River Heights outrage

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This article was published 04/10/2010 (5569 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

WINNIPEG – Opposition to the city’s active-transportation upgrades reached a boiling point in River Heights on Sunday as residents protested a new concrete barrier and an area church expressed outrage bike paths have eliminated a swath of parking.

A cadre of frustrated River Heights residents gathered on the north side of the intersection at Harrow Street and Academy Road Sunday afternoon to protest a concrete barrier that residents say is putting everyone who drives, walks or bikes in the area at risk.

The long, low concrete barrier stymies traffic flow and surprises drivers, barricade opponents say. When combined with a weekly Sunday road closure on nearby Wellington Crescent, more and more vehicles are being forced to cruise down the area’s quiet back lanes.

It also pushes cars off Harrow and onto Guelph Street, where they must turn onto Academy from a blind intersection. The Harrow intersection allowed drivers to better see oncoming traffic.

“Why do we want it to come down? Because it’s a safety issue,” announced Shirley McKenzie, who has lived in the area for 20 years.

Worried residents started counting the cars that now zip down the back lane between Harrow Street and Guelph Street. In only three hours, they counted 214 cars cruising past. Many of them were speeding, witnesses said, and squeezing onto private driveways and yards to get by an oncoming vehicle in the narrow lane. One woman almost got hit by a truck that tried to squeeze past on her own driveway.

Usually, there were only a few cars driving in the back lane per hour, residents said.

“This is angry traffic, because it’s frustrated traffic, because they’re running into barriers and barriers,” said Leila Alvare, who lives near the barricade.

The city held a planning meeting for the area’s active-transport projects in April. One resident who attended the meeting protested the idea of the barricade to consultants, but got the impression the barrier was a “fait accompli.” Planners told him the barrier was “critical” to accomplishing their traffic-routing plan for the neighbourhood, he said.

“We said, ‘do everything you’ve got planned, but don’t close off the street,” said the resident, who declined to give his name. “(But) the die was cast, the concrete was being mixed.”

Now, residents opposing the barricade are demanding the city tear the concrete down and experiment with a basic traffic-light at Harrow and Academy, which the city is also currently erecting.

“Most people we talked to like the idea of a light,” said Bill Hamilton. “The barricade, everyone hates.”

At Lanark Street and Grosvenor Avenue, members of Westworth United Church were stunned when a dozen people found yellow parking tickets on their windshields following the Sunday morning service.

West Grosvenor is slated to lose street parking to make room for cycling paths beside two lanes of traffic.

George Gamby, head of the church’s worship committee, said city crews unexpectedly erected no-parking signs along parts of Grosvenor one week ago.

He said he spoke to the city about his concern the loss of parking would force elderly congregation members to walk far distances, and the church could potentially lose members.

About 300 families attend services every weekend, and the church only has a small number of handicapped parking stalls.

Gamby said the city assured him no one would be ticketed until his complaint was resolved.

“They just put the (no-parking) signs up and nobody knew anything,” Gamby said. “I think it’s mean-spirited.”

Church member John Dobbin said he’s worried the newly built traffic circles along Grosvenor will make it unsafe for members to cross the street.

He said the church is frequented by youth groups and competes for parking with a neighbouring soccer field.

“People are upset, they’re thinking, ‘I’m not going to be able to go to my church,” Dobbin said.

“This caught people so off guard.”

 

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca

jen.skerritt@freepress.mb.ca