FAQs

Neighbourhood greenways are on-street routes designated to serve cyclists and pedestrians safely alongside motor vehicles. They typically include a range of treatments to achieve lower vehicle speeds and volumes ranging from signage, bike signals, and pavement markings to varying degrees of traffic calming.  Best practice is to reduce speeds on greenways to 30 km/h to help reduce motor vehicle traffic and improve safety for cyclists, but all of Winnipeg’s greenways currently operate as 50 km/h zones.

Winnipeg currently has 11 neighbourhood greenways, all of which allow motor vehicle traffic to operate at 50 km/hr. The pilot program is part of a larger study to look at the impacts of reduced speeds on the safety of Winnipeg roads for all road users. As part of the pilot program, we selected four existing neighbourhood greenways to pilot 30 km/h speed limits: 

• Eugenie Avenue from St. Mary’s Road to Youville Street
• Warsaw Avenue/Fleet Avenue from Lindsay Street to Nassau Avenue
• Machray Avenue from Fife Street to Main Street
• Powers Street from Dufferin Avenue to Leila Avenue

 These segments of roadway all have some existing traffic calming treatments and crossings, but – as part of the pilot program – we have enhanced them with a variety of additional traffic calming measures, such as speed humps and improved intersection crossings. The goal is to increase the perception (and reality) of safety on the greenways, making them more desirable routes for cyclists. 

In 2020, the Standing Policy Committee on Infrastructure Renewal and Public Works directed the City to pilot reduced speeds on five existing neighbourhood greenways.  SPC-IRPW also directed us to liaise with the areas’ Councillors to determine where to pilot the reduced speed and engage with potentially impacted residents to determine their thoughts prior to the pilot program.

While our existing greenways do feature some traffic calming measures, their speed limits remain at 50 km/h. Best practices set out by the Transportation Association of Canada and National Association of City Transportation Officials suggest 30 km/h is a safer speed limit. Other cities have implemented reduced-speed greenways with much success and increased the safety and vitality of these important route types.

We anticipate the change may impact traffic in two ways, though we expect these impacts to be minimal. First, the slower speed may increase travel time slightly for drivers on the greenway; however, this will be negligible. Second, those who do not wish to travel at the slower speed may instead choose to move their route to neighbouring streets. While this may increase volumes on surrounding streets, we expect the increase to be minor and an acceptable trade-off for increasing safety on the greenways.

We are now collecting feedback from area residents and greenway users to determine what effect – if any – the speed reduction and associated measures had on their experiences. We will use this information, along with data collected throughout the one-year pilot, to make recommendations on the future of reduced speed greenways.

Fill out the survey by June 30, 2022 or attend a pop-up event to share your experiences with the pilot. We will use this information, along with data collected throughout the one-year pilot, to make recommendations on the future of reduced speed greenways.