Winnipeg's city councillors should get mobile, get on a bike and tool around a bit. Maybe cycle to work on any given day. They might have an epiphany of sorts -- and then get on with the job of turning Winnipeg into a city that welcomes cyclists -- instead of falling prey to urban myths about bike lanes endangering downtown businesses.
What else besides simple ignorance could explain Mayor Brian Bowman's decision this week to delay the vote on adopting Winnipeg's pedestrian and cycling strategy? The strategy is a long-identified pillar in the city's active transportation plan. There were numerous community consultations, one last year at the Manitoba Hydro headquarters on Portage Avenue, where the public and interested parties -- downtown businesses -- were asked to feed into the city's vision.
Now Coun. Russ Wyatt says downtown businesses were blindsided, caught entirely without consultation. His target is the matrix of protected bicycle lanes proposed for downtown. It will steal precious parking spots, he believes.
First of all, cycling lanes and on-street parking are not mutually exclusive. Sherbrook Street's protected bike lane is just one example how the two can coexist.
Second, downtown Winnipeg doesn't have a parking problem -- a truism often cited as a symptom of downtown's real challenge, which is to attract people to its streets and shops outside of standard work hours. This city has an embarrassingly excess amount of surface parking, with rates so cheap they are the envy of motorists in other major Canadian cities.
The proposed protected bike lanes are the priority of the pedestrian and cycling strategy made public this week. The planning document is written to launch more formal consultation and then design of a future pedestrian/cycling network. Rough estimates are it would cost $330 million to build the active transportation projects over the next two decades. But for a couple of million dollars to be spent this year, none of that cash has been found or approved.
This plan, though, does give hope that Winnipeg may finally evolve from its car culture to one with streets, bridges and major corridors designed for people.
Winnipeg's pedestrian and cycling strategy document shows what can be done. It also shows there's a lot of work ahead. Some of the proposed routes mysteriously end mid-street, starting up again a couple of kilometres on. Most of the strategy favours bike lanes that share the road, a drawback especially in winter. There's talk in the report of some 16 new river or rail crossings for cyclists and pedestrians. Major routes, such as Main, Portage and Pembina, will continue to be big obstacles for cyclists, with a possibility of future study on them.
Right now, Winnipeg says it has more than 300 kilometres of cycling and bike/pedestrian routes. Most of this is in trails and paths and in narrow, painted curb lanes for cyclists, where they still must compete for space on busy streets.
By comparison, Minneapolis, regarded as the best city in North America for cyclists, has about 200 kilometres of on-street protected bike lanes alone, and 150 kilometres of trails. Another 80 kilometres are to be added by 2020. People move to Minneapolis specifically because it makes cycling an infrastructure priority. The cycling routes are regarded as a boon to businesses and merchants.
Downtown business should embrace this strategy. The payback of ceding ground to bicycles goes beyond the dividends to cyclists and health budgets. Cycling routes encourage people to get out, explore and enjoy their cities. That's something Winnipeg needs, and the downtown could desperately use.
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition May 16, 2015 A14