Category: Winnipeg

Was True North really planning an NHL announcement last week?

I was poking around the HTML source of the Winnipeg NHL season tickets drive website – driveto13.com – on Tuesday where I discovered this HTML comment.

It looks like True North was actually planning an announcement last week. As of today (June 2nd) 5 of 8 presale groups have been activated. This HTML comment points to a timeline starting last Tuesday, just like earlier rumour suggest.

Here’s a link to the full source, since it’s been updated recently.

Hiring in Winnipeg: Web Developer and Production Coordinator

My new employer Think Shift is looking to fill 2 full-time positions.

1. A web developer with a bunch of ASP experience. Full posting.

2. Production & Media Coordinator – as far as I understand this is a bit of a crazy hybrid position where you get to tell a bunch of nerds what to do every day. Full posting.

 

 

Feel free to hit me on twitter or leave a comment for more info.

Winnipeg Please Standardize Street Signs

Driving around with a friend (who recently moved back to the city) the other day when he brought up a good point, city street signs are completely random. It’s impossible to know where to look for a street sign and sometimes you can’t find one at all, even at major intersections.

In cities like Winnipeg, where traffic signals are hung from horizontal poles, the most visible place to mount a street sign is directly on the mounting pole, right above the roadway. I think that’s pretty straightforward common-sense.

I’ve pulled some images of Portage Avenue from Google Streetview. Portage is one of the busiest roads in Winnipeg, it’s the start of the Yellowhead Trail (west to Edmonton) and part of the main Trans Canada Highway (to Calgary). According to the City of Winnipeg’s 2009 Traffic Flow study (pdf), Portage Avenue received an average weekday flow of 75,000 cars per day – the portions of road mentioned below see about 75% of that. Suffice it to say, it’s a busy road.

Portage & Moray

An example of good signage; every major intersection should be set up like this. You can clearly see a large sign marking the cross street above every traffic signal on all four intersecitons.

Portage & Sturgeon

A few kilometers west of Moray lies one of the worst examples of street signage in the city. The westbound lane (on the left) is fine, it’d be hard to miss that Sturgeon Rd sign. For no apparent reason eastbound lane is completely non-standard. The traffic signal is clearly missing a sign, you’ll probably have to squint to actually find the sign. I’ll give you a hint, it’s off to the right…on a “no stopping” sign. How completely random is that? It gets worse, the sign post is actually offset a couple of meters ahead of the intersection. So, if you’re stopped at the stop line, or anywhere in one of the left-hand lanes it’s actually physically impossible to see the sign.

Obviously inconsistant street signage is far from the biggest problem facing Winnipeg, it’s not even the worst problem with the roads. It’s just one of those little things…

Vintage Manitoba Film Footage

I came across a 2 part “Mantioba Travelogue” video from the 1940s on youtube. An era when Manitoba seemed to have been much more prosperous.

Part 1: mainly features Winnipeg. Interesting facts at the time Winnipeg was Canada’s 4th largest city – a position currently occupied by Ottawa-Gatineau (Winnipeg #8 now) – and meatpacking was the #1 industry in town.

Part 2: Featuring Brandon, Riding Mountain and north.

It seems to cut off before the end, but I was unable to find a part 3.