Recommended safety measures for Wilkes Avenue 'come up short,' Winnipeg councillor says

A Winnipeg city councillor says he expected more from a long-awaited report on traffic safety improvements along a busy road in Charleswood.

The report, slated to go before the Assiniboia Community Committee next week, recommends reducing speeds along sections of Wilkes Avenue between the Perimeter Highway and east of Elmhurst Road, close to Assiniboine Forest.

Residents have raised concerns about high speeds and heavy traffic along Wilkes, which is both a regional
street and a full-time truck route.

The city has considered installing traffic lights at the intersection of Wilkes and Elmhurst, which is currently controlled only by a stop sign for vehicles turning from Elmhurst onto Wilkes.

The study found there were 89 collisions at the intersection between 2015 and 2022. That was the second-highest number out of the six intersections along Wilkes examined in the report, behind the intersection at Shaftesbury, which had 253 collisions. 

Previous studies concluded a traffic signal at Elmhurst and Wilkes is warranted, but the intersection would need major upgrades to accommodate it, at an estimated cost of $2.5 million. 

The report recommends hiring a consultant to look at cheaper options for modifications that could allow for the installation of a traffic signal. 

Lower speed limits

In the meantime, city staff recommend lowering the speed limit along the stretch of Wilkes between the Perimeter and just west of Liberty Street from 90 km/h to 80. The speed limit between that point and 300 metres east of Elmhurst would drop from the current 80 km/h to 70.

Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), who pushed for the study, says he's disappointed at the limited scope of the recommendations.

"The public service has been hard at work at this for [almost] nine months now, and to come back with a recommendation of a simple traffic speed reduction seems to come up short," he said.

Duncan plans to raise a motion at the Assiniboia committee meeting calling for the speed limit on Wilkes between Kenaston Boulevard and Fairmont Road to drop to 70 km/h. But he says speed reductions aren't the only option for improving safety.

"We need to take other steps, and if that includes restricting turns onto Wilkes, if that includes having no passing on Wilkes in its entirety, I'm willing to advocate for that."

City of Winnipeg transportation planning manager David Patman wrote in the report that staff are considering eliminating passing along Wilkes, which is a two-lane route in the area being looked at, but "this will take time to complete."

A city spokesperson says the original direction from council asked for a study on Wilkes "in the vicinity of Elmhurst Road," but was extended west because the area has similar rural characteristics. The recommended speed limits are based on current City of Winnipeg practice.

"Further speed limit reductions would likely require some form of traffic-calming measures so that motorists would obey the lower posted speed limits," Julie Horbal Dooley wrote in an emailed statement.

The city will review the implications of restricting passing along Wilkes, but "long stretches of no passing would result in compliance issues as motorists will inevitably take risks to pass slower-moving vehicles," Horbal Dooley wrote.

'You can see the cars lined up': shop manager

Ailidier Akebeier, who manages the WCA Smart Auto repair shop near the intersection of Wilkes and Elmhurst, said he doesn't expect the speed reductions to improve safety and thinks a traffic signal is needed.

"It gets real bad when it's, like, at 5 p.m. and everybody gets off work," Akebeier said. 

Train tracks running along the north side of Wilkes, which get approximately 30 trains per day, add to the congestion, he said.

"You can see the cars lined up all the way down Elmhurst," Akebeier said.

The city is planning to install a traffic signal at the intersection of Wilkes and Charleswood Road, further west, in 2025.

In the long term, Duncan says the city needs to make serious plans to extend the multi-lane William R. Clement Parkway, which runs north-south, to connect to Wilkes at its southern end, and close other access points onto Wilkes. 

City planning documents have that work slated to begin sometime between 2037 and 2050.