Winnipeg City Transit/Rapid Transit

[Luisito]

Do you guys think if Winnipeg was ever going to build rail RT that it would be a good idea to build the system on elevated lines? Do you think NIMBY's would not allow it?

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by Luisito

Do you guys think if Winnipeg was ever going to build rail RT that it would be a good idea to build the system on elevated lines? Do you think NIMBY's would not allow it?

Honestly as long as the rail system is automated and has 5 minute headways then elevated or not it would be fine by me. One of the biggest barriers to Winnipeg Transit being profitable is that 60% of the operating costs go towards salaries & pensions while only 10% goes towards servicing. Automating the rail line would in theory lower operating costs enough for transit to be a revenue generator for the city instead of running a deficit.

Personally tho I prefer having it on the ground because it can really improve the streetscape and vibrancy of an area seeing hundreds of people outside waiting for a transit versus in a sheltered metro station. It also allows for a considerable road diet in our inner city roads and by god do Portage & Main need road diets on the worst way.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

Honestly as long as the rail system is automated and has 5 minute headways then elevated or not it would be fine by me. One of the biggest barriers to Winnipeg Transit being profitable is that 60% of the operating costs go towards salaries & pensions while only 10% goes towards servicing. Automating the rail line would in theory lower operating costs enough for transit to be a revenue generator for the city instead of running a deficit.

Personally tho I prefer having it on the ground because it can really improve the streetscape and vibrancy of an area seeing hundreds of people outside waiting for a transit versus in a sheltered metro station. It also allows for a considerable road diet in our inner city roads and by god do Portage & Main need road diets on the worst way.

By road diet you mean reducing lanes? If an LRT or tram means reduced traffic I would be for it. You think that would work though? P&M gets pretty traffic heavy. The street is pretty wide.

Tha automated train sounds cool. Just like the van sky train or the new system opening up in MTL.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by Luisito

Do you guys think if Winnipeg was ever going to build rail RT that it would be a good idea to build the system on elevated lines? Do you think NIMBY's would not allow it?

The city would never be able to afford elevated rapid transit. The only like that I know of in Western Canada that is completely elevated, is the Vancouver Expo line. Even the LRT lines in Calgary and Edmonton are mainly not elevated. I wish the city had built an LRT 20 years ago, but better late than never.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg

Admittedly there are other issues involved but none of this was going on until cheap meth entered this city in I believe 2019. Of course it followed, or coincided with, the legalization of marijuana. I'm sure that fact hasn't been missed by some people anyways.

There has been a meth epidemic in Western Canada since the mid 2010's. It started long before marijuana was legalised. Implying that the meth epidemic is a result of the legalisation of Marijuana is ridiculous. This study published in 2018 shows meth used increased by 590% between 2010-17.

https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/fi...ne-2018-en.pdf

[thebasketballgeek]

Originally Posted by Luisito

By road diet you mean reducing lanes? If an LRT or tram means reduced traffic I would be for it. You think that would work though? P&M gets pretty traffic heavy. The street is pretty wide.

I think so. Just taking Portage & Main as an example it averages roughly 60,000 cars a day. I think with a tram and even bike lanes on the street they would still have at least 4 lanes for cars because both roads are just massive.

Anyways let’s say an LRT line on Main & Portage have on average 10 minute headways with a 250 passenger train for half the day. The rail system itself could handle 60k people in 10 hours assuming max capacity. So I think that reducing the lanes actually has a shot at reducing traffic on both streets. Even if it doesn’t reduce traffic (because people are addicted to cars) it will at least allow Winnipeggers the option to bypass traffic in an efficient manner.

But yea I’m a big fan of automated rail especially after seeing how efficient the Skytrain and Delhi Metro are when riding them.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

There has been a meth epidemic in Western Canada since the mid 2010's. It started long before marijuana was legalised. Implying that the meth epidemic is a result of the legalisation of Marijuana is ridiculous. This study published in 2018 shows meth used increased by 590% between 2010-17.

https://www.ccsa.ca/sites/default/fi...ne-2018-en.pdf

And how do you think drug dealers make their profit? If they can't make it the old way, they'll find a new way. And of course they saw, and planned for, the legalization of weed. You're being ridiculous.

[post_man]

Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg

And how do you think drug dealers make their profit? If they can't make it the old way, they'll find a new way. And of course they saw, and planned for, the legalization of weed. You're being ridiculous.

So, I asked my dealer what he was going to do when cannabis was legalized. He laughed, and without hesitation answered "Coke. It's always been coke, I barely make money off weed."

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by BlackDog204

The city would never be able to afford elevated rapid transit. The only like that I know of in Western Canada that is completely elevated, is the Vancouver Expo line. Even the LRT lines in Calgary and Edmonton are mainly not elevated. I wish the city had built an LRT 20 years ago, but better late than never.

Ok lets just say IF the city could afford to do it. Would you support it? Do you think Winnipegers would support it? Say the plan was to build an elevated line that ran north to south down Main street, through downtown and then down Pembina to the UofM?

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by thebasketballgeek

I think so. Just taking Portage & Main as an example it averages roughly 60,000 cars a day. I think with a tram and even bike lanes on the street they would still have at least 4 lanes for cars because both roads are just massive.

Anyways let’s say an LRT line on Main & Portage have on average 10 minute headways with a 250 passenger train for half the day. The rail system itself could handle 60k people in 10 hours assuming max capacity. So I think that reducing the lanes actually has a shot at reducing traffic on both streets. Even if it doesn’t reduce traffic (because people are addicted to cars) it will at least allow Winnipeggers the option to bypass traffic in an efficient manner.

.

I think you right, buses already have the right to their lane. If it was organized well it could work.

But yea I’m a big fan of automated rail especially after seeing how efficient the Skytrain and Delhi Metro are when riding them

I think I saw something about that on the RM Transit channel on youtube. Ill have to look it up again.

[OTA in Winnipeg]

Originally Posted by post_man

So, I asked my dealer what he was going to do when cannabis was legalized. He laughed, and without hesitation answered "Coke. It's always been coke, I barely make money off weed."

Yep, that's why meth is everywhere and the streets often look like night of the living dead.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by Luisito

Ok lets just say IF the city could afford to do it. Would you support it? Do you think Winnipegers would support it? Say the plan was to build an elevated line that run north to south down Main street, through downtown and then down Pembina to the UofM?

Absolutely. I'll go further, and state that the city should have built Subway lines in the 1960's when there was discussion about doing so. Ultimately, Winnipeg, and other Canadian cities should concentrate on urban density, and less on pushing out in the suburbs. A rapid transit line system would increase urban density.

[BlackDog204]

Originally Posted by OTA in Winnipeg

And how do you think drug dealers make their profit? If they can't make it the old way, they'll find a new way. And of course they saw, and planned for, the legalization of weed. You're being ridiculous.

You implied that the increase in meth use, was tied to the legalisation of cannabis. I proved that was incorrect. I even backed up my position with statistics. I'm sorry if you are butt-hurt about being proven incorrect. This is well documented in history. Do you think all the bootleggers, who made a fortune during prohibition, suddenly switched to opiates, or other harder drugs when alcohol was made legal again?

On a related note, you have doubled down on your position, and erroneously claim that marijuana dealers are switching to selling hard drugs (specifically meth) in droves. This is incorrect. Most people I have met stretching back decades, that were involved with selling pot, did not sell hard drugs. They were usually small time dealers, or had grow operations. It seems to me, that you lack real World experience on this issue.



This chart illustrates use of various substances. In terms of annually, the average North American is 20 times more likely to use marijuana over meth, and 10 times more likely to use marijuana over cocaine. This is why the vast majority of people who sold pot (and some continue to do so), never sold harder drugs. Additionally, nearly all hard drugs are supplied by the criminal underworld (organised gangs, etc), as opposed to pot (grow ops, etc). One quickly finds out the difference in clientele (more violence, unstable users, etc when dealing with hard drugs).

There is also the fact that the demographics of meth use is far different than marijuana use. Meth use has increased dramatically in the past decade, but the people who are regular consumers of meth (and crack cocaine), tend to bring far more attention to themselves, as they often very low income. Meth is a huge problem for the homeless population, and inner city. Therefore they are far more likely to use the drug in public. Compare that with marijuana, where most people (like alcohol) are from a variety of means, and most do it in their homes.

[rrskylar]

Walked by the closest bus shelter near my place yesterday and there's a guy sprawled out on the bench with all his belongings taking up most of the space and 5-6 paying customers standing outside in the cold waiting for a bus!

Any solutions? Or has the city just thrown their hands in the air?

[bomberjet]

City gave up because they don't want to look mean by kicking out the squatters.

[bomberjet]

Re: the drugs. Dealers who sell hard drugs may also sell weed as a service to their customers. Unless you're growing weed, there isn't much money to be made. Anyone who says they are switching from selling weed only to being a coke dealer is definitely in the minority.

Personally, I can go one of the many cannabis stores and get some good product for cheap if I wanted to. It's different now than when legalization first happened. Back then, everything was expensive. Now, you can get a wide variety of products. And good products for cheaper than your local guy in most cases. People are just stubborn and don't like going to the government stores because of principle.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by rrskylar

Walked by the closest bus shelter near my place yesterday and there's a guy sprawled out on the bench with all his belongings taking up most of the space and 5-6 paying customers standing outside in the cold waiting for a bus!

Any solutions? Or has the city just thrown their hands in the air?

The city has given up and resorted to talking about "attacking the root causes" of homelessness. They talk about the root causes whish is great that needs to be done, but they ignore the fact that many people that are homeless are simply incapable of holding down a home and living normally. Not all of them, but many are.

I know people that own apartments here in Winnipeg. One case that is particually bad, they recently took over an apartmet from some one else that didn't take care of the building. They inherited some real problems. Tenants that are months late on rent, using their apts as drug dens, people not respecting no smoking rules. Drinking and excessive noise late at night. Fighting and yelling.....Mind you this was not all the tenants, it is just a handful that are ruinning it for all the other tenants. When this person tried to get rid of the bad tenants he was met with major road blocks by the tenancy board. The board was on the side of the tenants and accusations of racism and discrimination were thrown around. One particular tenant that made the worst accusation was actually the worst tenant. Their apartment was bascially used as a drug den, with strangers coming in and out. The apt was trashed and full of stolen items. Their freinds actually tried breaking into other apartments. This particular tenant eventually left leaving the keys to strangers and it was a real bad situation for the owner getting these people that were bascially squatters out.

My point is here we have people that had an opportunity to have a place to live but were incapable of living normally. It was not fair for the owner of the building and it wasn't fair for the other tenants (of which several have children) that bascially lived in fear of these people and had to put up with their bad behaviour and drug use. Even something like smoking cigarrettes in the hallway, people shouldn't have to put up with that. There are situations like this all over town.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Luisito

The board was on the side of the tenants and accusations of racism and discrimination were thrown around.

Reminds me of a bad tenant I had once, when I went to evict him for non payment of rent, he called APTN and CBC to try and get them to do a story about supposedly racist bad guy me evicting him (a white guy) and his Indigenous girlfriend. They never looked into the story, which is too bad because I would have been happy to tell them about the visits from the WPS domestic unit prompted by him beating on his girlfriend...

It's amazing how accusations of racism have become the go-to defense mechanism for people like this

[bomberjet]

Person died living in the transit shelter on Marion/Goulet near Tache on Monday... Well she was found on Monday according to the CBC article.

[Luisito]

Originally Posted by esquire

Reminds me of a bad tenant I had once, when I went to evict him for non payment of rent, he called APTN and CBC to try and get them to do a story about supposedly racist bad guy me evicting him (a white guy) and his Indigenous girlfriend. They never looked into the story, which is too bad because I would have been happy to tell them about the visits from the WPS domestic unit prompted by him beating on his girlfriend...

It's amazing how accusations of racism have become the go-to defense mechanism for people like this

Apperently one of the trouble tenants at this place i was talking about said the same thing. They were gonna contact the CBC. LOL

Originally Posted by bomberjet

Person died living in the transit shelter on Marion/Goulet near Tache on Monday... Well she was found on Monday according to the CBC article.

Yeah I saw that on the news tonight. Very sad. Terrible these things happen so frequently.

It looked like when help first arrived, the shelter was covered with some type of curtains or cardboard. You couldn't see inside. I know the city wants to be compassionate to these people but they shouldn't allow them to take over shelters like that. I can't help wonder had she been more visible could she have had help sooner? Could she have been saved? Terrible.