I bike and walk in St. James — Winnipeg Urban Design Critique
Channel: Car Dependency Index
Date: 2022-10-04

The bike ride from Osborne Village to St. James is pretty nice, but walking and biking around St. James is challenging and unpleasant due to the deeply car-centric design. Let's reimagine what we can do with the parking lots and other disused space in St. James. This whole area can be a place people go to chill and hang out rather than a place they just pass through in their cars on the way to the mall.

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Winnipeg is located on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional land of the Anishinaabe, Aninishiniwak, Dakota, Dene, and Ininiwak peoples, and the homeland of the Métis nation. Indigenous peoples did not view the Treaties as a cession of the land, and Canada has repeatedly failed to uphold its end of the Treaties. Our water here in Winnipeg is taken—through a disputed agreement—from Shoal Lake, home of Shoal Lake 40 First Nation and Iskatewizaagegan 39 First Nation, which were under a boil water advisory for 23 years from 1997 to 2020.
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References:

Not Just Bikes - The Bike Lanes You Can't See - Ontvlechten
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1l75QqRR48

The "over a third of a trillion on free parking" stat I reference at 8:21 was mentioned here: https://twitter.com/grescoe/status/1128688273449213957

A related money stat: the lifetime cost of a car is $689,000 USD ($932,000 CAD), which society subsidizes with $275,000, partly in the form of free parking. The source is one of the most powerful urbanist articles I've read: https://www.forbes.com/sites/carltonreid/2022/02/04/lifetime-cost-of-small-car-689000-society-subsidises-this-ownership-with-275000/?sh=1a3ec9f16398

I mention stroads in almost every video, because they're utterly inescapable in Canada, the US, and many other countries plagued by car dependence. What's a stroad, you ask? The term was coined by Strong Towns creator Charles Marohn. This Not Just Bikes video explaining stroads changed my life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORzNZUeUHAM&t=1s

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Equipment
Camera: GoPro Hero 7 Black
Gimbal: Hohem iSteady Pro 2
Bike mount for gimbal: https://www.amazon.ca/iSportgo-Camera-Cameras-Lights-Monitors/dp/B072J52GBP

Chapters
0:00 Model Trip starts in Osborne Village
0:20 A bike path through West Broadway
1:06 Bike lanes need to be safe enough for kids
1:29 Wolseley
1:39 Invisible bike infrastructure
2:11 Omand's Creek Park
3:19 St. James / Polo Park
3:25 Biking in St. James
4:29 A dystopian walk in St. James
6:06 Major goose-age
6:18 A wasteland of disused space
6:41 A space intended for cars, not people
7:23 Behold: a picture of a bike
7:32 The Polo Parking Lot (aka Polo Park)
8:16 Recap