Traffic on Cambridge Street Far Exceeds Design Speed and Capacity

Thesis

Cambridge Street does not meet the standards described by The City of Winnipeg Transportation Standards Manual for volume and speed of traffic for the roadway as designed. The current volume of traffic on Cambridge Street is unsafe and remedial action must be taken immediately to ensure the safety of residents and roadway users: the speed of Cambridge Street should be changed to a maximum of 30km/h while long-term roadway design solutions are investigated and installed.

Why are we referencing the The City of Winnipeg Transportation Standards Manual that was published in 2012?

While there is a new Transportation Master Plan in development, an updated standards manual that fully outlines new roadway category definitions, geometry, speeds, and capacities has not been published by the city. We believe the concerns we raise in reference to the 2012 manual continue to be valid safety concerns today.

Cambridge Hazards Map.pdf

Rationale

Cambridge Street from Corydon Avenue to Wellington Crescent has all the typical geometric features of a “Residential Local” roadway design including a 7m roadway with parking on one side. This section of Cambridge Steet is consistent in all significant geometric features of the roadway examples for “Residential Local” roadways listed in section 2.8 of the Transportation Standards Manual. Section 2.8 also suggests that the volume of vehicles for this type of roadway geometry should be “Up to 1,000 vehicles per day” with Average Running Speeds of “20 to 50 km/h”.

Roadway Misclassification

In the last few decades, Cambridge Street has been treated as if it is a “Residential Minor Collector” or even a “Residential Major Collector” in terms of function, speed, and volume by city planners working on infrastructure in the area. Cambridge Street does not have the typical geometric features of a “Residential Minor Collector” (Section 2.6) or a “Residential Major Collector” (Section 2.5), but it is being treated by city engineers as though it is one. Cambridge Street is being pushed far beyond the original design speed and capacity of the current roadway as designed and constructed. It is common for Cambridge Street to serve over 4,000 vehicles on weekdays as demonstrated in this video:

Design Standards

Cambridge Street fails to meet many of the standards of the Subdivision Street Network Additional Design Information outlined in the Transportation Standards Manual (Section 4.6). This makes Cambridge Street a greater safety risk to roadway users and residents, especially at higher speeds and volumes.

1 DISCONTINUITIES

“Local street systems should be designed to minimize through vehicle traffic movements by creating discontinuities in the local street system and by channelizing or controlling median crossings along peripheral arterial routes.”

Cambridge Street is unique in the area because it is one of only a few north-south River Heights residential streets that does not feature any discontinuities, 30km/h school zones or one way sections between Taylor and Academy. Traffic from Route 80 and Taylor is funneled up Cambridge Street entering Cambridge Street via Mathers Ave., Ebby Ave., Poseidon Bay, and Nathaniel St. (Ebby Ave. has recently been reopened to through traffic from Waverley to Cambridge Street)

2 UNIFORM VOLUME

“The local street system should be designed for a relatively low uniform volume of traffic.”

The local street system has failed to control the uniformity of traffic volume on Cambridge Street. With traffic volumes during peak times at several times what the maximums should be for a “Local Residential” roadway (Up to 1,000 vehicles per day). Traffic in the area is also not evenly distributed amongst the local roadways.

Note the two rush hour peaks that reach well over 400 vehicles per hour.

3 CURVILINEAR ALIGNMENTS

“Local streets should be designed to discourage excessive speeds, through the use of curvilinear alignments and discontinuities in the street system.”

The entire length of Cambridge Street is straight and has no curves to slow traffic speeds closer to the “Average Running Speeds of 20 to 50 km/h” of a “Residential Local” roadway. One block of Cambridge Street between Kingsway and Academy Road has 2 speed humps, but they have been ineffective at reducing traffic volume and speeds Cambridge Street south of Kingsway.

4 PRIVATE APPROCHES

“Residential single family private approaches are not permitted to connect directly to a Collector Road. These private approaches may only connect to a frontage road or a public lane.”

Cambridge Street has 26 single-family private approaches along its length. Furthermore, seven lanes approach Cambridge Street, most of these at an angle of roughly 60 degrees, obscuring visibility. This would suggest that the design of Cambridge Street isn’t suited to handle traffic beyond the “Residential Local” volume (Up to 1,000 vehicles per day).

5 PEDESTRIAN-VEHICLE CONFLICT POINTS

“Pedestrian-vehicle conflict points should be minimized. This can be achieved through the well-coordinated layout of the street system and land uses to establish safe and direct pedestrian routes that align with intersections of the street system.”

Cambridge Street has 10 instances of unmarked pedestrian crossings at locations that are often hidden behind parked cars on the west side of Cambridge Street.

6 CURVED INTERSECTIONS

“Intersections on curves are undesirable and should be eliminated wherever possible.”

Cambridge Street has 6 curved intersections that contribute to unsafe conditions for pedestrians and roadway users. One of these interactions also incorporates a slip lane from Grovsenor to Cambridge northbound. This adds complexity and speed to navigating this intersection, making it less safe for all roadway users. Additionally, the intersection at Kingsway is visually obstructed so southbound vehicles cannot see vehicles approaching from the east.

7 UNACCEPTABLE ANGLES

“Intersection angles of less than 75° are unacceptable.”

A total of 18 roadways and lanes on the east side of Cambridge Street approach from an unacceptable angle of roughly 60°.

8 LOCAL CLASSIFICATION FOR PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC AND ACTIVE TRANSIT NETWORK

“Sidewalks are to be provided on one or both sides of streets classified as Local if any one of the following warrants is met: …

3. There is a need for sidewalk(s) to provide sidewalk continuity, routes to schools, commercial areas, transit routes, etc.

4. The street is part of the ATN.”

There are no sidewalks on Cambridge Street between Grosvenor and Kingsway, despite 7 schools being within 1 km and transit routes 20, 18, 78, 65, and 66 all having stops along Cambridge Street. Cambridge Street is also marked as an Informal on-street route on Winnipeg Cycling Map. Active transportation and pedestrian traffic on Cambridge Street requires a calming of roadway traffic for safety and accessibility. The omission of sidewalks combined with the current high volume and speed of traffic is a public safety issue.

9 Collision Data From MPI

Between 2014 and 2022 there were 179 vehicle collisions.
An average of about 20 collisions per year.
(Oxford Street experienced 80 in the same period)
2019 was the worst year for collisions with 31 collisions in just one year.
In 2020 there were two of the incidences involved a vehicle colliding with cyclists
In 2022 another vehicle/cyclist incident occurred.

This demonstrates with real world evidence that Cambridge Street is experiencing an unsafe volume and speed of traffic and that urgent action by the city in the interest public safety is needed.

We asked MPI for collision data from Cambridge Street and Oxford Street north of Corydon Avenue. The data in their report included collisions from 2014 to 2022.

Conclusion

The current volume and speed of traffic on Cambridge Street is unsafe as it fails to meet standards outlined by the City of Winnipeg in the Transportation Standards Manual. The historical design of the roadway itself makes Cambridge Street not suited for the large volumes of traffic currently using the roadway, especially at high speeds.

It may be unreasonable to expect a street designed and built over 60 years ago to meet all the modern standards of modern subdivision development, but it is reasonable to take these shortcomings into account when planning surrounding infrastructure and determining speed limits.

It is imperative that remedial action be taken to lower the Cambridge Street speed limit to 30km/h to minimize the safety risk of the historic design shortcomings of the roadway while a long-term plan is being developed.

We urge the City of Winnipeg to take action to solve this safety risk to the community as soon as possible and install a 30 km/h limit on Cambridge Street.

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