Opinions voiced on walking and biking in Winnipeg

WINNIPEG – A city run public open house brought Winnipeggers together, Saturday, to voice their opinion on its pedestrian and cycling strategies.

“I’m trying to see some of the specifics of what they’re proposing here and see how it affects my route,” said open house attendee, Glen Manning.

Winnipeggers filled Manitoba Theatre for Young People at the Forks to voice their opinion and fill out a comprehensive survey.

“Better, safer, active transportation routes, that’s the main thing,” said Stephane Dorge with Bike Winnipeg.

The City also found pedestrians want more sidewalks and existing ones in better condition with quicker snow removal. Cyclists want to feel more comfortable on busy streets with more bike lanes connecting together.

“The City has many gorgeous multi-use pathways but they don’t connect very well to each other so things like that that they need to correct,” said Kevin Nixon, Winnipeg’s active transport coordinator.

All things the city is proposing to work on at a potential cost of $334 million dollars over the next 20 years.

“We have lots of work to do, we need to remove the barriers, snow clearing be a huge one, maintenance and connectivity of the networks, both walking and cycling,” said Nixon.

City council will consider the proposal and what it can afford this summer.

“It’s a lot of money, people will say why are you spending money on this and not the roads, but it’s a balancing act and we can certainly do some of this, we can’t do it all,” said Brian Mayes, St. Vital councillor.

Since 2008 an additional $80 million dollars has been spent improving pedestrian and cycling routes, like doubling the cycling paths to nearly 400 km.

“They’ve done a lot of improvement in the last few years so we have to give them that,” said another survey taker Serge Brousseau.

The City said eight per cent of all daily commutes to work are done by pedestrians and cyclists, with cycling becoming the fastest growing mode of transportation in Winnipeg, second only to Toronto.

Two more public open houses will take place Tuesday from 3pm-8pm at Sinclair Park Community Centre and Manitoba Hydro Place Atrium.