Winnipeg homes rattled by new transit route prompts call for traffic study

Some people living in Transcona may get some relief from new transit routes they say are causing issues in the area.

A motion at city hall calls for a traffic study on a Transcona street where some residents complain transit buses are shaking, rattling and cracking their homes.

Residents on Victoria Avenue East told CTV News the constant rumblings of buses down their residential street have shaken pictures off the wall, cracked windows, and damaged their foundations.

They blame the new transit system overhaul, which altered bus routes around the city and brought more transit traffic—including the double-sized articulated buses—down the two-lane residential street.

Those complaints have reached Coun. Russ Wyatt (Transcona), who has brought forward a motion asking the city to look into it.

“I think the residents in the area do have legitimate concerns,” Wyatt told the East Kildonan-Transcona Community Committee last week.

The motion notes the poor condition of the road, along with failing joints, are causing “severe shaking” in homes along the street.

It requests the public service to conduct a traffic study on a portion of Victoria Avenue East—from Redonda Street to the area approximately where Regent Avenue East merges in.

The motion asks the public service to—among other things—consider the full reconstruction of this section of Victoria Avenue East to end the shaking of homes. It also calls for the transit department to enforce a 30 km/h maximum speed limit for any transit bus on this stretch of road.

Coun. Jeff Browaty (North Kildonan) said he would not support the motion, noting the section of road is a major route. He said if buses are limited to 30 km/h, they would no longer be able to offer frequent or express service.

“This is a very heavily operated route. There is a lot of these buses,” Browaty said. “People are going to get frustrated if they are stuck behind a 30 km/h bus when they are trying to get home or go wherever they are trying to go.”

While Wyatt acknowledged the street is a collector route and will inevitably have transit traffic rolling down it, he said the street needs repairs.

“The city has not maintained the road,” he said.

The motion passed the East Kildonan-Transcona Community Committee and is set to be discussed at the public works committee on Dec. 3.

• With files from CTV’s Jon Hendricks