Fining drivers

I agree wholeheartedly with the points made in the Oct. 9 article Being 'sweet' to bikes benefits everybody. As a person who drives, cycles and walks, I find the opposition to making our cities more pedestrian and cycling-friendly laughable. How much effort does it take to be more respectful of cyclists and pedestrians?

I'd like to see the provincial government step up and amend current traffic legislation to include fines for not allowing a one-metre space when passing a cyclist on any roadway and not yielding to a pedestrian at an intersection. We can find this in other jurisdictions around the globe.

I have been struck by vehicles while walking and cycling and obeying all traffic rules and found the drivers involved showed no remorse whatsoever for their actions. In my opinion, fining drivers with that type of attitude is more than justified.

Al Hutchings

Useful and clever

I live several doors off Grosvenor Avenue. I drive a bicycle rarely and commute daily down Grosvenor.

I think the curb "bumps" and the roundabouts are clever and useful. I welcome them for several reasons.

First, they calm traffic. Grosvenor was a useful alternative to Corydon and Academy, but not now. This is good.

Second, they are good for cyclists. We are tending to be an overweight society and an indebted society. Little things, like cycling and not driving, are good counters to this and should be encouraged.

Third, I think too many Winnipeggers whine about new things too much. Roundabouts are not revolutionary. Get over them. Move on.

Finally, there are life-and-death issues, in Winnipeg, which should be consuming our attention. Minor road work on Grosvenor is not one of them.

Robert Poirie

Car supremacy

Re: Trafficking in circles (Letters, Oct. 6). I am confused by David M. Brown's concerns that vehicles, particularly fire trucks, cannot turn left at any of the traffic circles recently installed in River Heights. Because one always enters and leaves a traffic circle by turning right, left-hand turns never occur.

As for having to stop and start along with the transit bus "all the way from Stafford to Waverley Street," perhaps those who are in a hurry could take the faster routes, those intended as through routes, Academy and Corydon.

Part of the purpose of traffic-calming measures is to get vehicles off the residential streets. I live on Wolseley Avenue and would welcome any and all traffic-calming measures that would curtail traffic on my beautiful street.

Even road-closure barricades do not keep cars from driving on this designated bike route on Sundays and holidays.

Please open your minds and be willing to accept a little inconvenience in order to make our streets more bicycle and pedestrian friendly. Like it or not, the days of car supremacy are coming to an end.

Best for children

Amid the debate around walking and cycling routes in Winnipeg, there has been no talk about what is best for children and other vulnerable road users. Many of the new routes run directly adjacent to schools and daycares. In fact, I lost track trying to count them all using Google maps.

Other new routes provide safe connections between existing or recently implemented walking or cycling infrastructure. Special attention was paid to calming traffic in these areas.

At a time when childhood obesity, climate change, air pollution, nature-deficit disorder, and safe communities are on people's minds, why are we not supporting community amenities that help make our neighbourhoods more inclusive, safer and healthier for everyone? Change is difficult, but once people get used to the enhancements, the true benefit of these routes will become crystal clear.

Investing in active-transportation infrastructure will make it easier and safer for children to walk and cycle to and from school, and help give everyone the safety, convenience and right to road space they deserve.

Jackie Avent

Circular logic -- Letter of the Day

Re: Traffic circles causing confusion (Sept. 30). Before we complain too much about traffic circles, it is important that we realize the considerable benefits they offer.

1. They are good for the environment. Four-way stops, on the other hand, are not. Instead of forcing traffic to stop, traffic circles generally allow traffic to keep rolling through if there is no vehicle in sight.

2. They involve the driver in problem solving. Having spent many hours in the nightmare that was Winnipeg traffic this summer, I realize that my main frustration comes from the plague of four-way stop signs and traffic signals that infest this city. At least a traffic circle credits me with some intelligence. I can move through an intersection without stopping if conditions warrant.

3. Traffic circles slow down vehicles by their very nature, but they also keep traffic moving in a slow, orderly fashion without the need for a complicated traffic-light system -- thus earning another environmental stamp of approval.

4. They have the potential to be pretty. Planting flowers or plants in the middle of a traffic circle (Europeans go so far as to have fountains) can make them quite attractive. When is the last time you could say that about a stop sign or a traffic light?

5. They are safe: I have driven a lot in the Netherlands, and it has many, many traffic circles installed. The Netherlands is 1/17th the size of Manitoba but has more than 13 times the number of vehicles packed into it. I frequently drove to Dutch addresses inside towns and encountered no stop signs the whole distance. Only traffic circles. And I should point out that the Netherlands has one traffic fatality per year for every 28,000 people. We have one traffic fatality per year for every 12,000 people.

Ken Penner

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition October 4, 2010 A11

Win-win situation

Today I enjoyed my most pleasant bike commute in 22 years. Since 1988, I have been riding my bike back and forth to Health Sciences Centre, north on Sherbrook in the morning and south on Maryland in the evening. It is a busy route and is frequently fraught with unexpected and sometimes dangerous situations for both cyclists and drivers alike.

Today, as I turned south onto Maryland, I was pleasantly surprised to find a newly painted white line designating a bike lane that parallelled the west curb lane and ran south from Notre Dame to the Maryland Bridge. What a difference a painted line can make! The cars and trucks respectfully stayed on their side; I kept to my side, and all moved smoothly together in a safe and organized homeward commute.

That thin white line created a win-win situation. The vehicles still had three lanes, but now I also had my own space. Both drivers and cyclists seemed more relaxed since both now knew how they were expected to share the road. It was remarkable. And all thanks to the hard work of all those involved in making Winnipeg's active transportation initiative a reality -- and a thin white line.

Chris Harrington

Traffic circus

On a Sunday afternoon, it is fascinating to watch the new traffic circus perform behind the new cement barricade on Harrow Street at Academy Road.

Hundreds of vehicles turn at the Sunday bicycle barricade on Wellington Crescent, arrive at the big barricade on Harrow, determine that they really can't drive through it, then turn in circles or reverse together, three or four at a time -- unchoreographed and unco-ordinated -- until they finally exit via the back lanes.

Other vehicles avoid both barricades, and the new so-called traffic-calming lights and cameras on Academy, by just speeding directly down our back lanes. They star briefly in the big show when they shoot across Harrow.

The City of Winnipeg's active transportation program has turned our narrow back lane, blind spots and all, into a superhighway. In just one hour, we clocked 96 cars and trucks, some speeding at 50 km/h.

Frustrated drivers become enraged by slow or stopped vehicles, oncoming vehicles, pedestrians, children, cyclists, skateboarders, dog-walkers and anyone else who does not move out of their way quickly enough.

The Harrow Street barricade is a menace. Tear it down. Jeopardizing the safety of nearly everyone in the area does not enhance the safety of bicyclists. What people really want is the potholes fixed.

Leila Alvare

Thanks

I want to thank the city planners, engineers, and construction crews for trying to make our city more cycling friendly. As for the citizens that have been complaining about the projects, shame on you. If these construction projects were only for road improvements you would be complaining about them, too. If there was no construction at all then you would be complaining that our roads are falling apart. Maybe you complainers should ride your bike (if you own one) to work and see things from the other side. As for the candidates for mayor; I too am a voter and there are a lot of us cyclist who are in favor of active transportation infrastructure program.

Construction will always be a part of revitalizing our city and we, as Winnipeggers, should be used to it by now. Once these projects are completed it will be everyone, including your children, that will benefit from the new bike routes.

Manny Bairos

Critics have a point

Re: Back to driving school (Oct. 1). There was a time when I would react with righteous indignation when an "outsider" maligned the driving skills of my fellow Winnipeggers. Then, on one trip to Toronto, I realized I could make a lane change more easily in bumper-to-bumper traffic at 100 km/h on the 401 that I can on Portage Avenue in rush hour. More recently, I have noticed on numerous occasions how inept some (not all) Winnipeg drivers are at using a merge lane to get into traffic.

The recent uproar over the introduction of more traffic circles on our streets, however, has finally brought me to the disturbing conclusion that the critics may have been right all along. The transition to using this kind of traffic-control system is not all that complicated and certainly doesn't warrant the anguish that some Winnipeg motorists are apparently experiencing.

I am embarrassed for our city to see that city staff have to "ramp up the education process for pedestrians and motorists." It shouldn't be as complicated as you are making it, folks. Just apply a little common sense.

David Ediger

On with the job

Re: Bike path work overkill: official (Sept. 29). Stop criticizing the consultation process. Stop criticizing city staff and consultants. Get on with the job of putting federal infrastructure money to work building badly needed bike and pedestrian facilities.

Shame on Judy Wasylycia-Leis for suggesting that the Assiniboine Bikeway be halted. Double shame on Mayor Sam Katz for criticizing city staff. I found city staff involved in active transportation to be knowledgeable and helpful people who made a considerable effort with a complex consultation process.

The construction season is coming to a close. Federal infrastructure money is coming to an end next March. There has been planning, there has been press coverage, there has been consultation and there has been opportunity for feedback. Now is the time to take the plan and the money and finish the job. It is not the time to be indecisive and throw away federal money.

The benefits of having our cities and neighbourhoods accessible by active transportation are legion and well-documented. You don't have to go to Paris for innovative, scenic and functional cycling trails, a public bike rental system, rapid transit where you can roll your bike on and hang it up, and vacation destinations where the cycling infrastructure is a major part of the attraction.

Go no further than Minnesota, in general, and Minneapolis in particular. Winnipeg has been making great progress in active transportation lately and if the municipal politicians will stay out of the way and let the planners, consultants and builders spend the federal money to finish the job, we can make Winnipeg a place where more people want to work, live and vacation.

Dan Prowse