Sharee Hochman wants Winnipeggers to choose active transportation over cars.
“Simply, the way our city is built is just not prioritizing people to get out of their cars to move in different ways,” said Hochman, a sustainable active transportation program co-ordinator with the Green Action Centre.
“(The city) is still focusing on providing more space, more money and more capacity to vehicles, rather than trying to provide safer and reliable options.”
On average, 200 cyclists are injured or killed on Manitoba roads each year, making cycling dangerous, especially when riders have to share the road with vehicles.
In the hope of reducing fatalities, Manitoba Public Insurance has expanded free cycling safety programs.
MPI expects to reach a whopping 50,000 Manitobans of all ages, said Kristy Rydz, manager of communication.
The Crown auto insurer estimates 13,000 children will be educated through its Cycle Safely Bike Rodeos — the widest reach in the program’s 50-year history.
Since 2015, the Bicycle Education & Skills Training in Schools program has had great success in educating middle school students about bike safety.
Every year, a fleet of bicycles travels from school to school to deliver hands-on safety training to middle schoolers in the Seven Oaks School Division, thanks to a partnership between MPI, Bike Winnipeg, WRENCH and Green Action Centre.
“Those instructors are providing cycling skills, information, things like road positioning, parts of the bike, signals, what to watch out for, where the hazards are, different things like that,” said Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg.
Despite the expansion of MPI programs, Winnipeg was given a failing grade of 32 out of 100 on bike safety by PeopleForBikes, which is based in Colorado.
To boost the city’s score, Hochman suggests installing additional protected bike lanes, offering bike parking and dedicating more municipal funding to infrastructure.
Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface) said that while progress has been made on the active transportation front over the past several years, more must be done.
As an avid cyclist himself, he said the main problem is the lack of connectivity between designated cycling routes.
“We know that a lot of people aren’t using their bicycles because they don’t feel safe on the streets,” Allard said Friday. “Until we have a complete network, there are a whole lot of people that won’t be using their bicycles to get around the city.”
Compared to past years, the City of Winnipeg has allocated more funding to active transportation, which includes walking, cycling and other forms of human-powered transportation. In the 2023 preliminary budget, it committed $17.6 million to active transportation projects, subject to council approval — an $8 million increase from 2022.
Winnipeg also has more protected bike lanes than it did five years ago. In 2021, the Wolseley-to-downtown bike lane was completed, equipping the neighbourhood with protected lanes on Westminister Avenue/Young Street/Balmoral Street between Maryland and Osborne streets.
This year, protected lanes will be installed on River and Stradbrook avenues, and Wellington Crescent.
Without proper infrastructure, cyclists are forced to ride with vehicular traffic, which turns off many would-be cyclists, Cohoe said.
“If you’re on a street with buses, with trucks, and a fair bit of traffic, that’s a thing that really discourages people,” he said. “It’s really a no-go situation for a lot of people.”
Recent municipal consultations suggest demand is high for protected bike lanes.
Seventy-seven per cent of St. Boniface residents consulted by the city were in favour of installing one-way lanes on Provencher Boulevard, a major thoroughfare in the neighbourhood.
Describing 2023 as the “worst year for traffic,” Allard believes drivers who dread rush-hour congestion would benefit from more robust cycling infrastructure.
“Usually, people riding bicycles on roads are riding at speeds that are less than people who are driving automobiles,” he said. “I would suggest that every time a new cycling facility is introduced, particularly separated facilities, that’s good for commuters.”
Hochman credits advocacy by active transportation groups for boosting awareness and a desire for safer conditions on the road. At the same time, she knows they can’t do it alone.
She wants civic government to be more responsive.
“A lot of this does need the support from the city to help make this a more safe, attractive and reliable option for a lot of people,” Hochman said. “There’s only so much that organizations can do. We do need the decision makers to support this shift.”