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A wake-up call the city shouldn’t need

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/2024/06/11/a-wake-up-ca...

THE death of a cyclist struck by a speeding vehicle in Winnipeg last week is a stark reminder of the need to reduce speed limits on residential roads and to significantly expand protected bike lanes.

A 61-year-old man was cycling eastbound on Wellington Crescent near Cockburn Street North at 7 a.m. Thursday and was hit by a motorist police say was driving erratically.

About 100 cyclists staged a protest at the location Friday to demand greater bike safety on city streets. Many of them said vehicles often speed on that stretch of Wellington. They want the city to build more protected bike lanes, not only on Wellington but throughout Winnipeg, to better separate cyclists from motor vehicles.

Some of those at the protest also demanded the city lower speed limits on residential roads to reduce the chances of collisions between motor vehicles and cyclists.

It should not take a tragic incident like last week’s to effect change. But all too often, that is what is required to motivate politicians to do the right thing.

To be fair, city hall has made progress expanding the network of protected bike lanes in Winnipeg, including in the downtown area. There are now more active transportation routes than ever. Many are well used. The edict “build it and they will come” aptly applies to the city’s small but growing network of protected bike routes.

But it’s not enough. Cyclists in Winnipeg are routinely forced to switch from protected bike lanes to busy roadways to reach their destinations. They must often compete with fast-moving motor vehicles whose drivers do not always respect or make accommodation for cyclists.

Riding a bike on busy roadways can be hazardous. It not only discourages many people from cycling, it can end in tragedy, as we saw last week.

City hall can and must do better. City politicians should make active transportation a higher priority. Right now, motor vehicles are still the highest priority for city hall when it comes to transportation budgeting, whether it’s street repairs, snow clearing or the widening of roadways. The car is still king in Winnipeg.

That mentality has to change. City hall needs to find a better balance between single occupancy motor vehicle use and active transportation when drafting budgets. There needs to be a shift in resources from the former to the latter.

Does the city, for example, really need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to widen Kenaston Boulevard (the latest cost projection is now over half a billion dollars for that project), or would those resources be better spent on active transportation and transit improvements?

These are big picture issues city hall should re-evaluate. The resources are there to improve active transportation and to make cycling and pedestrian traffic a greater priority. But it has to come at the expense of motor vehicle use. That would require a paradigm shift at city hall, something that is long overdue.

Tragedies like last week’s cannot be eliminated altogether. There will always be a risk of collision between cyclists and motor vehicles, no matter how many protected bike lanes are constructed. But those risks can be mitigated by lowering speed limits and separating cyclists as much as possible from motor vehicle traffic.

Last week’s fatal collision should be a wake-up call for city hall. It’s time for Winnipeg to take the next step on active transportation by making it a much higher priority.