I spent a few days in Boston. What follows is a disjointed series of pictures observations from that trip. Getting Around Look at Boston on google maps and you’ll see freeways cutting through the middle of the city. Route 90 shoots west, straight through the historic Back Bay neighbourhood (or should I type “neighborhood” because…
11 people are in the race to be the new boss of Winnipeg. Although one candidate has more name recognition and support in the polls, the winner is not quite a foregone conclusion. I find it refreshing to have a civic election where there is no incumbent mayor and many different visions and personalities to…
A couple of years ago the government of Manitoba announced that it was going to upgrade the South Perimeter Highway. Work has begun. This whole summer equipment has been digging and plowing and getting land ready for new split-grade intersections at the St. Anne’s Rd. and St. Mary’s Rd crossings of the Perimeter. Yes!! It’s…
The momentum behind a movement to reduce residential speed limits is building, not just in Winnipeg but in larger cities all over the world. Calgary city council recently voted to reduce their residential speed limit to 40 km/h. The UN and WHO are pushing for reduced residential speeds. Outspoken individuals and advocacy groups have sprung…
On September 24, MPI issued a warning that 2019 was trending towards a new record for pedestrian fatalities in Manitoba in a single year. For every fatality there are on average over 13 injuries, according to MPI’s data. A week ago, two more pedestrians were hit by a driver and sent to the hospital in…
In my previous blog post (here) I did my best to explain why I thought it was important to open up Winnipeg’s “iconic” Portage and Main intersection. Portage and Main, the only square that Manitoba has ever had on the Canadian Monopoly board, is in reality a blight on downtown Winnipeg and an impediment to…
Families are being torn apart, coworker is pitted against coworker, and my Twitter feed has turned into a war zone. It’s no surprise, really. If my 10 years of blogging and 5 years on Twitter have taught me anything, it’s that nothing riles up Winnipeggers like transportation issues, and opening up Portage and Main is…
Every day I drive to work. I get in my little pickup truck, fire up the 4.0l V6 engine, and spend 40 minutes expelling greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere and swearing under my breath at the boneheads I share the road with. I once was a bus rider. Even after I moved to the…
As some of you already know, I am a proponent of zipper merge. It is an easy solution to a common traffic problem based on the simple concept of taking turns — something we all learned as kids. Yet as adults, we seem to have an exceedingly difficult time adjusting to this change. A new…
Some city councillors are better at engaging the community than others, and St.Norbert’s Janice Lukes is near the top of the pile in that regard. Most recently, Lukes, a long time cycling advocate, held a forum on fast-tracking a downtown cycling grid which I attended and will tell you a little bit about in this…
Around This Town 