Have your say on the Capital Region Transportation Master Plan!

Okay, it may not sound very exciting, but it could have a major impact on active transportation opportunities between and within communities surrounding Winnipeg. Please consider sharing with your networks and participating in the discussion.

Open House: Wed, Jan. 9th, from 4:30-7:30 pm, City Hall in the Mayor's Foyer (510 Main St)

Storyboards from the three open houses held to date can be found at: http://manitobacapitalregion.ca/_assets/downloads/story_boards.pdf

Can't make the Open House? Fill out the online survey instead:
http://surveymonkey.com/s/CRTMP

Note that a workshop was also held in December in West St. Paul, which included representatives from the Province, various municipalities in the Capital Region, and a number of organizations and associations (including Janice Lukes from the Winnipeg Trails Association, Anders Swanson and Shoni Litinsky for Green Action Centre's Active & Safe Routes to School Program, Mark Cohoe from Bike to the Future, and Jason Carter representing the Manitoba Cycling Association).

For consideration, here are the main points that I focused on during group discussion at our table at this workshop:

• Ensure variety of transportation options - don't assume that, due to distances, people will only drive and will always drive
  
• Make it feasible for residents to choose not to drive whether it's between communities or within their community
  
• Ensure multi-modal options (residents able to combine bike and bus, regional connections, etc)
• Need for regional transit strategy and collaboration between communities
  
• Concerns around changes to Perimeter for increased and faster speeds of freight goods movement (CentrePort) – barrier that cuts off communities and makes it that much more challenging for AT users
  
• Recognize the tourism opportunities in developing the plan – transit to Birds Hill Park and Grand Beach; cycle tourism in the area with popularity of cycling route to Lockport and to / within the provincial parks
  
• Potential role that a Regional Transportation Authority could play
  
• Potential tool - regional subscription to carpooling/ridematching service (e.g. RideShark, Pathway Intelligence, Carpool.ca)

cheers,
Beth