THE ISSUES
The City of Winnipeg is misleading and manipulating the people of Wolseley with its plans for the Wolseley Walk Bike Project. Please find below a listing of all current issues at hand. They have been grouped into 3 parts in order to accommodate easier reading. Where necessary, we have provided City of Winnipeg documents which include our own mark-ups to illustrate their errors or discrepancy. Reference links to the City of Winnipeg website (original and untouched), have also been provided to corroborate our findings.
REFERENCE LINKS
- Change to Transit Route 10 St. Boniface/Wolseley resulting from the Wolseley to Downtown Walk Bike Project (see pg. 9)
- East Segment 2: Granite Way (Balmoral Street to Osborne Street)
- East Segment 1: Westminster Avenue/Young Street/Balmoral Street (Langside Street to Granite Way)
- Central Segment: Westminster Avenue (Chestnut Street to Langside Street)
- West Segment (15MB Multi-layered PDF - Approx 2 Min to Load Fully)
- Appendix B - Open Streets Report (see pg. 1 - "Data analysis" - Details Faulty Questionnaire Design)
- Appendix B - Open Streets Report (see pgs. 10 - 13 - Enhanced Sunday/Holiday Routes Analysis)
- Phase 3 - Public Engagement Report (see pg. 23)
- #10 Wolseley Bus Route Change
- Granite Way (Balmoral Street to Osborne Street)
- East Segment (Langside Street to Granite Way)
- Central Segment (Chesnut Street toLangside Street)
Westminster will lose 34 parking spots from Chestnut to Langside and 14 spots from Langside to Granite. Two loading zones will be removed and one relocated. This will create havoc for people on moving day, and reduce property values in the area. Parking is already a challenge!
- Wolseley Ave. will be made very unfriendly to cars – virtually un-useable due to speed tables (long bumps) at almost every block, narrowing of side roads and street corners and total blockages at Sherburn and Raglan. The blockage at Wolseley and Chestnut appears to be removed, as the Wolseley bus has been re-routed from Westminster onto Wolseley.
See the drawing here (15MB Multi-layered PDF - Approx 2 Min to Load Fully) .
- The proposed blockage on Westminster and Chestnut and the plan for one-way streets on Canora and Chestnut is now on hold awaiting a traffic study.
- The proposed one-way streets on Canora and Chestnut could still happen.
The City did not properly notify residents. It did not send out a flyer to everyone in our neighbourhood. We think more than half the people do not know what is happening. That is why we developed the petition, to make all residents aware. The City should have done this over a year ago.
The City survey is intentionally misleading. Wolseley Ave has about 10 times as many motorists as cyclists, but four times as many cyclists as motorists filled out the questionnaire. And they did not stop there. People who live on Wolseley Ave, an “Open Street” (closed to vehicles) had many votes per household for all living there, but people on other streets had only one vote per household, no matter how many people lived there! The numbers have been intentionally skewed to give the impression most people like this change. Further, the people who put the questionnaire together made mistakes adding up the numbers to get false totals. See for yourself!
Appendix B - Street by Street Analysis (pgs. 10-13 (pie charts - 10MB file))
The City has chosen to "use a sledge hammer to kill a fly". The changes are so numerous and so radical it is impossible to know all the ramifications. The changes put forth by the City should be done with temporary structures so the effects will be seen before large amounts of money are spent on permanent structures.
Break down barriers, don’t create more! Our society has been trying to take down barriers and make things more accessible to disabled people and others who may be marginalized. But the Walk Bike/Open Streets project is creating barriers for anyone who travels by motorized vehicles. This is discriminatory! Cyclists will have a virtually empty street to themselves while others will have to travel elsewhere. Wolseley Ave is a public thoroughfare built with public money to serve everyone, not just a small group who want to be treated as elite. This would not be tolerated if the intention was to bar any marginalized group. It should not be tolerated to exclude anyone, motorists and cyclists alike.
Closing streets will cause more pollution. Whenever a street is closed to vehicles the traffic has to go somewhere else. This will move traffic to other streets and create longer lines there. People will be forced to drive further, spend more time waiting in traffic and burn more gas.
The City does not want to hear concerns so it ignores them. After the January 29, 2020 open house at Westminster Church the City accepted feedback to questions including “Do you believe the overall design balances the safety and needs of all road users?” Of the 155 respondents, 68% strongly disagreed and 14% disagreed, for a total of 82%. But the City is going ahead with most of the changes anyway! This is not consulting – it is acting in bad faith.
See pie chart (noted as page 23 from the City's Phase 3 Final Report).
*There is not a problem now. See MPI statistics below.
Injuries for cyclists and pedestrians combined remain low at 0 to 2 per year on Wolseley Ave.
