Pembina Highway

For years, cyclists have identified Pembina Hwy as a very important route that is "difficult" (inconvenient, unsafe, no fun), but there is no reasonable alternative to it between Chevrier Blvd and Plaza Dr.

The City of Winnipeg will soon be doing "mill and fill" road maintenance work on Pembina Hwy between Chevrier and Bishop Grandin. Bike to the Future and its partners are proposing that "cycle tracks" be built as part of the road maintenance work.

An image showing the context of the Chevrier to Plaza section

An image that is an excerpt from the Centre for Sustainable Transportation's GPS study of cycling habits

Pembina southbound: Before, After.

Pembina northbound: Before, After.

FAQs

What do the experts say?
Marc Jolicoeur from VeloQuebec specifically suggested exploring this idea both at an on-site visit and during our workshop.

Would it be used?
Absolutely.
See the existing usage from the Ottocycle map, despite the onerous conditions. Note the change in colour on Pembina between Chevrier and Plaza. This represents people running the gauntlet and then ducking off onto the quieter streets. See the cycling map graphic for the connection it provides between two already existing routes to the Forks and the U of Winnipeg.

Has it been done elsewhere?
Yes. For example, every single major arterial with higher speeds in Amsterdam is built this way. MMM (consultant) will be proposing the exact same thing in Winnipeg for the Berry bikeway to Red River College.

Is it worth waiting for the riverbank to become available?
No. Besides the costs, the design difficulties, private property and riverbank preservation issues, etc, you still have to deal with access to all the shops and apartment buildings. Also, according to CEPTD principles, a lot of women/children, etc, will feel uncomfortable using this regularly simply due to the secluded location.

Is it worth waiting for BRT phase II?
No. Besides the costs, undetermined design difficulties, and wait time, there are numerous other reasons. #1 being that it will be needed anyway. BRT will only increase bicycle trips to the area. That means more short trips to the store/school from the many large multi-family dwellings, etc. With just the BRT pathway, you require many more trips across Pembina Highway, making cycling less desirable. There are many precedents for doing both routes. Marc mentioned some excellent examples of heavily used paralell bikeways in his presentation.

Won't you have to cross Pembina for the return trip?
Yes, but it would be worse with just Letellier and/or the river. It doesn't matter at all for destination-based trips (like trips to the U of Manitoba). Yes, an important design consideration for the engineers will be improved crossings at Rivera and at Plaza, but this is a relatively easy to solve problem. Last, because of the large median, crossing Pembina is alot easier for bikes than it might seem.

Won't one-direction travel be ignored by some people for really short trips?
Probably, but consider the current situation. Cyclists and pedestrians traveling in both directions are all sharing a 1.5m sidewalk and or slowing down the cars and buses. Good signage and one-way chevrons will make the proscribed direction of travel very clear. Those who insist on breaking the rules, will know they don't have the right away. Cyclists and pedestrians are also quite good at getting along if they have to. Consider all of the 3.5m multi-use paths without signage at all.

What are the benefits to drivers?
Numerous, especially increased flow due to the cyclists now being on the cycletrack in this stretch. Long term, there is decreased congestion too.

What about the bus stops?
This issue can be solved with design and has been solved elsewhere.

Rough estimate of cost?
$650,000 for the southbound side if included as part of the mill and fill. The same +25% for the northbound side. Total: ~$1.5 million ... or about the annual car payments of just 1000 university students.

Conclusion: It's worth exploring.

(Thanks to Anders Swanson for all this.)


Possible cycling infrastructure on Pembina Hwy between Chevrier Blvd and Plaza Dr