Winnipeg family gives up on car-free lifestyle after struggles with public transit
Challenges with irregular service, bus shelter safety made travelling with small children stressful for couple
A Winnipeg couple who publicly announced they'd given up their vehicle last summer are now throwing in the towel on their car-free lifestyle, citing problems with Winnipeg Transit as the biggest obstacle.
"We want to do our part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," said Ryan Palmquist. "We want to do our part to show that even in Winnipeg, you don't have to depend on a car for every single thing you do."
But a little over a year after ditching their car, Palmquist and his wife, Meghan Waters, said unreliable schedules and safety concerns made taking the bus from their Old St. Vital home "too dicey" with their three small children, especially during winter.
"The bus would often come late, or not at all," said Waters. "And we're standing there, 40 minutes sometimes, with our kids at the side of the road, checking the app."
She said their boys, aged four and eight, get restless during that long wait and start to dash around on the frozen sidewalk, which borders a busy road.
"It was the constant vigilance that you're just like, 'no, step back, step back! There's lots of cars here!'"
Palmquist said that stress grew worse this fall when the family had a baby girl, making it even harder to mind the boys.
"Do that multiple times per day, every day, it eventually starts to grind you down," he said.
Palmquist said the waits would have been easier if the family had felt safer waiting in a bus shack.
"Most of the bus shelters have homeless people living in them," said Palmquist. "There's meth pipes, there's broken beer bottles."
Waters said the family has also encountered security concerns onboard buses, including an encounter with a person in a mental health crisis that left her deeply shaken.
"Ryan kind of de-escalated the situation, but I told him afterwards, had I been alone with the kids, I would have been really scared," she said.
Winnipeg Transit users poorer than national average
While Palmquist still cycles and sometimes takes the bus downtown, the family has largely shifted to their new minivan, a privilege they know not all Winnipeggers can afford.
"We made the choice to get a vehicle again, which was really unfortunate," he said. "But there are tens of thousands of people in Winnipeg who do not have that option."
Data from Statistics Canada's 2021 long-form census indicates Winnipeggers who take the bus earn considerably less than most city residents. The average total annual income for Winnipeg Transit users in 2020 was $36,360, nearly $14K less than the average for Winnipeggers overall.
The average income of bus passengers in Manitoba's capital was also significantly lower than the national average for transit users of $49K, according to Statistics Canada.
Its data shows public transit users in Montreal and Vancouver bring home an average of $44-45K per year, and between $51-54K in Toronto and Calgary.
That suggests people with mid- to high level incomes in those cities are more likely to take transit than higher earners in Winnipeg.
Waters recently visited Toronto, and was impressed with the city's frequent transit service, saying she never needed to consult a schedule. She believes the lower economic power of Winnipeg Transit users might be why the city hasn't worked harder to improve service.
"I feel like our city sees them as a captive market," she said.
"There are some people that cannot afford a private vehicle, so they'll continue to buy bus passes. They arrive at their destination stressed, perpetually late, and it's as if our city doesn't care."
'Huge changes' coming: city councillor
The chair of Winnipeg's Transit Advisory Committee dismissed the idea that bus riders' income levels influence city hall's decisions.
"That's nonsense," said Janice Lukes, city councillor for Waverley West.
But she did agree that higher income Winnipeggers aren't getting on board as much as the city might like.
"That's probably because transit service isn't ideal, so people opt out to use their vehicles."
At the Southwest Transitway, posted signs say blue line buses should come every four to five minutes at rush hour, but a CBC reporter observed these wait times stretching to 15 minutes.
Lukes admitted the Transitway doesn't always deliver service as rapidly as promised.
"We have a bus driver shortage," she said, adding that puts service about five to six per cent under capacity.
Lukes said the city has shortened the process for becoming a bus driver, and is doing "aggressive outreach" on recruitment.
She said Winnipeg also plans to spend hundreds of millions of dollars overhauling routes, increasing frequency, improving safety and adding new zero-emissions buses.
Public consultations are planned for January and February, said Lukes, with major changes to the transit network expected by June 2025.
"I think we'll see a lot more people taking the bus," she said.
Cultural shift
University of Winnipeg urban studies professor Jino Distasio said the city's transit system has floundered because of a lack of political will and alignment between the levels of government.
"We're probably 50 years behind cities like Ottawa, Edmonton and Calgary that have really advanced, comprehensive transportation systems that look at the full experience," said Distasio.
He said catching up with other Canadian cities will take vision and a shift in perception.
"We have created a car culture city, and increasingly we've also created a divided city along income," he said, adding that people with higher incomes increasingly settle in suburban areas.
"All of this is kind of pulling transit apart."
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