Letters, July 2

Opinion

Optimistic about new system

Re: Bring on the buses (June 28)

I read Conrad Sweatman’s article with great interest and some optimism. I agree that frequency and reliability are key success factors for Winnipeg’s new transit system and I have some experience to support this conclusion. We just spent seven days in Paris, but for a variety of reasons we didn’t stay in a hotel near all of the attractions. We stayed in an apartment about 15 to 20 minutes walk from the last Metro stop on Line 1. This allowed us to spend our down time in a charming, quiet suburb, get in a short walk (croissant control) at the beginning and end of the day and take a totally stress free 20-minute ride on the Metro each way. We never waited longer than five minutes for a ride.

I thought, if I still worked, this would be a wonderful way to commute! And now it looks as though Winnipeg is on the cusp of providing a similar service. Bravo!

One of our initial concerns in Paris was possible safety issues on the Metro. This turned out to be a non-issue for a couple of reasons. One is that there are cameras everywhere. The other is that you can’t get into a station to catch the Metro without a valid pass to get through the turnstiles. This caused me to think about the situation in Winnipeg, where theft, assaults and non-paying riders are far too common.

I wonder how difficult it would be for transit to install touchpads on doors so that only those with a valid pass can get on the bus? Sort of like getting into an MLCC with your ID. It could solve a few problems at once.

Tom Pearson

Winnipeg

Protect yourself

Re: “Eyes up here” (Letters, June 30)

I wholeheartedly agree with Judy Herscovitch regarding pedestrians also having a responsibility to safeguard themselves and (especially) children in their care from being run over. There are a lot of distracted drivers on the roads.

There’s a pedestrian crossing near our home, and when my daughter was very young, I reminded her gently but repeatedly that just because she’d hit the button to cross didn’t mean a force field had been created around her to protect her from distracted drivers, and not to cross till cars from both directions had fully stopped.

When I’m out driving, however, it’s clear most people weren’t taught this valuable lesson, nor have they taught it to their kids — they just hit the button and walk, looking straight ahead or at their phone, essentially playing crosswalk roulette. At the BDI, I saw a dad who’d been glued to his phone yell his head off and bang on the car of a distracted driver who almost hit his young son who’d run ahead at the crossing. Maybe if he’d stopped paying homage to his iPhone overlord for a moment, he’d have been situationally aware enough to prevent such a near tragedy.

People need to understand, the car always wins.

Cheryl Moore

Winnipeg

Sign, sign, everywhere a sign

Re: The silence — and danger — of the e-bikes, June 27

Public safety for both pedestrians and cyclists would be well served by improving the consistency, design, and signage on shared pathways, and by enforcing a few common sense safety practices.

Cyclists should be required to use a bell when passing pedestrians or slower vehicles. They should also be required to leave a one-metre berth when passing, just as cars are required to do when passing cyclists. Pedestrians should also stick to the marked paths designated for them. These three practices, encouraged by adequate signage, would go far in improving safety on shared pathways for everyone.

Peter Blunden

Winnipeg

One for the money, two for the tow

Re: City’s ‘courtesy tows’ scrapped to save taxpayer dollars (June 26)

This is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard for a couple of reasons. One, don’t courtesy tow — ticket them and tow them to the compound. That will make the city money, as until the ticket is paid, the car stays impounded (and the towing company makes money).

Second, why state in the paper that the city will no longer do “courtesy tows”? Now everyone will leave their cars on the street all winter and the plowing around parked cars now is horrible!

Lori Walker

Winnipeg

Look south for road inspiration

Re: Carberry residents blast RCUT plan for Hwy. 5 (June 26)

A cost of $100 million plus. That is a big number. The city of Winnipeg, with the province partnering, is building, in turn, a number of overpasses on the Perimeter, and they are well needed based on the amount of traffic flow. This will cost more than a few of those big numbers. The recently completed St. Mary’s overpass at the south Perimeter comes to mind.

Not having driven south of the U.S. border for some time, I can only assume nothing has changed on I-29 going to Fargo. Seems pretty much every small community between here and there has an off/on ramp system, with stop signs at the overpass crossing. Effective, pretty easy to understand and probably a lot less than the aforementioned big number. They take up a lot less farm land than the latest overpass design and would be an easier build than the overly complex St. Mary’s project was.

The project the province is proposing, an RCUT, simply does not make sense. If it did, the Perimeter would be getting them as well.

Want to do it right, do it once and do it affordably? Hate to say it, but look south.

Bob Haegeman

St . Pierre-Jolys

Living outside isn’t easy

Re: Thanks, but no thanks: some in encampments (June 25)

As a physician who has worked on Main Street for the past decade, one thing is clear to me: most homeless people want homes.

My homeless patients regularly tell me the things they hate about being homeless — having nowhere to get clean, having limited access to bathrooms, having to carry all their things with them all the time because they don’t have a safe place to keep them.

I see the physical injuries they sustain, and I hear about some of the rapes. Many people stay in terrible situations — with abusive partners, with people who use the drugs that my patients are trying to quit — because it is still better for them than living on the streets.

I appreciate the Free Press’s attempt to include the voices of homeless people in their stories, and I encourage you to continue doing so. But let’s be very clear — homelessness isn’t like living at a cottage for most. Most homeless people want homes.

Susan Cuvelier

Winnipeg

Name game

Re: Who is Zohran Mamdani? (June 25)

Last week, 33-year-old Zohran Mamdani marked his stunning political ascension when he declared victory in the Democratic primary from a Queens rooftop bar after former New York governor Andrew Cuomo conceded defeat. Zohran Mamdani is a one-time rapper seeking to become the city’s first Muslim and Indian-American mayor, and its youngest mayor in generations.

Zohran Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist. Wab Kinew is also a one-time rapper and now the New Democratic Party premier of Manitoba. The NDP, previously the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, changed its name in 1961 to shed any hint of socialism and emphasize its members’ belief in democracy. Unlike the Liberals, they chose a name which says nothing.

It’s time for the NDP to return to its roots. The CCF was the party of J.S. Woodsworth. I suggest that Wab Kinew follow in his footsteps and rename the NDP the Democratic Socialist Party.

Rich North

Winnipeg