A UBC graduate who grew up in Edmonton has come up with Canadian climate-inspired way to solve his hometown’s wintry commuter woes.
Matt Gibbs, a landscape architect, has designed a “freezeway,” an artificial ice thoroughfare, that he said would let Edmontonians leave their cars at home and skate their way to work.
Gibbs’ proposal involves converting a former railway right-of-way that stretches into Edmonton’s downtown corridor from two sides. The 11-kilometre route, he said, would allow people to skate -- or winter-cycle -- to work, school, even an Oilers game.
Speaking on CTV’s News Channel on Tuesday, Gibbs pointed out that the City of Edmonton prepared a winter strategy looking at how its residents can better embrace winter. After all, Edmonton’s climate is such that its population resides in below freezing temperatures for five months of the year.
“Does being Canadian mean we fly to Mexico every winter?” said Gibb, a landscape architect. “I think we can create better ways to enhance the livability and create more physically and socially active communities by creating more climate adaptive solutions in our cities.”
Not only would it create a commuter corridor, but the freezeway would be a “one-of-kind experience” that could potentially attract out-of-town visitors, similar to Ottawa’s Rideau Canal, Gibbs said.
That would, in turn, inject tourist dollars into Edmonton’s economy.
For those who don’t skate, the frozen trail would also be accompanied by a pedestrian trail. And it would be available for year-round use, too. The freezeway would function as a bike lane in the summer.
“In my route, I’ve created a pedestrian route alongside the multi-use trail that in the summer would be a bike lane and in the winter turn into this frozen skating trail.”
The trail would allow for winter cycling on the promenade, but also use rubberized matting.
Gibbs estimates the trail would provide a two-hour walk, 45-minute bike ride or 1.25-hour skate.
The proposal, which won an outdoor living design competition in 2013, has caught the attention of city officials, who want to pilot the project next year.
