Transit timid about diamond lanes?

Winnipeg Transit is too scared of annoying motorists to build more diamond lanes, charges the former head of the city's rapid transit task force.

Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt said he fears Winnipeg Transit does not have the stomach to designate more lanes for buses on major streets due to fears about a backlash from people in personal vehicles.

Currently, Winnipeg has 6.7 kilometres of diamond lanes near 41 busy intersections. The city is supposed to designate more lanes for buses and bicycles along commuter routes, but Winnipeg Transit is having second thoughts after conducting computer simulations on major arteries such Henderson Highway, Notre Dame Avenue, McPhillips Street and St. Mary's Road, Wyatt said.

"Basically, they say they won't work and they're concerned about potential push-back. I'm not sure if it's self-censorship or whether there's been political pressure," said Wyatt, a big fan of diamond lanes because he considers them an inexpensive way of improving transit service.

"We can't build dedicated bus-ways around the entire city (because) it would cost half a billion dollars. So diamond lanes are a way to use existing roadways and still improve transit."

Winnipeg Transit's supposed timidity is disheartening to Wyatt because he believes diamond lanes were one of the more pragmatic recommendations made by the rapid transit task force, which Mayor Sam Katz struck after a southwest Winnipeg bus-way plan was shelved in 2004.-

Wyatt suggested Winnipeg Transit's computer simulations are too pessimistic because they assume the city will never expand its fleet of buses.

"For 20 years, the fleet has operated 535 buses. But the city has grown, so that means less frequent bus service in any given place," he said. "The obvious solution is to buy more buses."

Wyatt's allegations come at a contentious time for Winnipeg Transit, as the city and the province are in the midst of deciding how to spend $17.9 million worth of new federal transportation dollars.

Rapid transit advocates hope that cash will be funnelled toward the construction of a $70-million bus-way between downtown and Jubilee Avenue, but the money could also be spent on bike trails or conventional transit upgrades.

And last week, Statistics Canada released a report that suggested Winnipeg commuters are eschewing public transit while workers in most other Canadian cities are embracing it in greater numbers.

"This is embarrassing at a time when some people are predicting gas could hit $1.50 a litre this summer," Wyatt said.

Winnipeg Transit declined to respond to Wyatt's allegations. Spokesman Ken Allen said more diamond-lane construction is planned for summer, but it's too early to say where the lanes will go.

A spokesman for a transit lobby group, meanwhile, called on Transit to show more spine.

"We're looking for the city to take a leadership role on transit issues and think long-term," said Paul Hesse of the Winnipeg Rapid Transit Coalition. "We believe dedicated bus-ways would go a lot further to making motorists happy, but diamond lanes can be part of a (modern) transit system."