Winnipeg | Everything Bicycles

[Peggerino]

Nice. Adding a protected bike lane to Osborne would improve the street and area so much.
It's kind of weird how Main wouldn't connect with Portage though.

[esquire]

Nice. Looking at it as a St. Vital resident I like the fact that the St. Mary's Rd corridor would go deep into the neighbourhood, but I don't like the fact that it doesn't connect with Osborne. Maybe include Fermor to make the connection? Also it would be nice to see the St. Mary's corridor get pushed north at least to Portage if not all the way up to connect with the Main corridor.

Also, while I realize it has the AT path along the BRT line, SW Winnipeg is entirely excluded... the Pembina corridor is so weak that it should probably be rebuilt according to the newer standards that will be applied to the routes shown above.

I'm sure everyone can probably spot a few weaknesses in their part of town.

[zalf]

Originally Posted by Peggerino

It's kind of weird how Main wouldn't connect with Portage though.

That may be reflecting the existing, if incomplete, collection of lanes through the Exchange

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by esquire

Also, while I realize it has the AT path along the BRT line, SW Winnipeg is entirely excluded... the Pembina corridor is so weak that it should probably be rebuilt according to the newer standards that will be applied to the routes shown above.

I'm sure everyone can probably spot a few weaknesses in their part of town.

Honestly as a resident in SW Winnipeg I don't mind that we don't have too much infrastructure improvements because I'd argue it has the most "complete" bike network.

However, it doesn't have all the future bike lanes on this proposal. I contacted Janice Lukes a few months ago and she confirmed there is a plan to extend Waverley AT path Southbound to connect with the Bison Drive AT path, and to extend it down to Kirkbridge to connect with South Pointe as the new Waverley West community is being built.

[michelleb]

There are plans to upgrade Pembina to actual protected bike lanes between De Vos Road and Crescent Drive.

https://clkapps.winnipeg.ca/DMIS/ViewDoc.asp?DocId=21355&SectionId=622585&InitUrl=

[esquire]

^ Great news. That would actually get me to start cycling on Pembina.

[zalf]

Here's an interesting video on Ottawa's efforts to make intersections less of a meat grinder for cyclists and pedestrians.

• Video Link

I'm not aware of any similarly protected intersections here, but hopefully we can learn from Ottawa's iterative development get to implementing them here.

[CoryB]

The Ottawa video shows how most of the work Winnipeg has been doing on cycling lanes is poorly thought out and basically going to need to be heavily scrapped to get a proper build.

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by CoryB

The Ottawa video shows how most of the work Winnipeg has been doing on cycling lanes is poorly thought out and basically going to need to be heavily scrapped to get a proper build.

Eh that’s debatable. The routes in the Exchange, Garry St, and West Broadway are good protected bike infrastructure. The Southwest Transitway is a world-class route and has good connectivity, and most of our new infrastructure in arterials such as Bishop, Lag, and Waverley are very good. Pembina is one stretch that needs to be completely redone tho.

Once we connect those routes by filling in the existing gaps and complete the proposed expansion it will be a pretty good bike network.

[WildCake]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

Eh that’s debatable. The routes in the Exchange, Garry St, and West Broadway are good protected bike infrastructure. The Southwest Transitway is a world-class route and has good connectivity, and most of our new infrastructure in arterials such as Bishop, Lag, and Waverley are very good. Pembina is one stretch that needs to be completely redone tho.

Once we connect those routes by filling in the existing gaps and complete the proposed expansion it will be a pretty good bike network.

To add to this and the above comments, the gap on Pembina between chevrier and mcgillivray will be addressed when they rehab that over the next two summers (NB 2022 and SB 2023). Still needs mcgillivray to jubilee and the bishop overpass but then that takes care of setting the bike route. Improving it would also be nice.

[michelleb]

The current plans for Pembina still call for those P.O.S. painted lanes. Just mind-boggling at this point.

Will there be any improvements to cycling facilities?

On-street buffered bike lanes will be added to both northbound and southbound Pembina Highway between McGillivray Boulevard and Chevrier Boulevard. These will form a natural extension of the existing bike lanes south of Chevrier Boulevard. Additionally, the existing bike facility on the east side of Dunkirk Drive will be improved as part of this project.

What will the new bike lanes look like? Are they taking away a lane of traffic?

The bike lanes will look similar to the existing bike lanes on Pembina Highway south of Chevrier Boulevard. There will still be six traffic lanes. This is accomplished by narrowing the median between the northbound and southbound lanes and shifting the traffic lanes towards the centre of the road.

Gawd forbid we build a proper boulevard with space reserved for a tram down the middle, nope, gotta keep ramming six lanes of highway thru neighbourhoods like it's 1960.

[sleepyeyed]

the detailed plans for the Osborne Village bike infrastructure here.. notably there is still no north/south infrastructure aside from the path along the RT.

https://winnipeg.ca/finance/findata/matmgt/documents/2021/796-2021/796-2021_Appendix_C.pdf

the only streets that are actually getting infrastructure are River and Stradbrook. incredibly disappointing when Wardlaw, Scott, and Gertrude were all considered... starts on page 84

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by sleepyeyed

the only streets that are actually getting infrastructure are River and Stradbrook. incredibly disappointing when Wardlaw, Scott, and Gertrude were all considered... starts on page 84

They probably only had the budget for two of those. Frankly, River and Stradbrook is the best choice if I were to decide. It's much bigger roads, the buildings are much denser, has more connections to other arterials, and has much more traffic.

[bomberjet]

Scott St is proposed to be a neighbourhood greenway, for a N-S route.

What is the definition of a neighbourhood greenway? From my experience, nothing. It means nothing.

[zalf]

Originally Posted by bomberjet

What is the definition of a neighbourhood greenway? From my experience, nothing. It means nothing.

Here's the definition the city was using in some of their engagement docs:

Greenways are on-street routes designed to serve cyclists and pedestrians safely alongside motor vehicles. They typically include a range of treatments to achieve lower vehicle speeds and volumes ranging from signage, bike signals, and pavement markings to varying degrees of traffic calming.

So yeah, a definition that ranges from "nothing" to "traffic-calmed streets". Warsaw is a greenway, and has a number of traffic circles to reduce car traffic.

[bomberjet]

I've cycled on a couple of the greenways. And it's just a street. It's more of a cycling route than anything.

[zalf]

Originally Posted by anthonyk

In other news, a tender is out for "LAGIMODIERE BLVD. TWIN OVERPASSES - PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING SERVICES"

Looks like they want to rehab the ramps and approaches on the overpass, and add in a grade separated AT corridor from Callsbeck to Ravelston Ave W

From the Roads thread, but relevant here due to the AT paths

[3de14eec6a]

I like this. I'm the type of cyclist that is totally okay taking Concordia. But having a less main route would be great for people less confident (crazy?) than I am.

[rrskylar]

Hey let’s all pretend that Winnipeg’s climate is conducive to year round cycling and let’s spend on cycling infrastructure 1000 times more than the actual percentage of people who cycle warrant it!

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Hey let’s all pretend that Winnipeg’s climate is conducive to year round cycling and let’s spend on cycling infrastructure 1000 times more than the actual percentage of people who cycle warrant it!

1) People do winter cycling despite our poor infrastructure and clearing to do so. If there was more connectivity and better snow clearing you would see more winter-cyclist.

2) Even if you don’t want to cycle in the extreme temps there are still 8-9 months in the year where the weather is warm enough to cycle comfortably with a jacket. I’ve already cycled numerous times since March when the weather got warmer and it was a very pleasurable experience.

3) EVERY single public engagement meeting that I’ve attended and survey results for road rehabilitation/renewals the majority of participants usually want protected bike lanes because it’s safer for all modes of transportation, takes cars off the road reducing traffic, and is much more sustainable then taking your automobile everywhere. Not to mention it’s much cheaper to build then renewing/rehabbing existing car infrastructure. Curb protected bike lanes cost a measly $100k/km. Please explain to me why investing in car-centric design is better?

4) Driving is not horrible, but we don’t have to be completely at the mercy of our cars because of poor planning decisions like not riding a bike. Walking and cycling is also physical activity which is important when about 50% of this city is overweight and needs more exercise. Why not just do your physical activity when running errands or commuting?

5) Do you know what induced demand is? If you don’t I’ll gladly explain. Essentially the more infrastructure you have for a certain type of transportation, the more people will use it out of pure convenience. That’s why when you see freeways constructed or a road widened it always worsens traffic about a year after being built. Simply because there is more of that infrastructure more people will use it. That also applies to other forms of transportation such as cycling and bussing. If you build more bike lanes to places people want to go more people will use that bike lane accordingly.

Sorry you’re thinly-veiled attempt to discredit cycling progress in the city proves a detachment of reality from public perception and what the city is actually doing. Our infrastructure is crumbling because we can’t pay for our existing car-centric design, and 50% of our emissions comes from transportation (32% comes from residential automobiles). There’s no justification to be against bike lanes from a economical, climate change, and physical health perspective.