Winnipeg Roads & Infrastructure

[esquire]

^ That would make good sense. It would also provide people going to and from the North End by bike with an alternative that doesn't involve fighting traffic through a narrow underpass or bridge.

[1ajs]

the city has let it rot rather then maintain it

[GarryEllice]

Originally Posted by biguc

I'm going to be a maverick voice of urbanism here and suggest that we keep the Arlington bridge, just not for cars.

Totally agree. It could be our own High Line! (sort of)

[vjose32]

You must live in the south end and not care about traffic here. Closing Arlington bridge to traffic would make traffic on Salter and McPhillips and other streets 10 times worse than it already is!

Not to mention it would be a nightmare for emergency vehicles in the area, especially if trying to rush someone to HSC!

[biguc]

^Again, as a maverick voice of urbanism your complaint misses the point: we should be making a better city and vehicular traffic isn't part of the recipe. But, acknowledging the reality that this is dumpy-town North America and not somewhere that does things that make sense, I'll point out that McPhillips is a traffic shit-show and we could stand to widen it anyway. Preferably with bus only lanes so those wise enough to use transit can skip the queue. Moreover, making the Arlington bridge a piece of cycling infrastructure would encourage more cycling; Arlington also has space to give over to cyclists thanks to its awkward width.

As for emergency vehicles, I've never seen a city that uses its emergency response system as inefficiently as Winnipeg, either in North America or abroad. Only in Winnipeg do you hear a dozen emergency vehicles with sirens howling converging from all directions on a cat stuck in a tree. I don't know how other cities do it, but you see far fewer emergency vehicles scrambling everywhere in every other place. I get the feeling Winnipeg's system--like everything here--is a hangover from when this place was a lot smaller. Until they fix the bald stupidity of the current system, I'll brook no arguments based on emergency vehicle access being incongruent with a nice city--especially when that argument is used to fleece the public every winter over bullshit snow routes.

Originally Posted by GarryEllice

Totally agree. It could be our own High Line! (sort of)

Exactly. Initially, closing the bridge to cars and doing a quick conversion for cyclists and pedestrians would cost almost nothing. But I'd love to see it become a High Line style park over following years. It would be a tremendous asset for redeveloping the rail yard whenever that happens.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by vjose32

Now that I think of it, it seems that many of these streets seem to bottleneck at Logan, at least in the afternoon.

You do realize that the reason it seems like Logan is the issue is that it runs parallel to the CP main line and traffic has limited points it can cross, right?

[bomberjet]

On the Louise bridge, I will 100% agree that widening would increase traffic. I avoid using it during the rushes due to the traffic backlog.

The City plans on making Stadacona a 4 lane road extending from Louise bridge to connect with gateway at Munroe. Extend that to Concordia (as the eastern study will determine), in conjunction with twining Concordia down to the Hospital. Many people will use that road to get into downtown. Instead of going up to Henderson or using Archibald/Provencher.

[dennis]

So is a bridge connecting nairn with Higgins out of the question?

[bomberjet]

No, not at all. To go further, the existing Nairn overpass would likely be bypassed if they actually put Higgins across to Archibald. Crazy concepts out there.

And that's what I was a bit confused about. Seems like long term there may be both. Eastern study will figure this all out I guess. There is potential to demo the entire Point Douglas area south of the CP tracks and extend Waterfront Dr all the way down. Re-build Higgins a bit north.

[biguc]

I'd feel bad about some of the residences around there going but the old asphalt factory/junk yard can't go soon enough. The guy who owns it and makes baby bars of soap for hotels is a huge asshole.

[LilZebra]

Originally Posted by biguc

As for emergency vehicles, I've never seen a city that uses its emergency response system as inefficiently as Winnipeg, either in North America or abroad. Only in Winnipeg do you hear a dozen emergency vehicles with sirens howling converging from all directions on a cat stuck in a tree. I don't know how other cities do it, but you see far fewer emergency vehicles scrambling everywhere in every other place. I get the feeling Winnipeg's system--like everything here--is a hangover from when this place was a lot smaller. Until they fix the bald stupidity of the current system, I'll brook no arguments based on emergency vehicle access being incongruent with a nice city--especially when that argument is used to fleece the public every winter over bullshit snow routes.

It's called the Paramedic model. If you've ever watched the 1960s-1970s tv series 'Emergency' this is what Winnipeg has now.

It really does waste a lot of energy - people & vehicle resources when you have someone with a relatively minor incident with a whole cavalcade of emergency vehicles show up.

I had an emergency situation back in April and in total - Police, Fire and Ambulance attendants - 10 total were in my smallish living room.

As an Aspie that was overwhelming to me.

Winnipeg purchased more emergency vehicles in 2010 and so there's more sirens whaling now than ever before.

One of the reasons I got OUT of downtown was because of this, and the problem seems to have followed me to St. Vital.

[biguc]

Interesting insight. Do you know what other models exist and why Winnipeg clings to such a wasteful and archaic model?

[jmt18325]

Doesn't Winnipeg have some of the best response times in the country?

[Urban recluse]

Originally Posted by LilZebra

I don't deny that Disraeli is a vital link into East and North Kildonan, just as I don't deny that the Louise is a vital link into Elmwood and Transcona.

I never took the Louise Bridge to get to Transcona (vice versa); I always found Provencher quicker.

[Biff]

Originally Posted by jmt18325

Doesn't Winnipeg have some of the best response times in the country?

4 Minutes

[bomberjet]

Louise Bridge is my main route to/from downtown. All depends on where you're coming from and going to. For me, it's the quickest route. Tranist routes to/from Elmwood/EK/Transcona use Lousie bridge quite extensively, almost exclusively from Transcona, to get downtown. Of course the new transitway route will handle a lot of that traffic.

[CoryB]

Originally Posted by LilZebra

It's called the Paramedic model.

...

I had an emergency situation back in April and in total - Police, Fire and Ambulance attendants - 10 total were in my smallish living room.

Winnipeg does not recklessly over dispatch. The first call goes out is essentially "any available paramedic" with is normally a fire truck dispatch. The second call would then be for a medical transport, if required, aka ambulance. Depending on the specifics of the situation they may also call in police however if you say have a heart attack in your home police don't get called. However if the paramedic assessment is you were say stabbed, police are going to be called in as a crime occurred.

My understanding is when the dispatch calls go out they get assigned to a specific unit, not everyone come racing to the call and then a second dispatch goes out saying someone has arrived.

The bigger challenge with the system here is the hand-off from police or paramedics to the receiving facility, whether it is a hospital, a holding cell or a drunk tank can be extremely lengthy and pull units completely out of service for hours at a time. This pushes the need for additional available units up.

[rrskylar]

Originally Posted by LilZebra

It's called the Paramedic model. If you've ever watched the 1960s-1970s tv series 'Emergency' this is what Winnipeg has now.

It really does waste a lot of energy - people & vehicle resources when you have someone with a relatively minor incident with a whole cavalcade of emergency vehicles show up.

I had an emergency situation back in April and in total - Police, Fire and Ambulance attendants - 10 total were in my smallish living room.

As an Aspie that was overwhelming to me.

Winnipeg purchased more emergency vehicles in 2010 and so there's more sirens whaling now than ever before.

One of the reasons I got OUT of downtown was because of this, and the problem seems to have followed me to St. Vital.

Having a fire truck with 4-5 fireman show up at every emergency call while usually only one is trained as a paramedic has more to do with the WFPS union than anything else. Having firefighters sitting in the fire halls idly shift after shift makes some of them expendable, by inflating the numbers by sending a whole squad out to even minor medical calls to pad the numbers it's harder to downsize the WFPS service as it should be!

[bomberjet]

Oh, unions causing problems again, you don't say.

[jmt18325]

The thing about fire fighters is, when you need a lot of them, you have to have a lot of them.