Letters, June 13

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/06/2023 (823 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Slow down speedy cycles

There has been a lot of discussion about improving bike accesses in Winnipeg.

I fully support this, the more people we get using bicycles for transportation the less strain it puts on our streets and on our planet.

We need to start setting speed limits for bicycle users. I live six houses from the Harte Trail in Charleswood and I walk my dog there twice every day.

On several occasions we have had close calls with folks that are riding their bikes at excessive speeds. They come by very quickly and silently, and a dog on even a four-foot leash could easily step in front of them and seriously injure, or even kill, either or both of them. Today many of these bikes have electric motors.

Although there is a sign clearly prohibiting motorized vehicles, there is no enforcement and we see them all the time on the Harte Trail.

Some of these electric bikes are capable of reaching 45 km/h, a speed at which stopping a bike quickly becomes impossible. Would it be unreasonable to limit the speed of bikes on trails that are shared with folks walking with dogs or children to 20 km/h?

We should be doing everything we can to encourage and accommodate bicycle riding in our community. One important factor in achieving this is to make it safe and comfortable for everyone that uses these trails.

Thank you.

Steve Oetting

Winnipeg

Cruise night no fun for locals

In the evening and into the night, whenever the streets are dry, Portage Avenue becomes six lanes of fast and noisy back and forth street cruising.

Motorcycles, SUVs, pickup trucks, sports cars, some customized and a few restored vehicles, and even minivans and the most ordinary conveyances, race back and continuously hour after hour. Many of the same ones that speed in one direction a little time later charge in the opposite direction. It goes on hour after hour, nonstop.

This traffic situation was bad for many years but got worse during the pandemic, and has remained very bad.

This is not good for tourists and locals who want to enjoy the sidewalks or cross the streets in the downtown. Outdoor patios have mostly disappeared. People seem to scurry into apartments, condos and restaurants.

No one is sitting or standing outside watching this wild passing derby. There is nothing there for a viewer to enjoy. Though free, there is no entertainment value.

The racers are too busy with their jockeying to notice that they are not popular with those coming and going, and carefully avoiding or ignoring the dashing wheeled maniacs.

Downtown Portage Avenue is a hostile corridor for pedestrians, cyclists, public transit, taxi and ride-share users.

There have been many complaints and presentations to city hall. Representatives have ignored this problem, likely because they don’t live or ever visit the area.

It is hard to imagine the downtown as a tourist draw and a vibrant destination if it continues to be utilized and abused as a thoroughfare for obnoxious driving.

This is not a cheap or sensible passtime, and it is nothing but negative for the heart of Winnipeg.

When I see this bizarre use of travel space, I do get some small satisfaction in imagining that there must be a lot of expensive mechanical wear and tear taking place, and a huge amount of money and taxes being spent on fuel. But that feeling is offset with the sense that there is no net positive benefit to residents, visitors, the environment, and the quality of life in this city. The use of our infrastructure will not progress until this usage is changed.

Holly Bertram

Winnipeg

Ballot joke not funny

I have just returned from casting my vote in the Winnipeg South Centre byelection. With 46 names on the two-column ballot, I was lucky to remember the name of my chosen candidate and to be fluent enough in the English language to read all the names.

The Longest Ballot Committee has succeeded in turning this byelection into a circus with people waiting in line to take an extended time in the voting booth.

All that these clowns have proven is that they have a spare $200 to get their names in print.

Ellen Karr

Winnipeg

Resto should have closed for a while

My heart goes out to the young woman who was stabbed while serving tables at Olive Garden. The trauma will affect the victim and bystanders long after any physical wounds have healed.

With that in mind, it’s appalling that the Olive Garden reopened the next day, forcing staff to return to the site of their trauma with no time for recovery.

While an Olive Garden spokesperson claimed the company cares about their team, their actions demonstrate otherwise.

Kathryne Cardwell

Winnipeg

Legislature not right place for speech

Re: Tory event featuring ex-MP broke legislature rules (June 10)

We were already aware of a recent leaked audio recording of Candice Bergen’s melodramatic performance decrying brainwashing in our universities and schools. I had grown bored with repetitions on social media of Bergen’s stumbling hackneyed soliloquy, directed with no sense or irony at an audience of Tory youth at a campaign event for Heather Stefanson. Then the context in the production got more interesting.

I was not previously aware that this incident had occurred at the Legislature. What mystifies me is that the event took place in this venue in the guise of being non-partisan. How exactly was a campaign event for Heather Stefanson involving the PC Party Youth deemed to have been acceptable for this venue? It is partisan by definition. There can have been no possible misunderstanding of its character and purpose.

It is also amusing, although not surprising, to read of Stefanson’s usual evasion. She could not possibly comment about remarks of her campaign manager at an event for her campaign in a venue where partisan events are not permitted at her place of employment.

Yet somehow these two buffoons manage to stick their feet in each other’s mouths while struggling to free themselves from their tangled web. I await the next act with bated breath.

Ann La Touche

Winnipeg

Battery plant plan par for the course

Re: Stellantis has what it needs to make decision on Windsor battery plant: Champagne (June 6)

It seems odd that our national government is set to subsidize the production of electric batteries by $20 billion or more, an area where we have no natural strategic advantage. We have to effectively “bribe” large car makers to set up shop in central Canada to make these batteries.

Yet in the production of the minerals that go into these batteries — cobalt, lithium and nickel, where we have world class advantages, the government has done almost nothing. It is a classic Ottawa approach. Subsidize jobs in central urban areas with huge government expenditure, while they starve rural areas, particularly west of Toronto. This strategy has gone on since Manitoba joined Confederation in 1870.

Randy Boldt

Winnipeg