North Winnipeg Group Ride with Councillors Schreyer and Eadie – by Ian Walker
We’re excited to report that we recently had the opportunity to connect with two of Winnipeg’s city councillors for a ride through North Winnipeg, an area often overlooked in terms of active transportation infrastructure. Mark Cohoe, Julia Schroeder, Nathan Wild, Ian Walker, and Steve Snyder took Ross Eadie (councillor for Mynarski) and Jason Schreyer (councillor for Elmwood) on a ride through downtown, up the west side of the Red River, and back via the east side of the river.
We were eager to share some of our new downtown infrastructure with them, so we rode north down Garry to the Exchange District, where we connected with the path through Stephen Juba Park. We celebrated the Rover Greenway and its planned infrastructure improvements in the coming year. We discussed the urgent need for a safe crossing at Redwood west of the Harry Lazarenko Bridge and potential connections to St. John’s Park. We enjoyed a ride down Scotia Street, which now has a reduced speed limit of 30 km/h to accommodate people of all ages and abilities. We stopped at Prairie’s Edge for a break and some lunch before continuing to the east side of the river.
While crossing Chief Peguis Trail, we discussed the mixed-use paths planned for the Arlington Bridge and the urgent need to replace the Arlington Bridge to ensure safe and convenient connections for residents on the north and south sides. Once we crossed the river, we headed south on a new active transportation path that connects to Kildonan Drive. We had a pleasant ride down Kildonan Drive due to its low speed limit and traffic volume. At Kimberly Avenue, we connected to Roch Street, emphasizing the importance of speed reduction and traffic calming on this route, as it is one of the few north-south connections through Elmwood/East Kildonan.
We returned downtown via the Disraeli walk/bike bridge, noting that the waterfront path is too narrow for the current walking and biking traffic volumes. We crossed into St. Boniface via the Esplanade Riel, where Councillor Eadie reminisced about how the path behind St. Boniface Hospital was a narrow mud trail the last time he’d ridden there.
We look forward to taking more city councillors on rides in the coming months. Experiencing our bike network firsthand is the most effective way to see what’s working well and identify gaps that need to be filled.
