Moving Forward on a Winter Active Transportation Network

Mar 10, 2016

A very, big THANK YOU to the 50+ active transportation advocates who gave up their Saturday morning to learn more about the City of Winnipeg’s current policy on snow removal on the active transportation network. Before any changes are made to snow removal, it is important we all have a clear idea of the current City policy.

Winnipeg is one of the very few winter cities in North America that plows ALL roads and sidewalks, and I am continuing to learn about the complexities of cleaning 2,588 kms of sidewalks alone – never mind pathways and areas around transit stations!

I also want to extend a very, big THANK YOU to City staff from three departments for their detailed presentation on how snow is removed according to City policy:

City Parks Department: Coordinates snow removal on pathways in City Parks
Public Works Department: Coordinates snow removal on sidewalks, pathways and street bike infrastructure
Winnipeg Transit: Coordinates snow removal at Transit stations

For information on the presentation and specific details:

View the presentation HERE (the conversation that accompanied the presentation helped to provide context)
View the questions submitted prior to the meeting HERE
View maps of AT infrastructure that the City CURRENTLY cleans:
- Public Works Dept: SEE MAP ONE and MAP TWO
- City Parks Dept: SEE MAP (28 km of pathways are cleaned within 285 parks)

NEXT STEPS

My goal is to continue moving towards developing a Winter Active Transportation network and securing the proper funding to maintain it. Details coming soon! From my many years of experience in active transportation, what I have learned is:

Nothing moves at the pace of speed I’d like to see
Constructing just one km of trail always leads to more kms
More people supporting active transportation = more $$ support

I anticipate that the first winter active transportation network will be a super first step. It probably will not be exactly what we would like to see (because we are leaders and therefore ahead of the curve in this field). Nevertheless, the first network will be vital in many ways:

It will be a critical first step
It will be somewhat of a pilot project for City staff to learn about the nuances of detailed AT cleaning
It will most certainly build public support to expand!

Thanks for being such active transportation champions and sharing your thoughts and ideas! You are on ‘the list’ and will be kept up to speed on the progress of this very important project.