Get on the bus?
RAPID TRANSIT, SPRAWL, AND WINNIPEG’S RACE FOR MAYOR
ANDREW LODGE STAFF
For many Winnipeggers, waiting outside at a bus stop on a cold January morning is both a rite of passage and a daily winter reality. Like it or not, Winnipeg Transit is an indelible part of our collective memory, not to mention a crucial ingredient in the functioning of our city.
It’s not surprising, then, that transit and its future direction attract significant and impassioned debate. In recent years, public discussion has featured proponents and opponents of new models and, indeed, new visions for the structure of Winnipeg’s public transportation system. In a city where municipal politics are a low-key affair, issues surrounding transit and the not-unrelated topic of urban sprawl in general (see, for instance, the heated back-and-forth on the new Waverley West development) attract a fair amount of attention. And while this year’s election is not the most exciting race of all time, the sharp division between candidates on the future of transit is one of the more attentiongrabbing topics.
The subject is not a new one. A number of years ago, outgoing mayor Glen Murray — widely considered to be a “new” kind of mayor on the Canadian cityscape — proposed implementation of a rapid transit system, also known as bus rapid transit or BRT. The initiative was to involve the creation of “bus corridors” that would allow buses to travel at high speeds, mainly uninterrupted on lanes devoted exclusively to them. In the fall of 2004, after Murray’s departure, new mayor Sam Katz shelved the plan, calling instead for further examination of the city’s transportation needs.
The issue refused to go away, however. A year later, in September of 2005, the reconvened Winnipeg Rapid Transit Task Force recommended that BRT be developed in the city. The report cited numerous reasons why the city was well-suited to such a system. Nevertheless, Katz has remained equivocal, preferring instead to keep an “open mind on the subject.” However, Katz and city council did endorse the task force report last October. The first stage, linking the U of M to downtown, is planned for 2013, eight years after the Rapid Transit Task Force report was released.
This has not been good enough for Kaj Hasselriis, one of three mayoral challengers. Prior to aspiring to the city’s top political job, Hasselriis was an organizer for interest group Winnipeggers for Bus Rapid Transit, which brought him into sharp conflict with Katz and his supporters in city hall. Predictably, Hasselriis has made BRT a central focus of his campaign, as part of his broader platform of “making Winnipeg a greener city.” To do this, Hasselriis argues that Winnipeg must “build Bus Rapid Transit” and connect these corridors with cycling paths, thereby encouraging “the use of public transportation and cycling.” Hasselriis vows to have the first stage of BRT implemented much sooner than the Rapid Transit Task Force recommendation. In terms of a light rail system, seen as the other major transit alternative in the city, Hasselriis has included it in his platform as a future option. Katz, for his part, has mentioned light rail transit (LRT) as having “some potential” but has endorsed buses as the more economical option.
A SOLUTION TO SUBURBANIZATION?
A need for greater emphasis on public transportation has been an issue throughout car-crazed North America since cities began their transformative decentralization into more independent and only loosely connected suburban units. Relatively high-density downtown cores have deteriorated in many cities, replaced with sprawling growth that creeps into agrarian land, which has made connection times untenable in the case of the continent’s larger cities. Sprawl has also meant that most urban citizens now rely on personal motor vehicles. In other words, current infrastructure inherently generates high rates of greenhouse gas emissions making warming inevitable. In fact, the Suzuki Foundation’s report on sprawl notes that “in some parts of Canada sprawl is the largest driver of greenhouse gas emissions.”
The concern about sprawl has even reached the ears of top-level politicians. John Godfrey, former Liberal minister of infrastructure and communities, was reported by the Toronto Star back in 2005 as saying that cities “cannot grow indefinitely forever . . . we cannot continue to build urban societies based on automobiles and suburbs.” At the time, $800 million was allocated for revamping public transportation in Canadian cities — $29 million for Manitoba specifically — as part of a “new deal,” including the reinvestment of $5 million in gas tax revenue, according to a government of Manitoba press release. However, following the federal election in January of this year, a new budget was drawn up before that money could be spent.
For grassroots supporters of BRT, or LRT for that matter, the topic is positioned as a potentially defining and distinguishing element of a future Winnipeg. Beyond the obvious environmental benefits of BRT, supporters see more efficient and more rapid transport into the city’s downtown core as critical to the ongoing efforts at revitalization of the inner city. Likewise, emphasis on developments like the controversial Waverley West proposal flies in the face of these goals.
There is little doubt that, regardless of the presence or absence of political will focused on combating sprawl and enhancing public transportation, reversing the trend will be no easy task. Big-box stores are springing up, not closing down, as suburbs become more self-sufficient. This has ultimately driven development dollars, and consequently a large proportion of the middle-class, away from downtown.
The suburban dream, born out of the optimism and gluttony of post- Second World War North America, is still very much alive and strong. A local ad for a suburban Winnipeg development tells the story: “Traveling the fifteen or so minutes from busy, downtown Winnipeg to the gently curving streets of Whyte Ridge is like taking a short trip into a different time. As you pass through the Whyte Ridge entrance, the blur of concrete is replaced with wide lawns, tall trees and expanses of developed parkland for residents to play in and walk through.” A sharp contrast to the dark, dirty, dangerous reputation of Winnipeg’s core.
Not only do these suburban developments siphon potential dollars away from downtown development, the big-box expanse is by definition only reachable by car, and so with more people in the suburbs where cars are a necessity, the number of voters with a stake in ideas like BRT remains low. And this, in turn, makes it very difficult to promote highdensity downtown neighbourhoods. “You can’t build high-density neighbourhoods and make them stick unless you have an effective, affordable transit system,” said former mayor Glen Murray recently at a talk in Toronto.
DO THEY MEAN IT THIS TIME?
So what lies in store for Winnipeg? If recent polls are any indication, Katz is likely to take the Oct. 25 election. In February, Katz poured $142 million spread over six years into Winnipeg Transit, as reported by the Manitoban. The money is earmarked for upgrades to bus shelters and new diesel-hybrid articulated buses, among other things. In addition, amidst great fanfare, the mayor also announced the purchase of Canadian Pacific Railway’s dormant Marconi line for $1.7 million with the help of Winnipeg industrialist John Buhler. The line runs between North Kildonan and Elmwood in the North End. The corridor, according to Katz, will be converted into a bike path — though in 2005, the Rapid Transit Task force specified this stretch for use in the second rapid transit corridor.
Katz, who has been criticized for what some see as a much too long of a timeline for BRT, insists that rapid transit is not off the table, and is part of a longer-term vision. In a Sept. 21 CBC story Katz is quoted as stating, “We’re not building for next year or two years from now. We’re building for 10 or 15 years from now, so rapid transit is definitely part of the plan.” In fact, according to him, the newlypurchased Marconi line may be part of that plan: “I envision it as a rapid transit line, but there’s no reason why a rapid transit line can’t be sometime in the future, and a bicycle path be the initial start of what’s to be done on that line.”
Hasselriis, though, is not convinced. He argues that when Katz was elected the city had already secured $34 million from the federal and provincial coffers for BRT — the first phase of BRT was to be up and running by some time next year — but Katz funnelled the money elsewhere at the first opportunity: “The last time Sam Katz had money and land for bus and bike corridors, he gave it up. So I have to say I’m skeptical about this announcement.” However, the funds, which were intended for green initiatives more broadly and not specifically for BRT, were redirected towards waste water management and community centres.
Hasselriis and other BRT proponents argue that Katz has continually offered oblique references to transit reform in an effort to stave off criticism over city hall’s inactivity, with no actual intention of doing anything.
Does this city need a new vision? Does sprawl need to be reversed? The answer largely depends on whether one sees its logical consequences — the effects seen in other cities around North America — as troubling. Smog, poor air quality, and increasing rates of disease as a result of urban pollution are all issues that may seem far away from a city like Winnipeg — that is, until they land on our doorstep.
