BRT at the cost of AT? Bike Winnipeg concerned about crossing plan changes

The city says they've found ways to save $120 million for the next phase of rapid transit, but it comes at the cost of active transportation plans for the design.

Winnipeg Transit director Dave Wardrop told council at a special meeting Tuesday that two tunnels for walkers and cyclists have been eliminated from the city’s plans to help reduce costs.

Bike Winnipeg’s executive director Mark Cohoe said he has “big concerns” with what losing those below-grade crossings means for the city’s fledgling cycle corridor.

“We’ll be watching to see how connectivity is impacted,” Cohoe said. “Without looking at the actual plans (expected in July) it’s hard to say if it’s at the cost of active transportation.”

The two crossings affected are at Jubilee Avenue and Plaza Drive at the Pembina Highway.

Cohoe said the Plaza Drive rail crossing being at-grade isn’t a big issue, but the Jubilee crossing is especially important to ensure safe passage into surrounding neighbourhoods.

He said the approved path alignment provides access to Beaumont, Daniel, Rockman and Panet neighbourhoods, as well as future developments.

“Those are important connections we want to see maintained,” Cohoe said.

The tunnel beneath the Jubilee off-ramp would have connected the path network to both sides of Pembina Highway while avoiding a potentially dangerous, high-speed lane of vehicle traffic which Cohoe “would hope does not now have to be crossed.”

“We want to make sure we’re not losing connections through the Pembina underpass for that North-South connectivity,” he said.

Coun. Janice Lukes, a long-time active-transportation advocate, said she’s confident the replacement crossings will be “suitable,” and that any paths crossing the transitway will be separated and protected.

“And the project itself is 30 to 40 per cent designed, so that means there’s still room for improvements and tweaks, right?” Lukes said.

Cohoe also finds it “a bit frustrating being out of the loop,” and how—despite attending an active-transportation stakeholder meeting with city officials Monday night—he’s learning about active-transportation changes during transit discussions in City Hall.

“It would have been more appropriate to meet and discuss what has been changed,” Cohoe said. “I’m not thrilled with how it’s come out.”

Moving forward, he said he’d like to see a way for the savings identified in the BRT project to be put towards active-transportation paths between the Oak Grove station and Grant Park Pavilion developments, to benefit users of multiple transportation modes and city development overall.

“The transitway would undoubtedly gain ridership and value from such a connection, as would retailers on the north side of the tracks,” he said.