenditure if fuel prices remain high. Currently, $7.9 million in property taxes is in arrears. The number of property owners who pay their entire tax bill at once, but have outstanding payments, is 7,430 accounts out of about 230,000 accounts. About $600,000 in business property taxes is outstanding. kevin.rollason(a)freepress.mb.ca

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These German-Made Cargo E-Bikes Are Unlike Anything We’ve Seen Before
by Terry Zdan 08 Jul '22

08 Jul '22

https://insideevs.com/news/596916/maniac-sane-electric-cargo-bikes/

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Apollo Tyres launches its first dedicated micro-mobility tire: the Vredestein Cargo - Green Car Congress
by Terry Zdan 08 Jul '22

08 Jul '22

https://www.greencarcongress.com/2022/07/20220708-apollo.html

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WFP: ‘Not a penny’ to get more Winnipeggers to take the bus (Jul8'22)
by Beth McKechnie 08 Jul '22

08 Jul '22

‘Not a penny’ to get more Winnipeggers to take the bus https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/not-a-penny-to-get-more-winnipegger… ONE might expect loud cheers from mass transit advocates after the three levels of government announced $539 million for Winnipeg Transit on Thursday. Their responses, however, were low key because there’s nothing in the announcement to make more Winnipeggers gung-ho about taking the bus. “Half-a-billion dollars and not a penny is being spent to improve service,” said Brent Bellamy, a Winnipeg architect and columnist who advocates for improved transportation. “We are in a climate crisis and an affordability crisis,” he said. “Improving transit frequency and service to attract more riders is a response to both.” The city is struggling to attract riders after the pandemic, Bellamy said. Even before COVID-19, he said, Winnipeg was the only major city in Canada to have lower transit ridership than it did 20 years ago. “Every effort should be made to improve service,” said Bellamy. Functional Transit Winnipeg, a grassroots advocacy group, agrees. “What’s really going to get people excited about using transit is shorter wait times, more frequent service,” said vice-president Matt Austman. Still, the long-overdue money for a new garage and buses was welcome news, he said. “As a transit advocacy organization, it’s more funding for capital projects and infrastructure to support Transit. That’s a good thing from our perspective,” Austman said after the announcement. “It’s only one piece of the puzzle,” though. The challenge is the operational side of the transit master plan, Austman said. “It’s about more buses, more frequent service,” that are desperately needed in Winnipeg more than ever, he said. “With gas hovering around $2 a litre right now, people need other options,” he said. Winnipeg’s manager of transit service development promised service will be more frequent years from now. “We’re basically taking the existing route network, throwing it out the window and redrawing it from scratch,” Bjorn Radstrom said Thursday. It includes $7 million to plan a complete overhaul of Winnipeg routes, he said. “It literally doubles the number of people in the city who are within a five-minute walk of frequent transit service,” said Radstrom. “It’s a much more efficient network, as well. It gets us 20 per cent more capacity without having to invest in any additional resources, or additional bus hours. We don’t need more buses. We get 20 per cent more capacity because the network is that much more efficient.” The newly designed network will include six new corridors, with three lines and loops at the end of the routes, some terminals, an elevated portion through Union Station, heated shelters, new signals and be “transformational,” the planner said. “It will take to 2025-26 to do that design,” Radstrom said. “The $7 million for the preliminary design allows us to get to the level of the design detail where we could apply for funding to build it.” He said ridership is just over 70 per cent; some riders might still be working from home and not coming back. “We need the new master plan to attract new riders,” said Radstrom. The city has 646 buses and Thursday’s announcement works out to 16 net new buses added. “We’re not expanding the fleet greatly,” Radstrom said. Thanks to the efficiencies expected from the route overhaul, “we don’t need a lot of new buses.” Hiring enough drivers for the existing fleet is hard enough, said Romeo Ignacio, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505. The pay is decent but concerns about safety persist, he said. The union leader said he hopes the city and the province can work together to address some of the systemic issues that result in bus shelters being misused, drivers being assaulted and riders fearing for their safety. “Now, there’s a lot more people that are suffering from poverty, the root cause of homelessness and, of course, drug addiction, the root cause of a crime,” said Ignacio. carol.sanders(a)freepress.mb.ca

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WFP: Transit to get $539-M boost (Jul8'22)
by Beth McKechnie 08 Jul '22

08 Jul '22

New zero-emission buses, new garage in works Transit to get $539-M boost https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/half-billion-dollars-rolls-out-for-… DESPITE substantial delays that left millions of federal infrastructure dollars unspent for years, the Progressive Conservative government is being commended for finally getting on board a tri-level agreement to modernize Winnipeg Transit to the tune of $539 million. As rapid transit buses rolled through Seel Station in Winnipeg’s Fort Garry neighbourhood Thursday morning, Premier Heather Stefanson said the province will spend nearly $170 million to purchase approximately 235 new buses, build a new Transit garage and implement planned changes to its network. “These new infrastructure projects will help to reduce our carbon footprint while also promoting job growth and opportunities for Manitoba businesses,” Stefanson said at the announcement, flanked by Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman and Manitoba Liberal MPs Terry Duguid and Kevin Lamoureux. The three levels of government will spend a combined $539 million to buy 100 zero-emission buses and requisite infrastructure by 2027; purchase 135 new diesel buses during the transition to a zero-emission fleet; construct a new, LEED certified garage in the North End neighbourhood; conduct further design work to carry out the Winnipeg Transit Master Plan; replace 325 wheelchair securement devices on Transit vehicles; and upgrade radio hardware and equipment on buses. The federal government’s share of the projects is $203.3 million, and the City of Winnipeg will contribute $135.2 million. The money comes through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program, a cost-sharing deal the PCs signed with federal Liberals in 2018. Manitoba has been slow to access that cash, as former Tory premier Brian Pallister sought to constrain spending, and chafed against federal criteria Ottawa eventually loosened. However, Stefanson has struck a different tone since taking office in November, federal and municipal leaders said Thursday. Bowman said the project had been “stalled on the former premier’s desk” and praised Stefanson for being more active and sticking to a commitment to fund Transit improvements. “You made good on that and you delivered for Winnipeg,” he said. “After years of idling, we’re shifting to drive, and finally moving Winnipeg Transit forward in a transformative way.” Duguid, member of Parliament for Winnipeg South, also thanked the premier for her approach. “We’re all singing from the same song sheet,” Duguid said. “You have set a new tone, which I think is really making a difference.” Lamoureux noted the Liberals’ last major transit announcement in Winnipeg, in February 2019, involved Ottawa signing a deal directly with the city, bypassing a reluctant province. “When the different levels of government come together, we can really get things done,” said the Winnipeg North MP. Stefanson, meanwhile, said her government is keen to collaborate with all levels of government to advance infrastructure projects, and is fully subscribed to the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program. An announcement is expected in the coming weeks under the infrastructure plan to complete upgrades of the North End Winnipeg sewage treatment plant. While admitting it has been “too long” since she used Transit, Stefanson said the partnership between the three levels of government to enhance the capital city’s public network is one way to boost ridership, which has yet to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic. “It’s working collaboratively with the City of Winnipeg to do that, and so if there are some ideas that people have, we’re certainly open to those ideas — because we all want the end goal that people are utilizing our transit system more,” the premier said. “It’s better for the environment, and so we’ll continue to work collaboratively with City of Winnipeg on various programs.” However, Opposition environment critic Lisa Naylor said the Tories missed an opportunity for a “cleaner, healthier” province by supporting the purchase of new diesel buses. “As Winnipeg grows, the need for a safer, more reliable and cleaner public transit system grows as well,” Naylor said. “Yet, for six years, the PCs did nothing to improve transit infrastructure.” And while the new Transit spending is a positive development, delays will likely mean inflation “is going to take a much bigger bite of this investment,” Manitoba Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont said. The province ought to also investigate the potential for relocating railways outside the city to use then vacated tracks for a public commuter system, he said. “If we really want to transform our city, we can go further than just a lot more of the same,” Lamont said. Meanwhile, Winnipeg Transit manager of service development Bjorn Radstrom said Thursday’s announcement is the most significant funding commitment of his career. “This is the first time we’ve ever done a complete redesign of the route network and it really is the basis for what Transit is going to look like for the next 100 years,” Radstrom said. “This, for me, is really the most exciting thing. I’m very happy today.” — with files from Dylan Robertson danielle.dasilva(a)freepress.mb.ca

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Dutch Cycling: Quantifying the Health and Related Economic Benefits
by Terry Zdan 05 Jul '22

05 Jul '22

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4504332/#:~:text=With%20a%20va… . The CST OttoCycle study also included an economic evaluation of cycling benefits in Winnipeg

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Montreal is on the road to greater livability, and other cities should follow
by Charles Feaver 04 Jul '22

04 Jul '22

Monday editorial in the Globe and Mail: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-montreal-is-on-th e-road-to-greater-livability-and-other-cities-should/ Fifteen years ago, the defining symbol of Montreal was the pothole. Every time a driver kathunked over a crater in the asphalt, it felt like a reminder of the corruption, mismanagement and malaise of a faded metropolis. Today there are still a lot of potholes in Montreals streets. Its not Zurich. But the city also has a new infrastructural hallmark, with a happier story to tell. That would be the humble bike lane, whose narrow painted lines represent a particular kind of urban revival. Call it the theory of livability. Other cities should take note. When Valérie Plante became mayor in 2017, cyclists knew they had a champion at City Hall. Her party, Projet Montréal, had already become famous, or infamous, for transforming the boroughs it governed like the bourgeois-bohemian Plateau-Mont-Royal into more walkable, bikeable places that were also notably more difficult to drive in. Projet had many weapons in its self-confessed war on the car in the Plateau. It narrowed streets, made others one-way, expanded and beautified sidewalks, and above all built bike lanes. They perfectly expressed the partys green, Europe-inflected vision. In the past five years, Ms. Plante has taken that ethos citywide. The defining policy of her first term was the 184-kilometre REV bike highway. It has been a hit, even producing an unexpected and quite wonderful problem: bicycle traffic jams. Her suburban critics might disagree, but the mayor doesnt have a fetish for getting around on two wheels, even if that happens to be her lifestyle preference Ms. Plante lives in the trendy Rosemont neighbourhood, without a car. But making cities livable also benefits society as a whole. As she likes to explain, cycling represents a concept of the city that Canada could use more of. Bike lanes are part of a broader vision designed to ensure that dense city centres stay attractive to young families, to curb urban sprawl. Pandemic-era remote work tempted some people to drift out of commuting range from downtown offices. The shift is probably mostly temporary, but a mortgage in the Laurentians or Guelph makes a powerful argument for keeping the home office. Between the summers of 2020 and 2021, Montreal lost nearly 40,000 people to other parts of the province, the most in 20 years. Now in her second term after a landslide re-election, Ms. Plante is building an argument for why cities are still the best, most vibrant places to live, even in the era of remote work. The results have been impressive. On top of all those bike lanes, shes trying to use her limited municipal levers to make homes a bit more affordable (although another Montrealer, Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem, may do more toward that end with rising interest rates). Her 20-20-20 policy mandates a certain share of affordable housing in big developments, and the city plans to use its right of first refusal to buy hundreds of properties on which it will build social housing. Like the Gilded Age progressives who dreamed up swathes of urban green space for the masses, the Plante administration is also on a park-building spree. It rapidly expanded the grand parc de louest at the western tip of the Island of Montreal it covers some 30 square kilometres and plans to recreate the feat at the citys eastern edge. With Projet Montréal, the big infrastructure schemes have always come with a healthy concern for the aesthetic. The party has a flair for the design of little things such as curb bump-outs and public planters. Call them frills if you want, but young professionals are less likely to flee a beautiful city. The pedestrianization of Mont-Royal Ave. a busy commercial strip, and one of several streets closed to cars for at least part of the summer shows the Plante recipe in full force: whimsical street furniture, makeshift vegetable gardens, hordes of flâneurs and, yes, headaches for drivers. But then, this mayor has always been comfortable with the trade-off between livability and driveability. Sure, Montreal has some natural advantages in its bike-lane revolution, like tightly packed triplex housing and a layout that long predates the automobile. But a message to other Canadian cities: Forget about Montreals potholes. On the road to creating a greener, more attractive place for people to live, its lapping the field. And its riding a bike. Charles Feaver

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WFP: Free parking helps keep councillors driving to city hall (Jul4'22)
by Beth McKechnie 04 Jul '22

04 Jul '22

Free parking helps keep councillors driving to city hall https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/free-parking-helps-keep-councillors… MOST city councillors, like the majority of Winnipeggers, drive to work, and those commutes help make driving the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the city. Despite the city’s plan to slice emissions in the coming decades, one city hall perk makes it hard for councillors to abandon their cars — a free parking pass. Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface) says the option of free parking makes it easy to decide to drive to work. “One of the biggest inconveniences of commuting to work downtown is finding that parking spot,” he said. “So not only is it tempting from a financial perspective, because you already have a spot paid for, but also you have the convenience of knowing that there’s going to be a spot for you as soon as you pull in.” But Allard is an exception, having relinquished his free parking pass in 2018. In January that year, Allard, who chairs the public works committee that oversees transit, pledged to take the bus to work every day for a month to get a better understanding of the bus system. When the month came to an end, he decided to say goodbye to his parking pass and instead walk, bike and take the bus as much as possible. “I kind of fell in love with the mode shift and the bus and using different modes of transport in my everyday life,” he said. “And I found that it didn’t make sense anymore for me to have this parking spot because I wasn’t using it.” A Free Press survey of city councillors found Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski), who is blind, is the only other councillor who has turned down the parking pass. Though several councillors who responded to the survey said they try to take transit, walk or bike when possible, most indicated the nature of their work, which often requires travelling to meetings across the city in addition to time spent at city hall, makes it hard to give up driving. “Much of my ward that requires my attention to attend to are in areas with poor public transit supports,” said Coun. Shawn Nason (Transcona) in an email. “Demands of the job sometimes make it necessary to bring (a) car in order to attend multiple meetings or events off-site, which is expected of councillors,” said Coun. Brian Mayes (St. Vital). Couns. Jeff Browaty, Kevin Klein, John Orlikow, Vivian Santos and Jason Schreyer, as well as Mayor Brian Bowman, did not respond. Under city policy, the mayor and councillors are offered a free, dedicated parking space near city hall, an annual surface parking card and a monthly $550 transportation allowance, which is to be used for mileage expenses or taxis. Many more city workers receive parking passes. Researchers at Second-Street.org submitted a freedom of information request to the city and found nearly 400 city employees are offered parking passes. The city offers employees the option of a partially subsidized monthly bus pass — called the eco-pass — which allows staff to take the bus at a 30 per cent discount. Between 250 and 300 city staff purchase an eco-pass each month, the city said in a statement. While parking for free at work has long been considered a business standard nationwide, some advocates suggest the time has come to rethink the policy and instead give incentives for low-emission commuter options. All told, residential vehicle use makes up 32 per cent of the city’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to 2011 City of Winnipeg data. That’s in part because more than three-quarters of Winnipeggers drive to work, and about 80 per cent of those trips are made alone, according to Statistics Canada. By contrast, 16 per cent of Winnipeggers commute on the bus, and just seven per cent use active transportation. Mel Marginet is part of the sustainable transportation team at the environmental non-profit organization Green Action Centre. Over the past few decades, she said “it’s become sort of ingrained to offer free parking for employees,” be it through subsidized parking passes or big on-site parking lots. But at the Green Action Centre, Marginet’s team hopes to encourage businesses to do things differently. “There’s no such thing as free parking,” she said. “The message that sends is that you’re considered an employee of value if you’re driving to work; if there isn’t something of equal value to those who are not driving to work, I would question why.” Parking reimbursement for municipal staff cost the city $425,297 in 2021 alone, city staff said in an email. By contrast, the city has spent $27,539 on its share of the eco-pass program in the last three months. There is no option to transfer the value of the parking pass to other modes of transportation. Allard said he would prefer to see the city — and other employers — offer a more flexible transportation benefit to staff. Offering a commuting budget, for example, that could be applied to transit, bikes or parking if employees so choose, would ensure all commuting options are fairly compensated. “Flexibility would allow for Winnipeggers to do what we hope to be able to encourage them to do by providing transportation options, whether that’s taking the bus, biking, walking, being passengers in vehicles, taking up the occasional car-share,” he said. At the Green Action Centre, flexibility is a priority. Staff are offered transit passes or an equivalent dollar value for other modes of transportation. For some, that money is spent on parking, but others choose to spend the benefit on bike maintenance, running shoes and other means of getting to work. Ultimately, changing the way people get to and from work is about interrupting long-held habits and behaviour, Marginet said. With gas prices on the rise and a pandemic prompting the restructuring of the workday, Marginet said people are ready to start rethinking their daily commute. “You have so many people for whom the price to fill up their gas tank has more than doubled in a very short amount of time — just as they’re being expected to go back to work and go back to doing all of the in-person things. It’s really kind of hitting people, just the incredible personal cost of this,” she said. Statistics Canada shows the average price of gas jumped 43 per cent in the last year. With Canadians dedicating almost 20 per cent of their spending to transportation in 2019, the costs of daily driving are set to keep rising. “It would be very disappointing to not encourage or reward employees who are making a healthier, more sustainable, climate-friendly choice,” Marginet said. “If you’re offering a privilege to people who drive, you should at least be offering something of equal value, or perhaps more value, if you want to look at getting your employees to shift their mode of travel.” julia-simone.rutgers(a)freepress.mb.ca

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Economic Study of 12 Active Transportation Projects in Oregon Finds Solid Returns on Investment
by Beth McKechnie 30 Jun '22

30 Jun '22

https://trec.pdx.edu/news/active-transportation-projects-offer-solid-return… Overall, the research team found positive effects on business activity in the retail and/or food sectors, demonstrating that the potential economic benefits are not just in more urban parts of the city of Portland: - 75% of the project locations saw measurable economic gains in the food or retail industries after implementation. - Layering complementary investments (e.g. light rail stations and transit oriented-development) has the potential to yield the greatest benefits. - The projects that did not see positive effects tended to have higher traffic volumes and/or speeds. Projects are more likely to reach their full potential when they reduce the effects of an auto-oriented environment and create places for walking that are also less stressful and more comfortable. "The findings reveal that these types of investments can have positive outcomes in places outside of downtown and inner Portland, particularly when coupled with other planning and infrastructure investments, but that we do need to address the negative effects of high speed, multi-lane arterials," Dill said.

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Winnipeg Manitoba City Rating Page | PeopleForBikes 2022 City Ratings
by Terry Zdan 30 Jun '22

30 Jun '22

https://cityratings.peopleforbikes.org/cities/winnipeg-mb

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