City puts a lid on mandatory bike-helmet talk

The City of Winnipeg is putting a lid on further talk about mandatory bike-helmet use after councillors accepted a cycling-safety report that recommended no course of action.

Council's protection, community services and parks committee voted 3-1 Monday to accept aresearch-literature review that stated bike helmets prevent injuries in collisions that occur at low speeds and dedicated cycling infrastructure can prevent higher-speed collisions between bikes and cars.

• Helmets, dedicated bike routes improve cycling safety, city report says
• Don't thank Captain Obvious for cycling safety study

The committee asked city staff to look into mandatory helmets last year.

Report author StephanieWhitehouse, Winnipeg's active-transportationco-ordinator, said a recommendation aboutmandatory bike helmets would require the city to spend more time and money consulting with the likes of itslawyers, as well asManitobaPublic Insurance, the Winnipeg Police Service and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

"That would require a biggerstudy, a bigger report,"Whitehousetold reporters at city hall, stating she personally believes more dedicated bike lanes would do more to protect cyclists than a rule requiring all cyclists to wear helmets.

Right now, provincial rules require cyclists under the age of 18 to wear helmets. It's not clear if the city has the legal jurisdiction to enact bike helmet legislation of its own,Whitehousesaid.

Committee chair MikePagtakhan(Point Douglas) said he wished her report included more information, but said he agreed the priority for the city should be to build more cycling infrastructure that separates cars from bikes.

TransconaCoun. Russ Wyatt, the sole committee member to vote against receiving the report, said he too believes the report lacked detail but said he is far more concerned that the city hired a consulting firm to assist with the report while it was the subject of a conflict-of-interest and professionalisminvestigation by the city auditor.

That firm,MORRTransportation, is owned byJeanetteMontufar, anactive transportation subcontractor whose tweets about Wyatt and whose marriage to city transportation manager Luis Escobar prompted an investigation. Her firm was ultimately cleared, though the investigation required the city to tighten up rules regarding what subcontractors say while they're employed by the city.

• City dismisses conflict-of-interest allegation, professionalism complaint against bike-lane consultant

Wyatt said Winnipeg chief administrative officer Doug McNeil should not have sole-sourced a contract to MORR while the firm was under investigation.

"That causes me a lot of concern," Wyatt said.