Everything Bicycles | Winnipeg

[robertocarlos]

Be more like a Denmark.

[buzzg]

The Memorial Blvd bicycle lanes are the most absurd things I’ve ever seen. Only 2 blocks, yet both blocks are different styles. No signage other than the signals (again, not sure how the average person is supposed to know asphalt = bike lane). Takes you from nowhere to nowhere. Going north it leads you directly into a bumpout at St. Mary. The whole thing is ridiculous. I know it’s province and not city but they should have just put the effort into doing it on Osborne, and/or connected it to Assiniboine through Leg grounds, properly connected into St. Mary/York, and at least up to Ellice there’s so much space.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by buzzg

The Memorial Blvd bicycle lanes are the most absurd things I’ve ever seen. Only 2 blocks, yet both blocks are different styles. No signage other than the signals (again, not sure how the average person is supposed to know asphalt = bike lane). Takes you from nowhere to nowhere. Going north it leads you directly into a bumpout at St. Mary. The whole thing is ridiculous. I know it’s province and not city but they should have just put the effort into doing it on Osborne, and/or connected it to Assiniboine through Leg grounds, properly connected into St. Mary/York, and at least up to Ellice there’s so much space.

Yup let’s keep kowtowing to the vocal minuscule minority of bike advocates who seem to have way more clout than they should with Lukes being the main proponent with an obvious bias. The 6% that cycle and the .006% that cycle commute along with the .0006% who cycle year round get about 9000% of their share of city infrastructure money!

[joshlemer]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

the .006% that cycle commute ... get about 9000% of their share of city infrastructure money!

The cycle commuting mode share is about 500 times greater than that at about 1.8 percent or so city-wide and with most of the inner suburban areas (within the inner ring roads) up around 3-8%, you can look at that here: https://censusmapper.ca/maps/972#13/49.8711/-97.1507

[EdwardTH]

^^ I'm 98% his wife left him for a cyclist or something, he's unhinged and has an unhealthy obsession with it. FWIW if you want to weed out the 'old man yelling at cloud' stuff and just see posts from people who are mentally stable, you can block users and not see their posts.

[borkborkbork]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Yup let’s keep kowtowing to the vocal minuscule minority of bike advocates who seem to have way more clout than they should with Lukes being the main proponent with an obvious bias. The 6% that cycle and the .006% that cycle commute along with the .0006% who cycle year round get about 9000% of their share of city infrastructure money!

Yes, as a non-driver, I'm definitely getting more than my fair share of infrastructure spending

[Authentic_City]

These kinds of arguments against bike lanes are, of course, ridiculous. Only 4.7% of Winnipeggers commute to work by walking, but yet sidewalks are everywhere in this city, and nobody is calling to scrap construction of sidewalks. Any argument against separate and safe cycling infrastructure that relies on these kinds of use statistics is fatally flawed. As a side comment, there are may cheaper options to construct bike lanes/paths. I'm not sure why this city has chosen some costly and ineffective methods, but that doesn't negate the sound rationale for having safe cycling infrastructure. Certainly, streets like Portage Ave that are generously wide and with 3x the normal width sidewalks could easily and cheaply incorporate a stared walking/biking path at very low cost. The city just needs a bit of imagination and vision for these things.

[bomberjet]

But you're going to slow down my car!!!! (not actually me, the hyperbolic me).

[trueviking]

It always makes me laugh when I hear people complain about all this money going into bike lanes. Seriously. There’s what, a few thousands streets in Winnipeg? Name ten with a bike lane. Where are all these bike lanes that enrage so many people? Where is all this money that the evil ‘bike lobby’ is squeezing out of the city being spent? It’s so bizarre.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by trueviking

It always makes me laugh when I hear people complain about all this money going into bike lanes. Seriously. There’s what, a few thousands streets in Winnipeg? Name ten with a bike lane. Where are all these bike lanes that enrage so many people? Where is all this money that the evil ‘bike lobby’ is squeezing out of the city being spent? It’s so bizarre.

No one is stopping any cyclist from using any of the existing roadways!

I’m all in favour of more AT pathways for use by all, dedicated bike lanes make little sense with our climate! Lots of people use AT pathways very few use the so-called dedicated bike lanes, be honest!

[trueviking]

cyclists almost exclusively use existing roadways because we have next to no bike lanes. The two bike lanes I use every day are very busy. I get why people who live in the suburbs believe nobody uses a bike as transportation. Few in those neighbourhoods do. But in mature and central neighbourhoods, cycling is an important mode of transportation. Wolseley as an example has one of the highest levels of bike commuting in Canada at 15%.

[trueviking]

The idea that Winnipeg has slightly colder winters than other Canadian cities so we shouldnt have safe places for people to ride a bike makes no sense. Just because we don’t do something for part of the year doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be safe when we do.

It’s like saying we shouldn’t have life guards at the beach because 10 months a year nobody goes swimming. Or maybe we shouldn’t design our highways for icy conditions because most of the time there’s no ice.

We spend lots of money on things that are not as well used in some seasons. If that was the criteria we would have no hockey arenas, golf course, swimming pools, campgrounds, parks. We certainly wouldn’t have a football stadium used 100 hours a year.

[buzzg]

Originally Posted by trueviking

the idea that winnipeg has slightly colder winters than other canadian cities so we shouldnt have safe places for people to ride a bike makes no sense. Just because we don’t do something for part of the year doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be safe when we do.

It’s like saying we shouldn’t have life guards at the beach because 10 months a year nobody goes swimming. Or maybe we shouldn’t design our highways for icy conditions because most of the time there’s no ice.

We spend lots of money on things that are not as well used in some seasons. If that was the criteria we would have no hockey arenas, golf course, swimming pools, campgrounds, parks. We certainly wouldn’t have a football stadium used 100 hours a year.

say it again!

[CoryB]

Bike lanes, pedestrians, transit, commercial vehicles, ride sharing, car pools, private passenger vehicles.

I keep saying it time and time again, it is long past time Winnipeg stops looking at one of these seven modes, and there are likely more, in isolation on a block by block basis. That is largely how we got into this mess and the few bikes lanes that have been added show what a mess you can make of things looking at in block by block. Assinboine Ave is a prime example or look at the signage the bike lane added to McDermot.

This isn't "anti-bike" both rather "pro-transportation planning". Until a transportation plan that covers all the different flows and modes Winnipeg needs to put a full freeze on spending, not just on bike lanes or rapid transit or new roads but everything

[buzzg]

I totally agree with that. The area around The Forks, Portage and Main, and Graham is a perfect example. The city needs to figure out what they hell they're going to do with transit and RT, then figure out how all modes best interact on the east side of downtown. It's a mess right now and that area is going to get a whole lot busier over the next 5-10 years as it develops out more residential.

[trueviking]

I totally understand why someone who lives in North Kildonan, Whyte Ridge or Linden Woods would think bike lanes are a waste of money. Those neighbourhoods have a 0.5% bike mode share. If that's what you see, of course you think infrastructure for that is dumb.

But if you look at neighbourhoods like Earl Grey, Osborne, River Heights, Wolseley, West Broadway, West End, the mode share ranges from 6-13%. Up to 26 times higher than in North Kildonan.

If those are the areas that you spend your life in, you think bike infrastrcuture is important because its what you see. I would challenge anyone from the far suburbs to stand at the intersection of Osborne and Granite, where the bike crossing is any time of day for an hour. It is a constant stream of cyclists in every direction. I am there a few times a day and am always surrounded by others. I take it for granted by now, but if came from another area you'd be amazed.

The irony is we build all kinds of beautiful off street bike and walk paths in the suburbs where there's lots of room but no users. But where we need them, on the streets of the mature neighbourhoods, connected to destinations, we dont build them, becasue the people who drive in from those far areas demand room for their cars...its kind of like the Portage and Main thing again. The needs of the people who live in the central areas get dictated by those from outside, becasue they want to be able to drive through as quickly as possible.

[trueviking]

the piecemeal development is more than annoying. I agree.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by trueviking

I totally understand why someone who lives in North Kildonan, Whyte Ridge or Linden Woods would think bike lanes are a waste of money. Those neighbourhoods have a 0.5% bike mode share. If that's what you see, of course you think infrastructure for that is dumb.

But if you look at neighbourhoods like Earl Grey, Osborne, River Heights, Wolseley, West Broadway, West End, the mode share ranges from 6-13%. Up to 26 times higher than in North Kildonan.

If those are the areas that you spend your life in, you think bike infrastrcuture is important because its what you see. I would challenge anyone from the far suburbs to stand at the intersection of Osborne and Granite, where the bike crossing is any time of day for an hour. It is a constant stream of cyclists in every direction. I am there a few times a day and am always surrounded by others. I take it for granted by now, but if came from another area you'd be amazed.

The irony is we build all kinds of beautiful off street bike and walk paths in the suburbs where there's lots of room but no users. But where we need them, on the streets of the mature neighbourhoods, connected to destinations, we dont build them, becasue the people who drive in from those far areas demand room for their cars...its kind of like the Portage and Main thing again. The needs of the people who live in the central areas get dictated by those from outside, becasue they want to be able to drive through as quickly as possible.

More irony that Wolseley has the highest bike use by residents of anywhere in the city and even without dedicated bike lanes, guess people living there were smart and reasonable enough to bike on the existing roadways, who would have thought eh!?!

[TimeFadesAway]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

More irony that Wolseley has the highest bike use by residents of anywhere in the city and even without dedicated bike lanes, guess people living there were smart and reasonable enough to bike on the existing roadways, who would have thought eh!?!

By that logic we shouldn't pave any heavily used gravel roads either because people are smart and reasonable enough to drive on the gravel roads, so why go to the extra expense.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by TimeFadesAway

By that logic we shouldn't pave any heavily used gravel roads either because people are smart and reasonable enough to drive on the gravel roads, so why go to the extra expense.

And yet 99.9% of the population and only .01% use dedicated bike lanes, maybe tax dollars should be allocated based on those percentages, right now the bike lobby has the city spending way more than necessary based on the minuscule % who cycle commute!

I ride a lot and have no trouble navigating the current roadways, buddy cycled to work for 30 years downtown and said it was lunacy with what they are doing now hacking bike lanes into narrow roadways! The cycle lanes have all but killed the exchange but let’s pretend they haven’t and carry on!