Our City, Our Podcast

Narrator: 00:02

We know our services and programs impact you, so let's talk about them. Together, we'll learn from the people behind the scenes and get to know our city a little better. From the city of Winnipeg, this is Our City, Our Podcast.

Natalie: 00:14

This podcast is recorded in Treaty 1 territory, the home and traditional lands of the Anishinaabe, Ininew, and Dakota peoples, and the national homeland of the Red River Metis. We acknowledge that our drinking water comes from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation in Treaty 3 territory.

Natalie: 00:30

Hi. I'm Natalie.

Shannay: 00:31

And I'm Shannay.

Natalie: 00:32

Well, today's episode is a bit of a a one that we've been looking forward to for a while. We're following up with some emails we got from from Timothy N and Emma D, who were hoping to hear a little more about active transportation in Winnipeg.

Shannay: 00:47

And that's why we have Chris Baker here today, our Senior Active Transportation Planner, who's gonna tell us all about it. Let's get into it.

Natalie: 00:56

Well, hi, Chris. Thanks for joining us. Right away, let's look backwards. Like, some bikes have rearview mirrors. Right?

Natalie: 01:04

Before we get down, you know, the path of of active transportation in Winnipeg, we really need to look at the fact that the city has only had a formal pedestrian and cycling policy for the last decade. And and in that time, what has changed?

Chris: 01:19

Yeah. Winnipeg City Council adopted the pedestrian and cycling strategies in 2015. And this document laid out, a network, proposed bike routes and, a road map to get there.

Natalie: 01:32

And there's a lot of streets that people would recognize that just look a little different than than they did before.

Chris: 01:37

Yeah. For sure.

Shannay: 01:38

So people listening have seen these updates in a variety of ways. So there's recent reduced speed signage on neighborhood greenways or new lanes of traffic dedicated just to bikes. And we'll talk about the specifics. So we know that council has directed this change, but why?

Chris: 01:53

Cycling is a legitimate mode of transportation, captured in the Highway Traffic Act. It's a great choice for people to, to commute by bike or take a recreational trip, but there's also, a significant number of Winnipeggers that depend on cycling to get around.

Natalie: 02:08

But this also goes beyond, say, the safety of the individual in that bike lane. Right?

Chris: 02:14

Yeah. That's where separated bike lanes, come into play. They are, provide a comfortable and safe experience for people biking, but also provide predictability of where that bike's gonna be for people driving. So separating the two, is definitely the way to go.

Natalie: 02:29

Right. And we've done surveys to to understand that that both sides, the driver and and the cyclist, are both feeling a little more comfortable.

Chris: 02:37

Yeah. Correct. Back in 2017, we, we piloted, some adjustable bike lanes, they're called, and, and we that was an interesting part of the feedback we got that, people driving who responded to the survey as a someone who drives as opposed to bikes, really, really thought they were a great thing and and, that predictability of where the bike's gonna be was very important to them.

Shannay: 02:58

And so and to really get into it, the benefits of walking and cycling are even broader than that. Can you speak to some of the those benefits?

Chris: 03:06

Well, of course. Cycling is seen as a way for the city to, reach its greenhouse gas reduction goals and climate change policy. It can reduce traffic congestion, more people out on bikes, less cars out on the road. And certainly, there's the health benefits for the, the person biking.

Natalie: 03:26

And to be a little maybe cheeky, Chris, do you drive a car?

Chris: 03:32

Yeah. I do. I do drive a car. And I find I drive a lot more now. I have two young kids, and this is a period in my life that, gets me behind the steering wheel as opposed to, on a bike.

Chris: 03:46

Before I, before I had kids, I I biked a lot more. And, you know, as they get older and more independent, I'll be be, back on my bike a lot more.

Natalie: 03:55

So the city's you know, we're we're moving in the direction of asking people to take trips outside their car when they can. But in the same vein, we're not saying, this is about taking away cars.

Chris: 04:07

Certainly not. The Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies outlines a network map of all the proposed routes, and that doesn't include every road. We're being very strategic about where we, wanna locate our bike lanes, and not every street is appropriate for a bike lane.

Natalie: 04:22

Can you give me an example of of one of those streets?

Chris: 04:24

Well, a

Chris: 04:24

street like Lagamodiere comes to mind, or other industrial, truck routes, things like that. We we try to balance, you know, the, the hierarchy of the streets and the and and, you know, decide what the primary function of that street is. And, again, not every street, needs a bike lane.

Shannay: 04:42

As we know, we don't have a lot of hills in the city, which actually is one of the reasons why I think it's a great place to bike. But is it fair to say completing the active transportation network is an uphill task?

Chris: 04:54

Oh, certainly. And that's true. Winnipeg being flat is is great for biking hills. They're difficult for people, especially people that are maybe a less able-bodied or less, you know, confident rider. So being flat here, it is certainly helpful.

Chris: 05:09

But terms of an uphill task, maybe an example I'll cite is working in, in in the dense urban environment that is, the Exchange District or the downtown. There's a lot of demand on the right of way there. There's lots pedestrians during the day, high traffic volumes at peak periods. There's parking and loading demand, and, to to develop the bike lane, you need to carve out that space for the bike lane, and there's often trade offs. So we do a lot of design work to understand and mitigate the negative impacts before we build.

Natalie: 05:41

Well, this is always a good time, particularly because, a lot of this is relatively a new direction for the city. Talking about maybe helping redirect some of the confusion that that might be out there about bikes and and other active transportation modes. First one is a belief by some that cyclists do not pay for roads.

Chris: 06:05

Well, that's that's, not just not correct. Roads are supported by the city budget, which citizens support that budget through their property taxes. And roads are are the renewal program is, funded out of the capital budget, so property taxes pay for roads.

Shannay: 06:22

Okay. And I've got another one. Winnipeg is a winter city, so people don't bike in the winter. True or false?

Chris: 06:28

You know, we're seeing more and more people on their bikes every winter. There's a proliferation of fat bikes out there, that are are good for the winter, but you don't need a fat bike. Any bike will do. And there are other places in the world that have, pretty high, winter ridership. Nordic countries, for example, have been at it for a long time.

Chris: 06:51

And, you know, it's it's a discussion about the temperature, but it's it's also providing that separated bike network so people feel feel comfortable. You know, it it's partially the weather, but it's really getting people that separated space to to bike. Many people are not comfortable riding in mixed traffic in the winter where they are would be in the summer. An example I like to use is the Forks Winter River Trail. Just get out there on a Saturday in February, and they'll you'll see hundreds of people out there.

Chris: 07:21

So people wanna get out and recreate. They just need a a place to do so.

Natalie: 07:25

Is there a good winter cycling city comparison that that we should, as Winnipeg, be looking to?

Chris: 07:30

Well, again, there's the the Nordic, countries and cities, in Finland, etcetera. But, we we don't often, look to compare ourselves to that. Europe's a very different context than North America. But Montreal is a great example. They've been at, building out a separated bike network for years.

Chris: 07:48

They deal with the same, snow and and ice and winter conditions that we do. So we we learn a lot and glean a lot from, the city of Montreal.

Shannay: 07:56

So where are we in comparison to having a complete network like some of the cities you just mentioned?

Chris: 08:02

Well, again, we we've Winnipeg's only had a formal policy since 2015, so we've been at it in a in a direct way for only about ten years. So we're, you know, we can say we're behind other cities and have been at this for a lot longer. But we're building, we're building kilometers of new bikeways every year and our budget forecast is increasing. And, so we'll just continue to build out that network and we'll get there.

Natalie: 08:32

And now, to get into a little bit of some of the new things even in in very recent years folks may have seen, a new tool for completing the network has been, these neighborhood greenways. They're they're routes that can go in fast and and relatively inexpensively. Tell us a little first start by describing what they are and and and how we're using them.

Chris: 08:55

Yeah. That's a a great, a great subject to bring up. Neighborhood greenways are a bike route on a local road. Just think about maybe the road you live on or that a family member lives on, just a regular local road. The key component, for this type of bike infrastructure, is low traffic speeds and low traffic volumes.

Chris: 09:15

So it's a mixed facility. Cars and bikes share the road, but when we have that low speed and very low volumes, it creates a a very comfortable cycling experience. Cyclists people biking don't often, interact with cars because of those low volumes. So we've implemented this, just recently, the neighborhood greenway concept. The, the the province downloaded the authority to change the speed limit to all municipalities in Manitoba, just pre pandemic.

Chris: 09:45

So we jumped on that opportunity, and piloted for streets, that were, for neighborhood greenways. And, that pilot was successful, and we've expanded the program since then.

Shannay: 09:57

Over in Osborne Village, there are some new separated bike lanes and you've got a good example about how your team is always adjusting and improving how these lanes go in. But this time, it had to do with using data from Winnipeg Transit Plus. Can you tell us why what the issue was? Why you needed that data from accessible transit?

Chris: 10:15

Yeah. Thank you. That is a exciting project to bring up. We just completed protected bike lanes on River Avenue and Stradbrooke Avenue, and they include, some cutting edge accessible loading zones, that we developed, working with our colleagues at Transit Plus. Maybe I'll back up a little bit and provide a bit of context.

Chris: 10:36

Adding a protected bike lane puts a curb in the road between where cars drive or load and the sidewalk, hence the protected bike lane. But this is an obstacle, that people have to navigate and and can be particularly challenging for people with accessible needs, maybe people with, a little lower mobility or lower no vision. And this is something that the industry is grappling with, and we've recognized that, and and this was our latest project, and we wanted to try and pilot something to to overcome this. So we've added these accessible loading zones at strategic locations identified by Transit Plus where they have a high volume of of, pickups and drop offs. So this is something we're particularly proud of.

Chris: 11:20

It's something new. It's, not the the norm. We're we're trying something here, and it's it's kind of cutting edge, in in terms of best practice bikeway design in in North America, frankly.

Natalie: 11:32

Right. You were presenting nationally about this, were you?

Chris: 11:36

Yes. Yes. At the, last year's Transportation Association of Canada conference, we presented about this very topic.

Natalie: 11:43

That's that's a really important change. And, you know, it it it's funny because bikes, when we go and look back at bikes, they they aren't new. I have this written down here because our friends at archives, we know from them that one of the earliest bylaws to establish a bike path in Winnipeg is like over a hundred years old. It came from 1898. And and I bring that up and I brought that with me because we have such a long history with bikes acting, you know, relatively the same, but here we are today.

Natalie: 12:13

You're trying so many new things, and then there's new technology to contend with.

Chris: 12:18

Yes. Micro mobility is the term. That's the term we use for all the e devices that you see out there. E scooters, e bikes, one wheels. These are are new vehicles that, operate in the same space that bikes do.

Chris: 12:33

And they're great. Ebikes are great. They provide an opportunity for people to get out on a bike who might not otherwise feel confident. Think about it. Maybe a senior who, you know, is worried about, you know, making it home or or or further to that, it expands, people's bike shed.

Chris: 12:49

They're able to go further because they have the confidence that they can get there and get home on their ebike. The flip side, the e bikes are, a different type of vehicle than a bike. They're faster, and they're silent. And, we're hearing that people, who use our shared facilities, our multi use paths, are feeling less comfortable on those paths, people walking. And we're we're, we don't have data collected on this, but we're speculating that it's the the rise of the e devices that is is impacting people.

Chris: 13:22

So this is something that we're looking at and collectively as an industry, we're grappling with. And, the jury's out on how to how to best deal with this. But separating users is is certainly, one way to go.

Natalie: 13:36

And more to come, I guess.

Chris: 13:38

And more to come.

Shannay: 13:39

Interesting. So we don't wanna take any more of your time up because, clearly, there's a lot of good and important work here. But can you leave us with a good opening day bike lane story? So the idea of bike lanes can bring up concerns, but what can these lanes look like once they're in?

Chris: 13:54

Well, an example I'll I'll give, I guess, is the, bike lane that was put in a few years ago on Granite Way, near the, Granite Curling Club. We have a, permanent counter. We count our our bikes, monitor our bike volumes just like we do our cars. We just started doing that recently in a big way. All to say that Granite Way has a permanent bike counter there, so we're monitoring data, daily if we need to there.

Chris: 14:20

And the, the day after that counter was installed, in and don't quote me on the date here, call it 2021 or something to that effect. That Saturday was the highest, individual day we had that year, for bikes. So that was pretty cool. And we did a, a, bike to work day, pop up, on bike to work day in June. There's pop ups all over the city where people stop.

Chris: 14:45

It's actually called a pit stop where you stop and get a juice and some swag. And we did our our pop up there or or pit stop and, had a lot of great feedback. People loved it. They were using it. And, you know, we just heard, heard heard how how important that bike lane was to people.

Chris: 15:02

So it was a good morning.

Natalie: 15:04

Well, Chris, thanks again. Again, we know you're a busy guy. Thanks for coming down. Last question for you. It's one we roll over again and again.

Natalie: 15:14

And it's to ask you to share one thing or something about Winnipeg that you wish everyone knew. It could be work related, but it doesn't have to be.

Chris: 15:22

Well, maybe we'll stick with the the bike theme and and back to our neighborhood greenways. We talked a lot about that and and, they are very important. They're cost effective. We can roll them out, quickly. And and they they really are the backbone of any city's bike network.

Chris: 15:39

And currently, we have over 20 kilometers of neighborhood greenway in the city, and we'll be continuing to expand that over over the coming years.

Shannay: 15:48

Awesome. Thank you so much.

Natalie: 15:50

Yeah.

Natalie: 15:50

Happy biking.

Chris: 15:52

Thanks.

Natalie: 15:54

Coming up on the next episode of Our City, Our Podcast well, this next one, we've got some great stories to share with you. We are talking to the man that gets Winnipeg ready for its close-up. And, you know, some of the parts of his own story also belong in a movie.

Shannay: 16:11

Absolutely. This is gonna be a good one. We're talking to Kenny Boyce, the manager of film and special events here at the City of Winnipeg.

Natalie: 16:18

And before we go, we'd love to hear from our listeners. What programs and services impact you most? Email us at city-podcast@winnipeg.ca with suggestions for future episodes. Thanks for listening.