Permanent speed limit drop recommended for neighbourhood greenway areas – Winnipeg

Several streets in Winnipeg considered a critical component of the city’s bike network, could be seeing permanent changes to the speed limit.

In the summer of 2021, a pilot project dropped the speed limit to 30 kilometres an hour on four stretches of Winnipeg roads considered neighbourhood greenways: Eugenie Street from St. Mary’s Road to Youville Street, Warsaw Avenue from Thurso Street to Pembina Highway, Machray Avenue from Fife Street to Main Street, and Powers Street from Dufferin Avenue to Partridge Avenue.

Not only was the speed dropped, but traffic measures ranging from new signages and barricades to speed humps and enhanced pedestrian crossings were implemented.

The routes were monitored for one year, and now a recommendation to the Public Works Committee at City Hall is asking for the pilot to become permanent.

Neighbourhood greenways are designed to comfortably and safely move cyclists, pedestrians and motor vehicles. These greenways had a 50 km/h speed limit, until the pilot project.

The project found that the changes slowed vehicle traffic while traffic volumes on the routes were low.

85 per cent of the drivers travelled 32 km/h on the roads, while an average of 517 vehicles drove on the pilot routes each day, which is significantly down from the desired 1,000 drivers a day on these routes.

Public engagement was also done as part of the process, and 59 per cent of residents in the area supported making the changes permanent.

Mark Cohoe of Bike Winnipeg is on board with the potential permanent changes and says the change in speed limit could be the difference between life and death.

“There’s lots of research which shows what happens when there’s a collision between someone riding a vehicle and someone riding a bike,” Cohoe said. “At 50 kilometres an hour, it’s about a 50 per cent chance of survival, where as if you’re at 30 kilometres an hour, it’s a 90-95 per cent chance of survival.”

It is also being recommended these measures be added to 10 additional routes permanently including:

• Egerton Road between Morier Avenue and the southern terminus
• Alexander Avenue between Arlington Street and Princess Street
• Youville Street between Marion Street and Haig Avenue
• Ruby Street from Palmerston Avenue to Portage Avenue / Banning Street from Portage
  Avenue to Notre Dame Avenue
• Kildonan Drive between Helmsdale Avenue and the northern terminus
• Ravelston Avenue between Wayoata Street and Plessis Road
• Linwood Street between Portage Avenue and Silver Avenue
• Harbison Avenue West between Henderson Highway and the eastern terminus
• Rover Avenue between Hallet Street and Angus Street
• Scotia Street between Armstrong Avenue and Cathedral Avenue, including one-block
  segments on Leila Avenue, Marymound Way, and Forrest Avenue; and St. Cross Street between Anderson Avenue and Cathedral Avenue, including the one block segment of Cathedral Avenue between St. Cross Street and Scotia Street.

If approved by council, the speed limits on these stretches would be reduced in 2023 while the other traffic measures would be put in over the 2023 and 2024 traffic construction seasons.