Traffic-calming measures coming to Winnipeg's Cambridge Street
Permanent and temporary speed bumps, road-narrowing traffic curbs coming to busy residential street
A plan to encourage drivers to reconsider taking a shortcut down a River Heights street is moving forward at Winnipeg's city hall.
People living on Cambridge Street have raised concerns about high traffic volumes for years. Next week, council's public works committee will consider a city proposal to install traffic bumps, curb-narrowing features and other measures to get drivers to slow down on the residential street, which runs from Taylor Avenue to Wellington Crescent.
It intersects with busy routes like Grant and Corydon avenues and Academy Road, and runs parallel with Waverley Street, just a couple of blocks to the west.
"I think there's a huge opportunity for improvement here, but I think the proposed interim measures are a great first step," said Tim Fennell, a Cambridge Street resident who helped found the group Calm Cambridge.
Fennell has spent the last few years collecting traffic data outside his house.
The section of Cambridge where he lives, between Academy Road and Corydon Avenue, is only meant to handle up to 1,000 vehicles per day, but Fennell says he's recorded daily traffic volumes four to five times that amount.
"I've seen two accidents where vehicles were severely damaged. And just yesterday, a deer was hit in the early morning right on the street here," he said, standing near the intersection of Cambridge and Dorchester Avenue.
As part of its short-term traffic management plan for the street, the city will install permanent speed bumps on Cambridge and Oxford streets between Academy and Corydon, and temporary ones on Wilton Street later this year, the city report says.
Road-narrowing traffic curbs will be installed at various points between Corydon and Grant.
Drivers heading north on Waverley Street will be restricted from turning right onto Mathers Avenue, north of Taylor, during peak periods. Temporary speed bumps will be installed in the back lane of Ebby Avenue, also north of Taylor, to discourage cut-through traffic.
These changes will cost about $100,000, the report says.
Traffic volume 'quite incredible': councillor
The city's streets manager, David Patman, says people in the neighbourhood have been trying to get drivers to slow down since at least the 1990s, as many motorists look for ways around nearby congested routes like Route 90.
"Because of its location in the city, there's a lot of through-traffic on this corridor. It's a long way between east and west major corridors," he said.
Past attempts to deal with the problem have met community opposition, Patman said, so city staff spent the past year coming up with a plan that would minimize impacts on neighbouring streets.
"We cautiously sort of looked at this again and came up with some solutions that would make a difference, but would be on the small scale. So if we do see there's an issue with them … we can take them out and revisit the situation," Patman said.
The city will conduct an online survey to gather feedback on the changes.
Coun. Janice Lukes, the chair of the public works department, says she sees why people complain.
"I had a friend who was living on Cambridge. I parked on Cambridge, I got out to cross the street — oh my goodness … the volume of traffic, the speed of the traffic. It was quite incredible," Lukes said.
Fennell says he's relieved the plan is moving forward.
"I'm hoping that generally non-local traffic will find that Cambridge Street is less convenient to use as a through street," he said.
He hopes other city projects, like a pilot project lowering speed limits in four Winnipeg neighbourhoods from 50 kilometres per hour to 30 and 40 km/h, will lead to further traffic improvements.
A report on that project is expected later this spring.
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