Working to lower limit on Marion Street

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 20/11/2017 (2874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This summer, I moved a motion calling for the speed limits on Marion Street to be reduced to 50 km/hr from its present 60.

This initiative had the enthusiastic support of the resident and business communities. Both the Old St. Boniface Residents Association and the Norwood Grove Business Improvement Zone (BIZ) passed formal resolutions in support of this change.

For a number of years, the Norwood BIZ which represents the businesses along Marion Street, Goulet, and St Mary’s Road, has lobbied for a reduction of speed along Marion Street.

The businesses along Marion Street are of a pedestrian oriented character, and it has been a longstanding goal of the business community there to foster a pedestrian friendly environment, with cafés, patios, street life, and most of all, customers.

Marion and Goulet streets form the spine of the St. Boniface community. They truly are the “main streets” of our neighbourhood.

According to an MPI study, the Marion and Tache intersection had the fifth-highest frequency in Winnipeg of vehicle/pedestrian collisions between 2008-2014 (eight in total).

There are more than 10,000 people living within immediate walking distance of these two streets. Like Provencher Boulevard, the community dreams of the street as a thriving and bustling centre of our neighbourhood.

High-speed traffic adjacent to our parking lanes, our pedestrian sidewalks, our patios, our community street, is not conducive to this vision. Let’s be serious as well; during the highest traffic period of the day, you can’t get even close to 60 km/h anyway.

The City of Winnipeg provided a report to our Public Works Committee on which I sat at the time, and endorsed reducing the speeds for reasons that are backed scientifically by professional engineers.

However — believe it or not — the City of Winnipeg does not have final say on its own speed limits. The Province of Manitoba’s Highway Traffic Board, rules on all speed limit changes. To my great dismay, they ruled against our application to reduce the speeds.

For the sake of every senior, every child, and every person who does or would frequent our businesses on Marion Street (and Goulet), I am determined not to abandon this fight after one setback.

Last Monday, I moved a motion again at Riel Community Committee calling for the changes to the speed limit a second time. I intend to take this back to the Highway Traffic Board for another review. I learned on Tuesday the 14, that the board — whose decision is rendered in camera a.k.a. in secret — had rejected the application.

I intend for this motion to move forward through the committee process again, all the way back to the traffic board. The next time, I intend to explain to them, in greater detail why this is important. If they do not reduce the speed limits on our neighbourhood street, I will next move to discussing the issue with the Minister of Infrastructure & Transportation.

I also plan to attend the Association of Manitoba Municipalities convention and speak to a motion calling for the Province of Manitoba to give exclusive jurisdiction over speed limits to municipalities. This would allow us to set our own speed limits in Winnipeg.

Marion Street can and will be a neighbourhood main street safer for cars, transit users, cyclists, pedestrians and most of all, the people who live along and near it. I will keep fighting for it.