FAQs

The City of Winnipeg Charter requires that its official planning document – OurWinnipeg – be updated every 10 years. OurWinnipeg guides overall growth and land-use development, and sets into motion a number of subsidiary plans. The TRANSPORTATION 2050 is one of these subsidiary documents, which means it also requires regular updating. Winnipeg as a city is also at a point in its development that requires transportation be viewed through an adjusted lens; the city is growing, and travel patterns and behaviours are changing. Transportation is also evolving with emerging technologies and new mobility options – and so, too, must our transportation planning.

Both. The last plan was reviewed in 2011 and a lot of things have changed. This new plan is a complete operational review of the existing transportation system that looks at new and emerging technologies and business models for transportation, and makes recommendations based on strong empirical evidence and comprehensive public consultation. This is a new plan, with a fresh vision based on mobility of people and goods.

TRANSPORTATON 2050 defines reimagined mobility as a transportation system where:  

• Half of trips are made using sustainable mobility options 
• Sustainable transportation is the most desirable option for everyday travel 
• An efficient network provides access and mobility to both people and goods 
• People of all ages and abilities to safely move around without experiencing death or serious injury

We based TRANSPORTATION 2050’s goals on those within OurWinnipeg 2045. 

The goals are: 

• Leadership and good governance
• Environmental resilience
• Economic prosperity
• Good health and wellbeing
• Social equity
• City building 

Based on this, we set four targets for TRANSPORTATION 2050: 

1. Economic prosperity: Goods can move efficiently by air, rail, and truck, ensuring support for economic growth  
2. Mode share: Winnipeggers make 50 percent of trips by walking, cycling, transit and ride sharing by 2050 
3. Road safety: Achieve a 20 percent reduction in fatal and serious injury collisions by 2026  
4. Accessibility and equity: The transportation system is designed and built to be accessible and affordable to all Winnipeggers  

To reach these targets, TRANSPORTATION 2050 provides a roadmap that will allow us to: 

• Prioritize maintaining existing infrastructure over building new infrastructure
• Make strategic investments to move more people and goods using the roads we have
• Support development of complete communities where people can access their daily needs within a short distance
• And empower people to travel by their preferred mode

Ultimately, we have developed a plan that could solve Winnipeg's biggest transportation problems and make transportation safe and efficient for all of us, regardless of how we move or where we are going. 

We have balanced priorities and needs to build a plan that will benefit pedestrians, cyclists, goods movement, emergency vehicles, and cars together.

Reimagining mobility requires us to balance competing needs and strategic directions. This plan has something for everyone, but not everything for anyone. 

• It recommends a strategic investment plan to ensure roads continue to serve Winnipeggers who drive. At the same time, it prioritizes mode shift and makes recommendations that will make active transportation easier and a more realistic choice for more Winnipeggers.
• It recognizes walking, biking, and transit make daily tasks possible for many Winnipeggers. 
• It recognizes the wide variety of roles the transportation system performs but also considers how transportation could be more environmentally responsible. 
• It considers the City’s projected growth and how to meet it within its current financial constraints.

The updated plan will align with the proposed OurWinnipeg 2045, integrates with the Council-approved Winnipeg Transit Master Plan, and supports the principles of the City's Climate Action Plan. It includes an update to the Pedestrian and Cycling Strategies, and will ultimately serve as a 30-year blueprint to guide future investment in Winnipeg’s transportation network.

The draft plan includes policies and actions to drive us into the future, as well as network recommendations for all the components of our transportation system: roads, bridges, sidewalks, bike paths, transit, and multimodal corridors (or Complete Streets).

The Transportation Master Plan 2050 project began in 2020 with a series of technical studies that looked at our existing network, as well as Phase 1 public engagement that gathered information on how Winnipeggers move around the City, issues with and barriers to transportation, and hopes for the future. The project team set long-term targets for transportation to align with overarching City policy, then used the study data and what we heard in Phase 1 engagement to develop a series of key directions and strategies that would form the backbone of the eventual master plan document. 

In Phase 2, the City asked the public and stakeholders if the key directions and some resulting draft policies fit with their vision for Winnipeg’s future transportation network. We’re now in the final phase of public involvement in TMP2050 – presenting TRANSPORTATION 2050 – Reimagining Mobility for review and discussion. 

What we heard from Winnipeggers helped us refine the key directions and develop the comprehensive policies and actions you see in the final draft document. You can learn more by viewing the What We Heard section in the public engagement report.

At this stage of the project, we aren’t doing typical public engagement. Instead, we are inviting Winnipeggers to review the document and talk to the project team. Think of it as a confirmation phase after years of working together. 

When the project began, you helped us create a vision for the future of transportation. We went away and created key directions to get us there. You next helped us refine the key directions and show us what they could look like in practice. We went away and turned those thoughts into policies and actions. Now we’re here to close the loop.  

We’re here to answer your questions, explain why we made decisions, and ensure you know what reimagined mobility would mean for you. 

Find us at one of six pop-up events or join us for a telephone town hall information session. 

The next step for TRANSPORTATION 2050 is to go before Council for consideration in Fall 2024. At this stage of the project, our goal is to ensure Winnipeggers have a high-level understanding of the plan. 

It’s important to remember the plan is a living document that is designed to – even upon adoption – be adaptable, revisable, and accountable to Winnipeg’s changing needs. 

One example of this is the maps you’ll find in the network recommendations section. 

These illustrate our ‘ideal’ network scenario for things like sidewalks, bike paths, roads, bridges, and multimodal corridors (or complete streets). 

They show some level of prioritization based on criteria defined in our technical studies. But they are completely conceptual and may change due to any number of factors such as available budget, land development, political priorities, changes in modeling data, and much more.