The City of Winnipeg has completed a transportation plan for the next quarter-century.
The 255-page plan, entitled Transportation 2050, calls for Winnipeggers to rely on personal vehicles for only about half their trips within the city, 26 years in the future.
Right now, Winnipeggers rely on personal vehicles — as passengers or drivers — for closer to four in five trips, the document states, adding that trips on foot, by bicycle or via public transit only account for about one in five trips.
The motivation to provide more convenient public transit service and active-transportation corridors is socio-economic as well as environmental, the plan says.
“One in four Winnipeggers who arrived in Canada within the last five years live in poverty. This means many new Canadian Winnipeggers arrive without the means to support personal vehicle use; many others simply do not drive upon arrival,” the document states in part.
As well, 12 per cent of the city’s population identifies as Indigenous, the plan states.
“Like new Canadians, one in four Indigenous Winnipeggers lives in poverty. Many rely heavily on active transportation and public transit for mobility.”
The 255-page document can be found on the City of Winnipeg’s website. The city is holding six public-engagement events about the plan between Tuesday, July 16, and Thursday, July 25.