Assiniboine Ave gong show

I thought I might scan and post the picture from Saturday's paper of the up-coming changes to Winnipeg's Assiniboine avenue as a public service, because it's clearer than the "easy to ready map" posted on the City's web site, which is not only in the wrong orientation and split into two halves, but the arrows on Hargrave are obscured, and not enough of the street is visible to show that it's only a two way for part of it's length. Looking at the web map you might get the impression that the whole street is now two-way.


Now, I'm not a traffic analyst, so I'm not going to comment on the wisdom of these changes until I see them in action -- although I guess I already did with the title of this post -- but I will say this: it looks like a bit of a clusterfuck.

Streets that change from one-way to two-way can be confusing for some drivers, but not only does Assiniboine change from one-way to two way, but it is at different points both one way east bound, and one-way west bound. With this arrangement, Kennedy and Carlton essentially become local-use-only, as they go nowhere except up Edmonton, while Edmonton becomes the only way out for traffic coming off of Osborne, Kennedy, Carlton and Hargrave, potentially becoming much busier.

Who knows? Maybe this is genius. Maybe once it gets implemented it will amaze and dazzle with it's safe and efficient management of cars and bicycles. Or, maybe it will just be a maze.