New bike lanes praised, questioned

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/metro/New-bike-lanes-prais...

The new, nearly-complete bike trail system running through West Broadway and Wolseley is garnering mixed reviews from cyclists.

The trail begins where Memorial Boulevard meets Granite Way just north of the Osborne Bridge. From there, it winds through the two neighbourhoods up to the intersection of Walnut Street and Westminster Avenue.

Though many were pleased the city is investing in bike infrastructure, some cyclists pointed out several points along the trail that can cause confusion or potentially dangerous situations with drivers and other riders.

Some believe more signage and painted lines will only do so much to solve the bike path's flaws.

One of the most contentious spots, according to cyclists who spoke with *The Metro*, is at Westminster Ave and Young Street in front of Balmoral Hall School. Here, the path splits from a bidirectional trail to two unidirectional routes.

To negotiate a turn onto the one-way westbound lane from the two-way path, cyclists must take a sharp turn and cross the roadway at a three-way traffic stop.

"It really breaks up the flow of your riding, because there is signage that says to turn right, but I guess they don’t have the directional signs on the ground yet," said cyclist Reynold Beniza.

Beniza, 30, is a digital marketing manager who lives in the Exchange District and has followed this route to work for the last year, in summer and winter. While Beniza is happy the city is focusing on active transportation, he doesn’t believe this stretch of road needs bike lanes.

"I would much rather see this sort of work done on, say, Portage Avenue or Main Street and getting more of these protective barriers on the really car-heavy roads," he said. "Or, even adding more active transportation routes from the North End."

At press time, there were directional markers painted on the east and westbound bidirectional lanes, but not in the intersection itself. A draft of the finished design can be found in the city’s Wolseley to Downtown Walk Bike Project plan.

Just to the northeast, another tight turn on the bidirectional path makes for some "pretty hairy situations," especially during morning and afternoon commutes, Beniza said.

Mark Campbell lives in the heart of Wolseley and uses the bike paths almost every day. Campbell said he really likes the paths and has found them useful, but the 33-year-old software developer has a gripe with the west end of the trail. At this junction, cyclists are forced to merge with vehicle traffic.

"The cars just speed up and there’s parking, so you’ll still fighting with cars, right." he said. "Turning across Westminster is extremely dangerous."

Campbell is a fan of the bi-directional path because it allows him to bike alongside his partner and daughters.

Michael Falk, a 42-year-old self-employed festival worker, lives in the West End. Falk uses the new bike paths three to four times per week.

"I’m super-glad to have a bike path, but there’s little decisions here and there that feel like they’re weird budget decisions resulting in little peculiar moments," he said.

While Falk knows there’s more signage on the way, he said the stretch where the path splits into two is "a bit clunky" regardless. The slow introduction of signs and painted lines has left Falk perplexed.

"When they build a road, signs go up right away. You don’t just have six lanes of road going with no signs," he said.

Looking beyond their neighbourhoods, Campbell and Falk are in step with Beniza’s sentiment that there needs to be more bike routes connecting downtown with the North End.

Campbell and Falk also noted that there’s room for the city to improve on existing bike paths by closing the gaps. Both pointed to the fractured bike lane on Sherbrook Street just north and south of Portage Avenue.