Downtown one-way street system turns 65

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/08/2021 (1503 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This month marks 65 years since Winnipeg followed the lead of hundreds of other North American cities and implemented a one-way street system in its downtown.

The 1956 conversion wasn’t the city’s earliest experience with one-ways. The first permanent one-way street was Elmwood’s Glenwood Crescent in July 1930. Residents petitioned for it after growing tired of motorists using their street as a scenic shortcut to get to Lockport and the beaches. The one-way lapsed after a few years but was reinstated in 1945 and exists to this day.

In 1931, a section of Maryland Street from Broadway southbound to the Maryland Bridge became a one-way to alleviate the increasing traffic on what was a narrow residential street. Residents and businesses complained bitterly but neither the city nor property owners wanted to pay to widen the street to allow two-way traffic to resume.

Traffic in Winnipeg’s downtown reached gridlock proportions after the Second World War as people moved to new suburban neighbourhoods. A solution was needed to efficiently funnel all those vehicles into and out of the downtown each day.

A 1950 Metro Winnipeg planning report recommended that north-south streets from Memorial Boulevard to Main Street become one-ways. It called the plan “one of the most effective yet inexpensive plans for the relief of congestion” when combined with parking restrictions and replacing street cars  with more agile trolley buses.

The first one-ways came into effect on June 27, 1954, under the watchful eye of city traffic engineer W. H. Finnbogason. Smith/King streets were converted to northbound traffic and Princess/Donald streets became southbound. These streets were chosen as they connected to the Midtown Bridge, which was set to open in September 1955.

The one-way plan was delayed when the city found it was more expensive than anticipated. There were costs associated with adjusting traffic lights, switching around hundreds of street signs, and rebuilding some traffic islands. The major expense, however, was moving dozens of poles and kilometres of overhead wires to reroute trolley buses.

The city negotiated a 50/50 cost sharing agreement for the work with the Transit Commission in April 1956 and the one-way plan was back on track.

On Aug. 26, 1956, the remaining six downtown streets were converted. Southbound traffic ran on Garry, Donald, Carlton and Kennedy streets while northbound traffic ran on Fort, Smith Hargrave, and Edmonton.

As expected, there was traffic chaos as drivers adjusted to the new system. The longest-lasting issue was motorists not understanding how to properly turn off a one-way street. The Winnipeg Free Press assisted them by running a series of “how to” diagrams the following month.

Two additional streets, St. Mary and York avenues, were added to the one-way system in December 1961 to alleviate traffic congestion from the Osborne Bridge.

While commuters were the big winners under the one-way street system, many downtown business owners felt they were the losers. Hundreds of on-street parking spaces were lost, parking restrictions prevented customers from stopping outside many buildings, and the one-way streets with their numerous turning restrictions confused potential shoppers.