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We need more Wellington Crescent bike lanes
KELE SCHRECKENBACH
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/analysis/2025/12/30/we-need-more-w...
AT the beginning of November, the City of Winnipeg announced an initiative to add a temporary bike lane to Wellington Crescent. It will stretch across the entirety of the street, and will, of course, require modifications to how parking and driving work, as well as having the speed limit reduced to 40 km/h.
The plan, the city says, is to have these temporary measures in place until the funding can be found for a more permanent solution to be installed. This is a great step for the city to take, and installing this bike lane (and hopefully others like it in the future) will have major benefits for both the city and residents.
One of the most obvious benefits is safety. I imagine most people reading this are aware of Rob Jenner, the cyclist who died in a tragic collision with a reckless driver. By adding a protected bike lane (again, ideally not just here but on many other streets as well), we make it safer for cyclists and help to prevent more awful deaths like his from occurring. By reducing the speed limit, it’s also safer for drivers.
It’s just common sense: driving more slowly gives more time to react, reducing the chance of a collision. If a collision does occur, it’s at slower speeds, so it has less chance of being fatal.
Another benefit is for the residents along Wellington Crescent. It has been proven in other cities that when proper protected bike lanes are installed, more people are willing to cycle. For the residents, this means fewer car trips passing by their house, leading to a quieter street and a quieter life overall. Finally, there’s having the option to not have to drive.
No one is saying that the residents aren’t allowed to drive if they want to do so. However, if their car breaks down, or if a trip they need to take (like to the grocery store) is short enough that they don’t need to take the car, or they don’t want to use their car for some other reason, this gives them a different option they can use.
Let’s look more closely at a group that benefits from the bike lane, which might seem unintuitive to some people at first glance: drivers. They might look at this proposal and think this will worsen their experience, and I can totally see where they’re coming from. For example, losing a lane (or at least part of a lane) and getting the speed limit lowered might seem very inconvenient.
However, the complete opposite is true. By making life better for cyclists, the bike lane entices more people to cycle, leading to less cars on the road.
This leads to less time waiting at red lights for drivers, less chance of being blocked by someone needing to make a turn, and just generally more time spent getting where you need to go instead of idling.
The cyclists will also be in the bike lane, and not on the street, slowing down the cars behind them, as sometimes happens (to be clear, this is not blaming the cyclists in any way; often they simply don’t have a choice but to go on the road). In short, it leads to fewer impediments and more time spent driving for drivers.
On top of all that, there is of course the safety element mentioned earlier. Fewer cars on the road means fewer collisions and potential fatalities.
I would like to also address a few other concerns that people may have about the bike lane. A common one that comes up when building bike lanes: the loss of parking. People get worried that spots will be lost due to the bike lane. First and foremost, the city did already do some public consultation, so they will likely try to minimize the impact the best they can. But more importantly, as mentioned previously there will be fewer people driving.
Guess what that means? Less competition for parking spots.
Another common worry is that the bike lanes will be unusable in winter for a variety of reasons: it’s too cold, too slippery/icy, too unpleasant. While winter biking is not for everyone, that should not be a reason to not build the bike lane. With proper support from the city (properly plowing the lane comes to mind), bike lanes are more than feasible to use, even for people who might not want to use it in incredibly cold temperatures.
As stated, this is a great thing for Winnipeg to be doing. Other Canadian cities such as Edmonton, Vancouver and Montreal are already making great strides by adding bike lanes, and I would love a future where our city gets mentioned among the great cities of Canada, like the ones I’ve just mentioned. Let’s get this bike lane built and get started towards creating that future.
Kele Schreckenbach is a student at the University of Manitoba who has an interest in urban planning and city design.