Boost active transportation infrastructure support to fight climate change, Winnipeg council urged
Motions call for increased funding, better planning for cycling, walking options
Coun. Matt Allard believes Winnipeg's efforts to fight climate change aren't developing fast enough and need a kick start.
Allard, who is the chair of the infrastructure and public works (IRPW) committee, hopes a trio of motions will bring urgency and funding to the city's active transportation network.
"I think that what got my goat is there were streets that were meant to be upgraded with active transportation through our road renewal program that weren't done," Allard said, "so active transportation dollars that had been budgeted were essentially evaporating and we weren't seeing them come back."
Allard points to major road work done on streets such as Roblin Boulevard that were completed without any cycling infrastructure included.
City council voted in 2015 to spend $334 million over 20 years on a cycling and pedestrian strategy, but just $1.7 million was is in this year's budget for those projects.
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The St. Boniface councillor wants:
- Criteria added to the city's road renewal budget to make active transportation projects part of such projects.
- New active transportation funding to be equal to 10 per cent of the projected total road construction budget.
- Winnipeg's transportation master plan updated to include a plan to achieve a 50 per cent mode shift by 2030.
The goals, Allard believes, could add up to $16 million for active transportation projects and help the city meet it's climate change goals by 2030.
"Why ten per cent? Ten per cent has been supported by council many times, and I thought that would be a good number to refer to the budget process," he said, noting that percentage has been used for greening the city's inventory of buildings and it's procurement process.
Each of Allard's three proposals received more than a dozen letters of support.
The executive director of Bike Winnipeg appeared at Tuesday's IRPW meeting to give his organization's approval.
"In some ways we prioritize that local and regional roads budget based on the needs of the automobiles — based on what our status quo has been for the last 50 years — which has really gotten us in the problem we are in now," Mark Cohoe said.
Not everyone on the committee agrees with Allard's assessment of how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through active transportation.
"In terms of the general traffic it is such a tiny fraction of it," said North Kildonan Coun. Jeff Browaty. "We live in a very car-oriented city and that's going to stay the way it is. Winter weather [and ] distances needed to be travelled — I don't see bikes and walking overtaking those things."
There are definitely Winnipeggers who are seeking a more healthy and active lifestyle, and infrastructure can serve those goals, Browaty says, but doubts it would support climate change targets.
Those efforts, he says, would be better served by improvements to Winnipeg Transit and maintenance to sidewalks.
