The Not-So-Crazy Plan to Build an Ice-Skating Highway Through Edmonton
The “Freezeway” is a proposed 6.8-mile ice skating lane for Edmonton, Canada.
Matt Gibbs
Considering most the rinks are circular, ice skating doesn’t seem like an especially good way to actually get somewhere other than where you started. But if a young Canadian gets his way, that could change.
He’s suggested building something he calls the Freezeway, a 6.8-mile skating lane through Edmonton, Alberta, for residents and tourists who want to commute on ice. You may laugh, but Matt Gibbs has given this a lot of thought—he first proposed the idea two years ago in his masters thesis in landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
For his thesis, Gibbs focused on ways “to make winter cities more livable, in particular how can we diversify transportation options, focus on active transportation, as well as social activity.”
The idea for the Freezeway was prompted in part when he found a comment by Tooker Gomberg, who as a city councilor in the 1990s suggested the city crack open the fire hydrants, let the water freeze, and watch residents skate around town. Gibbs’ riff on the idea (which he found “delightful”) is more refined, and presented in a way that seems like something that could actually happen.
The route would use two existing transportation corridors, one of them an abandoned railway line. Linking them would create a loop connecting several neighborhoods to downtown Edmonton and, of course, the arena being built for Oilers hockey. Dare you to think of something more Canadian than ice skating to a hockey game.
It would be available for recreation and commuting.
Matt Gibbs
The Freezeway would look like a big bike lane (and be used by cyclists during the warmer months) covered in ice. To contain the water long enough to have it freeze, you’d have low curbs or strategically placed banks of snow. There are many ways the idea could play out, Gibbs says. You could keep it simple by just turning on the water, letting it freeze, and calling it done. Or you could add lighting, or even a cooling system or artificial ice to allow skating in warmer months. (Hey, if Florida can have a hockey team, Canadians can skate outside in May.) You wouldn’t have to build it all at once. “This design can be developed incrementally, it could ultimately become a transportation network in a city, or just a recreational resource.”
Though one city councilor called the idea the stupidest thing he’s heard in 30 years, Gibbs says, the response has been largely positive. The big concerns are over cost and liability when someone gets hurt. “It would be great to have,” city planner Susan Holdsworth told the Global News. “We are trying to make the most of being a winter city and our northernness and it’s a great way to do it.” That’s exactly what Gibbs is going for. “I wanted to look at the hidden opportunities that exist living in a climate that’s below freezing for more than five months a year,” he says.
The proposal isn’t unprecedented. During the winter freeze, Rideau Canal becomes a 5-mile skating corridor through the heart of Ottawa. The Dutch have been hosting a 120-mile skating race on the country’s canals since 1909. And the wild success of New York City’s Highline, an abandoned elevated railway converted into a park, makes any project in its category more plausible.
Many of your questions will be answered when the proposal is finalized, including where the Freezeway will go and what it will cost. But there’s no doubt it’s a fun idea, a way to make getting outside in the cold appealing, Gibbs says. I’m “trying to find ways to make people fall in love with winter as opposed to as if was some unbearable curse.”
The Not-So-Crazy Plan to Build an Ice-Skating Highway Through Edmonton | WIRED
Yeah, yeah, yeah...Canadian....North....Winter....I get it. But The Freezeway? Please don't call it that.
The “Freezeway” is a proposed 6.8-mile ice skating lane for Edmonton, Canada.
Considering most the rinks are circular, ice skating doesn’t seem like an especially good way to actually get somewhere other than where you started. But if a young Canadian gets his way, that could change.
He’s suggested building something he calls the Freezeway, a 6.8-mile skating lane through Edmonton, Alberta, for residents and tourists who want to commute on ice. You may laugh, but Matt Gibbs has given this a lot of thought—he first proposed the idea two years ago in his masters thesis in landscape architecture at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
For his thesis, Gibbs focused on ways “to make winter cities more livable, in particular how can we diversify transportation options, focus on active transportation, as well as social activity.”
The idea for the Freezeway was prompted in part when he found a comment by Tooker Gomberg, who as a city councilor in the 1990s suggested the city crack open the fire hydrants, let the water freeze, and watch residents skate around town. Gibbs’ riff on the idea (which he found “delightful”) is more refined, and presented in a way that seems like something that could actually happen.
The route would use two existing transportation corridors, one of them an abandoned railway line. Linking them would create a loop connecting several neighborhoods to downtown Edmonton and, of course, the arena being built for Oilers hockey. Dare you to think of something more Canadian than ice skating to a hockey game.
It would be available for recreation and commuting.
The Freezeway would look like a big bike lane (and be used by cyclists during the warmer months) covered in ice. To contain the water long enough to have it freeze, you’d have low curbs or strategically placed banks of snow. There are many ways the idea could play out, Gibbs says. You could keep it simple by just turning on the water, letting it freeze, and calling it done. Or you could add lighting, or even a cooling system or artificial ice to allow skating in warmer months. (Hey, if Florida can have a hockey team, Canadians can skate outside in May.) You wouldn’t have to build it all at once. “This design can be developed incrementally, it could ultimately become a transportation network in a city, or just a recreational resource.”
Though one city councilor called the idea the stupidest thing he’s heard in 30 years, Gibbs says, the response has been largely positive. The big concerns are over cost and liability when someone gets hurt. “It would be great to have,” city planner Susan Holdsworth told the Global News. “We are trying to make the most of being a winter city and our northernness and it’s a great way to do it.” That’s exactly what Gibbs is going for. “I wanted to look at the hidden opportunities that exist living in a climate that’s below freezing for more than five months a year,” he says.
The proposal isn’t unprecedented. During the winter freeze, Rideau Canal becomes a 5-mile skating corridor through the heart of Ottawa. The Dutch have been hosting a 120-mile skating race on the country’s canals since 1909. And the wild success of New York City’s Highline, an abandoned elevated railway converted into a park, makes any project in its category more plausible.
Many of your questions will be answered when the proposal is finalized, including where the Freezeway will go and what it will cost. But there’s no doubt it’s a fun idea, a way to make getting outside in the cold appealing, Gibbs says. I’m “trying to find ways to make people fall in love with winter as opposed to as if was some unbearable curse.”
The Not-So-Crazy Plan to Build an Ice-Skating Highway Through Edmonton | WIRED
Yeah, yeah, yeah...Canadian....North....Winter....I get it. But The Freezeway? Please don't call it that.
