Traffic Issues for Winnipeg

On Wednesday Mar 19/2014 I attended the monthly meeting of RENN (River East Neighbourhood Network). When the chairman came to item 6- New business, I brought up the topic of how the city is addressing (?failing to address) the problem of traffic. I began my comments by praising RENN on their successes with bicycle paths and other trails for the city. I mentioned however that re vehicle traffic there I can identify at least 7   areas of shortcomings . Here they are:
1. Failure to twin Concordia drive- As a medical doctor practicing in the area , my beef  for years
2. Where Concordia drive approaches Lagimodiere (Hwy 59)- traffic wishing to go south on 59 must first go north. A separate  overhead over the railway tracks  could have eliminated this. Land on the current northern router could possibly have been sold to Concordia Village or other developments in the area -instead the city decided to widen deVries- slowing vehicle traffic and creating more  traffic jams and/or potential vehicle accidents for those entering or exiting Hwy59.
3.Failure to complete a cloverleaf on north east corner of perimeter 101 and Hwy 59 ( Lagimodiere)
4. Chief Peguis trail-several issues:
          i) At Henderson Hwy  intersection- failure to include an overhead here. If my recollections are correct when the city decided to rebuild Disraeli bridge they had the option of closing traffic over the river - This  would have saved the city 10's of millions - probably an amount less than that required to keep the bridge open.. Had we accepted this inconvenience (? for 18 months) we would have a cloverleaf with cars able to  travel at 80 kilometres without stopping from Settlers bridge to Hwy 59
         ii) at Gateway intersection- Its our confusion corner- vehicles exiting to Gateway find Gateway      narrowed to one lane making yielding difficult.
        iii) At time of Chief Peguis trail construction the city should also have expanded Gateway to 4 lanes -2 lanes each way- with a 3rd lane for turning- instead our traffic engineers in their wisdom narrowed it to one lane! With an elevation on Gateway as it approaches Chief Peguis, it is impossible to see oncoming traffic for those wishing to make a left hand turn from Gateway onto Chief Peguis when they have a green light
5. Gateway should have been developed as a 4 lane road probably from Hottinott to its southern end at Talbot Ave- and maybe even had it tied in with the Regent Ave overpass and/or  Watt street.
6. Rapid city transit. Our city engineers should see what the city fathers are doing in Calgary- their rapid city transit goes down town with stops at different commercial sites en route. We in Winnipeg are building ours in the wilderness.where there are no city businesses (shopping areas malls, etc.) en route.. Toronto and Montreal have incorporated underground businesses with their rapid transit lines.
7. Forsight. Toronto for example has placed the framework(cement T structures) for future construction  in place even if the construction plans for the roadways may not begin for years.. I understand Calgary has done likewise by buying property where they are planning to put subways new lines , rapid thorough fares etc for vehicles and/or trains.
After the meeting I chatted briefly with the chairman, for my rather long comments.