Crossing at a Yield

When you are going out for a walk and have to cross a main road at an intersection. Most cases you will come across a yield or a merge where you have to cross it before you can actually get to the intersection. Unfortunately a lot of these yields or merges don’t have crosswalk signs and some drivers won’t stop for people to cross (some do but not enough). The two main places that come to mind right now that I have trouble with are Southbound Lakewood Blvd merge to Westbound Bishop Grandin and Southbound Archibald St merge to Westbound Fermor Ave. At these locations I always have to wait a long time before I can cross, a lot of times I’ve waited until the 10th car decided to stop! I’ve only been in a few moments where something bad could have happened but thank goodness it was just close calls. One of them was when I was starting to crossing the Former Ave yield to Lakewood Blvd because it looked like the driver was stopped for me but turns out he wasn’t stopped for me but was actually checking for cars so he starting driving but the slammed on his brakes and luckily I noticed right away so I wouldn’t of got hit anyway. Later that week something else happened but this I didn’t start crossing but the I guess driver thought I was about to cross without looking but just as was turning to look the driver slammed on the brakes(I was crossing the Southbound Westmount Dr yield to Former Ave and continue down Niakwa Trail along Former).

Lakewood Blvd at Bishop Grandin Blvd

Archibald St at Former Ave

Even though there is no crosswalk sign, people still need to be able to cross but I do notice more drivers let people cross when crossing sign is at other yields. Such as St. Anne’s Rd at Bishop Grandin Blvd but only two of the four corners have a crosswalk sign.

Northbound St Anne’s Rd to Eastbound Bishop Grandin Blvd

 Hopefully more safety measures in place in the future and keep aware when going out because you never know who is paying attention.

Niakwa Rd & Pebble Beach Rd

As you can see in this map Niakwa Rd turns into Pebble Beach Rd

The sidewalks on Pebble Beach Rd and Niakwa Rd in Niakwa Place needs attention. Pretty much the whole stretch needs to be replace but instead of replacing the sidewalk with a new one. The sidewalk should be replaced with a bike pathway so when your coming from Archibald Trail. That way you have a better connection through the area and a easier way to get around the areas in the South and if your traveling Downtown or around the city from the South. At South end of Pebble Beach Rd at Willowlake Crescent there is a sidewalk that connects to Bluewater Crescent which connects to streets that reach to the new trail that connects Beaverhill Blvd to Bishop Grandin at Shorehill Dr. This connecter sidewalk could use a bit of an upgrade as well.

The South end of Pebble Beach Rd has a crossing for Willowlake Crescent

The sidewalk that ultimately connects to the Shorehill Trail which leads to Bishop Grandin

Pebble Beach Rd is the main road for Niakwa Place and can get busy with cars at times and has a school and lots of kids are walking and biking to and from school using the sidewalk. There is many other places in the area where people need to use this road as part of their route to get elsewhere. The crosswalk to get across from the school and Pebble Beach Rd only has sidewalks one side. In the picture below you can see a path created from people walking on the grass to get across the railway over time. This is a shorter way for people living on the bays on the other side but I don’t that’s the best thing to do unless a proper at-grade crossing.

One of the crossings at the School on Pebble Beach Road

Now the Niakwa Rd portion only has the sidewalk to where Royal Salinger Rd meets with Niakwa Rd and at that point you have the option to go North and cross Fermor Ave to go down the Niakwa Trail and Archibald Trail or you can continue going down Niakwa Rd to the Pedestrian Bridge over the Seine River. That will take you to St. Anne’s Rd which has a few stores and is a bit of a shortcut for people living South of Fermor and not to mention the Bridge rarely floods because it’s higher then the Bridge for the Niakwa Trail. Many people take walks down Niakwa Rd and would benefit being a 30 km/h zone in this section because of the cars coming in and out of the golf course at end of the road.

Niakwa Rd West of Archibald Street

Niakwa Rd East of Archibald Street

Bishop Grandin Trail West of Pembina Highway

This past weekend was a great weekend to get out and enjoy the weather, I went out for a ride on Friday(12.4 km), Saturday(16 km), and Sunday(17.6 km). Friday I went to some new streets off of Novavista Drive, Saturday I went to Windsor Park (although I’ve been down every road) I have some sidewalks to talk about, Sunday is what I’ll be talking about first because that’s what was the best part of my weekend.

So on Sunday I drove my wheelchair from Costco off of McGillivray Blvd to South St. Boniface and was the first taking Bishop Grandin Trail all the way from Costco! I’ve driven from Costco before but took the other ways such as McGillivray Trail, Pembina, Jubilee Ave, Niakwa Trail to get from Costco to my area in St. Boniface about 2 years ago and last year drove from the Safeway in Lindenwoods and went through Lindenwoods to Seel Ave to take the pathway that connects Beaumont, then take the Jubilee Ave/Niakwa Trail route. Yesterday was a new adventure for me (I wasn’t planning this early in the year but this warm April, why not?). I’ve been wanting to go this way for almost 2 years now but the Bishop Grandin overpass thing & Kenaston extension was being built at the time and was not open until now.

Full week of Nice Weather

This past week was a nice week to get out and go for a few good rides (Thursday 14.8 km, Friday 12.8 km, Saturday 8 km) … Only Thursday and Friday did I find new streets:

Thursday:

• Norfolk Ave – No sidewalk but since Norfolk Ave has almost no traffic so probably not needed.
• Oakcrest Pl – Has a sidewalk on one side which is already more then it needs (it’s a quiet area)

Friday:

• Sheldon Dr, Sachet Pl, Sundial Crescent, Hirt Crescent, Munn Rd – All have no sidewalks.
• Ashworth St S – Nice sidewalk at the little section I went down but the rest I don’t, I’ll have to check it out this May or Summer.

Street Count: 702 in Winnipeg, 36 Streets elsewhere;

First Weekend for Finding New Sidewalks

With this past weekend reaching plus 20C I was able to get out for my earliest 10 km “run” (19 days sooner then my old earliest) for Friday and my earliest 15 km “run” the very next day (36 days sooner then my old earliest). During my travels I went down 10 new streets, some with no sidewalks but overall half and half. I’m going to start with the new (first time going down) and then places I’ve already down on the way but haven’t mentioned before, although I didn’t take any pictures so hopefully google street view can demonstrate.

• NEW TO ME: Turnham Dr, Sheridan Pl, Kennington Bay, Hyatt Pl, Nakomis Bay, Wisconsin St all have no sidewalks, although not need but Turnham Dr & Kennington Bay have sidewalk connections to Compark Rd which was renewed last year with a brand new sidewalk that was never had before! Use to go down Compark Rd a lot when I was younger.

• NEW: Woodydell Ave is in decent shape from Dakota St to Wyoming St, just one bumb you have watch out for right before Wyoming St. West of Wyoming St is alright shape, some bad spots with fixed sections close to St Mary’s Rd.
• NEW: Hazelwood Crescent and Iowa St is about the same as Woodydell Ave but the main thing I notice is the sidewalks only go half way down each street and both streets connect to DR. D. W. Penner (K-6) School and should have the sidewalks extended do kids have more safe ways of getting to the school.
• Cote St is in pretty good shape for being in an old area, just a few little bumbs and cracks.
• NEW: Horace St is for the most part in decent shape but however between Des Meurons St and Youville St it’s pretty bad with the top layer of concrete damaged in such as way It’s hard to explain (wish I took a picture because I see this too often). The more I got closer to St.Mary’s the better it was.
• ALREADY BEEN DOWN: St. Annes Rd across the street of Granby Bay, has a big curb size bumb (almost can’t make it up and would have to be super careful!). Has been like that for 10 years!

The weekend was great, saw a movie Friday after my drive, watched the Jets Vs Flames game Saturday! So that’s why I didn’t have any time to take photos of the sidewalks ( Had places to go 🙂 )

Street Count: 656 in Winnipeg, 36 Streets elsewhere; That’s right I have list of every street, road, bay I went down, made it a few months ago ( took a whole week to complete but I did it so I’m going to update more often now)

New Facebook Page Plus Thoughts of My Blogs Future

You may have notice I haven’t posted much lately with just a few posts in the last month or so. Well that’s because I created a Facebook page called “Winnipeg Sidewalks Need Attention” two months ago and have been promoting my page ever since. I just have been thinking of how to schedule it: my thinking is do a blog post once or twice a week and Facebook post 4 to 6 posts a week. What do you, the readers think? Ultimately I want this blog to become something big so that’s why I decided to create “Winnipeg Sidewalk Need Attention” to bring in more people to wpgsidewalksneedattention.wordpress.com. My dream is to make this into a non-profit organization someday in the future but there’s only so much one blogger can do, For now I’m going to my best to spread my voice and other peoples voices of our concerns of sidewalks in the City of Winnipeg through this blog I started last June and it’s new Facebook page that started February 8th . You may wonder how I know so much about sidewalks? To begin with lets start with when growing up as a kid I became more aware of the importance of sidewalks because of becoming more and more depended of the use of a wheelchair. First it was using a scooter for long distances, and then not too long after that I was in a power wheelchair ever since.

Narrow Sidewalk

Today i’m writing about narrow sidewalks. When it comes to the width of sidewalks it should be wide enough for at least one wheelchair and some but did you know the standard width is much wider than that. The standard width range is 1.5 to 1.8 meters.

“The City’s Universal Design Standards state that sidewalks should be a minimum width of 1.5 metres. Today, 93% of sidewalks in Winnipeg are at least 1.5 metres (or more) in width, however, approximately 7% of sidewalks (or 175 linear kilometres) are narrower than the 1.5 metre requirement. Most of these narrow sidewalks are located in Winnipeg’s older neighbourhoods“ – City of Winnipeg Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies 2014

Areas that I came across when traveling in my wheelchair:

Archibald Street by Tim Hortons – Pretty much had to go through the drive through to get around.

Archibald Street by Tim Hortons – Pretty much had to go through the drive through to get around

St. Mary’s Rd at Fifth Ave by Guay Park – Felt way too close for my comfort

St. Mary’s Rd at Enfield Crescent by Nelson McIntyre Collegiate – So close my foot rest was over hanging on the road when turning

Although some of this sidewalks are at the standard width but in some cases that’s not enough when the sidewalk is right beside the road like on St. Mary’s with vehicles zooming by at 60 km/h can be scary. Another thing is some sidewalks have bushes or trees that make a normal sidewalk width less then half the width.

St. Mary’s Road by Mager Dr

Story of Winter Troubles

Although spring is on it’s way and we didn’t get much snow this year but with just 20 centimetres of snow still creates problems for sidewalks. Winnipeg does get sidewalks cleared with-in 36 hours of each snowfall of 5 centimetres or more. I don’t believe that’s soon enough for people who need to get places like appointments or school even.

From section C of the Snow Clearing Policy on the City of Winnipeg website:

“Sidewalks on Priority I & II streets shall normally be maintained to a compacted snow surface. Plowing shall commence when an inspection, following a 5 cm snowfall accumulation or equivalent local drifting conditions, indicates a necessity for a clearing operation. The snow plowing operations shall be completed within thirty-six hours following the end of an average storm“

One time during high school I had to write my exam for one of my classes and my family had to shovel half a block of city sidewalk all the way to where the school bus picks me up. Since it snowed a lot that year the city pushed snow from the street back on to the sidewalk just before going to school.

Last winter was much worse… I was stuck inside for 4 months because of to much snow to deal with as well the record cold winter.

This year the only thing I have to complain is when they plowed the side streets, they pushed snow on Priority I & II sidewalks so that means people wheelchairs have to wait up to 36 hours before getting around anywhere

Snow covering sidewalk

Unfortunately winters are sometimes hard to deal with but things can be done differently to make it easier for pedestrians, Made it through this winter but next winter is another story.

Crosswalk Visibility

When going for a walk to work or school or just for enjoyment, chances are you’ll need a place to cross the street or road. Most likely you will pick a spot where drivers will see you the best like a crosswalk or intersection where is safe. Intersections may not be close enough to where you have to go so you cross at a crosswalk ( if one is their) but not all crosswalks are safe. When it comes to good crosswalk visibility, it should be well indicated with signage and painted lines. Crosswalks with not so good visibility doesn’t have any of the indicators. Below are some of the crosswalks i’ve crossed over the years, some are not so good and some are good…

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Crosswalks with good visibility:

(Dakota St is the winner here)

Meadowbrook Rd at Lakewood Blvd

Dakota St at Jonathan Toews Community Centre

Meadowood Dr at Victor H L Wyatt School

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 Crosswalks with not so good visibility:

(Crosswalks I believe should be upgraded)

Royal Salinger Rd at Pebble Beach Rd

Farnham Rd at Beaverhill Blvd

Knightsbridge Dr at Meadowood Dr

Tyrone Bay at St Michael Rd

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 Jubilee Ave is a great example of a crosswalk with high visibility because of the wide strips like on the Beatles cover with a controlled flashing light system. This makes it very safe for pedestrians but there is a hidden unsafe factor for people who can’t reach or press the button. For instance when I cross at one of these crosswalks I can’t push the button so when I do try to cross I have to wait a longer time because drivers are expecting the lights to go on and not really watching for someone to cross. Luckily lots of people cross here so chances are I can just cross at the  same time. If they had lower button I could just use my foot rest or part of my power wheelchair. One time on St. Mary’s Rd I was trying to cross at a controlled crosswalk and someone stopped for me so I’m thankful for that. Also I sometimes just wait 5 or 10 mins for someone that is also crossing but that doesn’t always work.

Jubilee Ave at Bridge Drive-in ( my favourite ice cream shop )

Crosswalks should be a safe and comfortable places to cross the roadway or street.

Nassau Street South

Nassau Street South is in Lord Roberts community between Day Street South and Osborne Street. Nassau Street South is split into two parts which gets disconnect just north of Kylemore Avenue but the sidewalk should continue but does not.

With the reduced traffic on this roadway combined with a built sidewalk all the way through would make a nice alternative to Osbrorne Street and would benefit walking in this area.