Priorities for Cycling Infrastructure
Bike Winnipeg sent a letter to Mayor and Council this week recommending priorities for cycling infrastructure in the upcoming budget:
Based on our experience riding on Winnipeg streets, and talking to many of the people who ride with us, we believe that the City will get the best return on investment by concentrating initial cycling infrastructure investments in:
- Creating a network of high-quality protected bike lanes downtown,
- Establishing bicycle arterials along key corridors to provide complete routes as far out to the suburbs as possible, and
- Fixing gaps in existing routes that connect major destinations.
These priorities are identified with relatively moderate capital costs in the Pedestrian and Cycling strategy. They would serve many commuting / business / shopping / entertainment needs of a large number of people who live in the denser neighbourhoods of the city, and would improve the efficient flow of people during peak traffic periods.
As a secondary priority, we recommend that the City invest in:
- Neighbourhood greenways that provide access to the proposed spine network as well as links within and between suburban communities
- Key corridor studies required for development of the network
- Engage in neighbourhood based community public consultation to carry out all recommended projects.
The full letter, listing specific projects, is posted here.
Councillor Ross Eadie has kindly pointed out that the gap in the North Winnipeg Parkway between St. John’s Park and Aberdeen (beneath the Harry Lazarenko Bridge) and through to Rover still needs to be completed, and we agree that this does need to be a priority and thank him for pointing out our omission.
The photo on your web page shows a “bicycle box” painted on the curb lane just before the intersection. I would like to see this used at busy intersection in Winnipeg. Sometimes cyclists cannot or just doesn’t feel comfortable crossing multiple lanes to make a left turn. Having a bicycle box would give them the option of a safer way to make a 2-step or “pedestrian” left turn without being crowded into the curb.
We’ll be working with the city to identify a number of locations where bike boxes can be debuted in Winnipeg. The city wants to have more than one installed, either along a corridor or into a given neighbourhood so that people will have a bit more exposure to them than if there were just a single bike box installed in one location. We’d also like to look at having some two stage turn queue boxes installed (for the two step “pedestrian turn you were talking about). Sherbrook would seem like a good location to test these. Ideally, we’d really like to see the city move towards fully protected intersections. Rosyln Road at Osborne would seem like a good location for a bike box. We’re hopeful we might see some protected intersection designs coming out of the downtown bike lanes study, which should have something to report back to the public soon.