As a major east/west spine in the City of Winnipeg’s planned bike network, cycling facilities on St. Matthews Avenue will need to be designed for all ages and abilities. That’s why the Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies have identified the need for protected bike lanes on St. Matthews Ave.
Current cycling facilities along St. Matthews are limited to sharrows and narrow painted bike lanes, which alternate every 3 or 4 blocks. It’s a confusing treatment, and does not make the best use of the available roadway.
Protected bike lanes could be fit onto St. Matthews Ave if parking were limited to one side of the roadway,
As parking demand along St. Matthews is modest, it should be possible to add protected (or raised) by limiting parking to one side of St. Matthews.This could be combined with curb bump-outs to provide better sight lines at intersections and shorten crossing distances for people crossing St. Matthews. By alternating which side of the road parking is allowed on, this treatment would also provide natural traffic calming.
Future Rehabilitation Work Must Include Protected Bike Lanes
Recent rehabilitation work on St. Matthews Ave (near Minto) failed to upgrade the existing painted bike lanes and sharrows to the much more user friendly protected bike lanes. That was a lost opportunity. All candidates in Daniel McIntyre ans St. James should commit to:
- Commit to the installation of protected bike lanes in any rehabilitation work on St. Matthews Ave between Arlington St. and Empress St.
- Commit to a study of potential cycling improvements between Maryland St and Arlington Street prior to any rehabilitation work on St. Matthews move forward on this stretch of St. Matthews. Options would include:
- Conventional painted bike lanes
- Advisory Bike Lanes