Issues moved forward in April and May
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 08/06/2020 (1089 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
I wanted to touch base to let you know about three of the initiatives I’ve been working on at City Hall since April.
Thank you first to the City Clerks department, community members, advocates and others whose hard work and creativity has allowed the business of government and policy to continue amid COVID-19 measures.
• Amber light times – At the May public works committee meeting, I moved a motion asking the public service to report back on Winnipeg’s “four-second amber” timing at traffic lights.
Some time ago, I met with traffic reform advocate Chris Sweryda, with whom my office has maintained a dialogue for the past couple of years. We have worked together in the past to bring forward proposals for reform on issues such as alleged missing traffic signage, low-mounted lights for pedestrian corridors and now this. I believe this is a good time to take this issue on, given the City’s steady progress on the related matter of advance-warning flashing lights in high-speed areas.
• Commercial agriculture on residential Land – At the May meeting of the Riel community committee, I moved a motion to adopt the recommendations of the Winnipeg Food Council (from an earlier study I’d asked for) which recommends some amendments to the City of Winnipeg zoning bylaw to allow commercial agriculture on residential land. Food security is top of mind right now, and this will jive well I think with other recent measures the City of Winnipeg has been taking with the Food Council and the Province of Manitoba.
• Traffic calming report adopted – After over two years of work, city council finally unanimously adopted reforms I’d asked for concerning residential traffic calming. The previous process for residents to address excessive speed on their streets was not working. In the past, a 70 per cent petition was required, followed by a traffic study of thousands of vehicles per day, of which a large percentage had to be found speeding.
A report on the issue stated that “A study of 311 requests for the period between 2015 and 2018 indicated that just 32 of 156 requests made for speed humps on local streets met the 70 per cent petition requirement and none satisfied the warrant criteria, resulting in no implementations.”
Our new traffic calming tool kit is far more accessible. There are many new options other than speed bumps and the petition threshold to establish interest and get recommendations from city staff has been substantially lowered.
If you want to learn more about any of these highlights of April and May, please get in touch. The work continues.
Matt Allard
St. Boniface ward report
Matt Allard is the city councillor for St. Boniface.