Councillor seeks speed-limit reduction on Wellington Crescent after cyclist killed

A Winnipeg city councillor is trying to get the speed limit lowered to 30 km/hr on a busy bike route where a cyclist was fatally mowed down by a speeding car five months ago.

A motion by Sherri Rollins (Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry) to reduce the speed limit on Wellington Crescent from River Avenue to Kenaston Boulevard until a protected bike lane is in place will be presented to the city centre community committee when it meets Monday.

“Tragic deaths and troubling near-misses involving both pedestrians and cyclists… demonstrate an unacceptable level of risk posed to vulnerable road users travelling along this stretch of road,” her motion reads.

Rob Jenner, 61, was killed while cycling to work on the morning of June 6 on Wellington Crescent near Cockburn Street. Jenner was hit by a car that was travelling at least 159 km/h in a spot where the posted speed limit is 50 km/h. Beckham Severight, 19, pleaded guilty last month to dangerous driving causing death and leaving the scene of an accident. His sentencing date has not been set.

“That’s a main route for people cycling,” Mark Cohoe, executive director of Bike Winnipeg, said Tuesday. The non-profit group has long advocated for safer routes for cyclists and others.

“The tragedy of Rob Jenner’s death moved that to the forefront,” Cohoe said.

Wellington Crescent between Academy Road and River and Stradbrook avenues is “a major gap in the city’s planned primary bicycle network,” Rollins’ resolution states. It has no bike lane, which forces cyclists to ride in mixed traffic along a roadway with traffic volumes and speeds where separation of people on bikes from motor vehicles is recommended.

Wellington Crescent is used by a high volume of pedestrian and bicycle traffic that is anticipated to double by 2030, as per to the City of Winnipeg climate plan.

There’s been a significant increase in bike traffic during the summer on the stretch between Academy Road and Guelph Street when it operates as a seasonal bike route, with a 30 km/h speed limit. That shows a “strong desire for a permanent, year-round, low-stress cycling route on Wellington Crescent,” the resolution says.

The city is finalizing updates to its transportation master plan and pedestrian and cycling strategies, which are expected to go before council this winter.

“I wouldn’t expect anything until the new year,” Rollins said about her proposal to lower the year-round speed limit from Kenaston Boulevard to River Avenue.

“I certainly think one of the aims is safeguarding before the majority of cyclists head back to Wellington, and that would be spring time.”

She said she expects there will be pushback from residents.

“When it’s such an important thoroughfare, the length that this motion attempts to address will, no doubt, be challenged,” Rollins said.

Reducing the speed limit to 30 km/h from 50 km/h is known to reduce collisions, she said.

“It was a very problematic spring and summer for Wellington,” said the councillor. She’s seen, over the years, the fence at St. Mary’s Academy, at Wellington and Academy) damaged many times from vehicles crashing into it “which really connotes the speed at which people are going,” said Rollins, who hears from ward residents when cyclists get hit.

The collision involving Jenner was one of two that day that ward residents had notified her about, she said.

Rollins said she informed Jenner’s partner, Wendy Van Loon, about the reduced speed motion.

Van Loon told a July 25 gathering of cyclists outside the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, where Jenner had worked, that she wants others to be able to experience his joy of cycling, and to be safe while doing so. “There’s nothing we can do to bring him back, but let’s make sure his death wasn’t in vain,” she said at the time.

Wellington Crescent is identified as a high priority pathway in the draft bike route priority map, highlighting the need for safety interventions, her resolution points out.

Weeks after Jenner was killed, a teen who was cycling with her father was injured July 29 after she was struck by a vehicle near the intersection of Wellington Crescent and Academy Road. On July 30, an estimated 180 cyclists blocked cars at the intersection of Academy and Wellington to demand safer road design.

Advocates placed a “ghost bike,” which was donated by Van Loon and painted white, near the scene of the fatal collision as a tribute to Jenner and to remind drivers to slow down and be careful near cyclists.

Bike Winnipeg plans to have a presence at Monday’s community committee meeting to support the resolution for a reduced speed limit until a low-stress, all-ages-and-abilities cycling route can be provided along the route, Cohoe said.

“We’re grateful that the councillors are taking this issue seriously and are moving forward with steps both short term and long term,” Cohoe said.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca

Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter

Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.

Every piece of reporting Carol produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.

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