Winnipeg police said officers have been mindful of a vehicle attack, such as the one in Toronto Monday, in security planning for the Whiteout Street Party during Winnipeg Jets home playoff games.

Insp. Dave Dalal, special events commander with the Winnipeg Police Service, said large trucks parked at the four street entrances to the party combined with an increased police presence are there to keep crowds safe.

“We’ve been mindful of this type of threat and that’s why you’ve seen the large vehicles parked there,” said Dalal. “We’ve seen these threats worldwide. The reason that they’re so prolific is that they’re hard to prevent and they’re easy to carry out.”

“Our intent is to make sure that everybody who’s down celebrating has a safe environment to do so. So part of that is ensuring there’s no vehicles that will either deliberately or inadvertently get through.”

When it comes to protecting people walking to the street party Dalal said there are security measures in place but wouldn’t comment on specific operational tactics.

“People will see street closures to prevent vehicles from accessing the area, you’ll see officers at various points leading into the area as a visible presence,” said Dalal. “We’re doing our best to make sure that doesn’t happen locally but you can’t prevent these attacks everywhere as you’ve seen.”

“Nobody thought it would happen in Toronto. We don’t know what will happen locally but we’re doing our best to make sure that doesn’t happen here.”

Police said around 36,000 people were downtown during last Friday’s Jets game.

The Jets are playing the Nashville Predators in the second round of the NHL playoffs. The team will host at least two more home playoff games.

It’s not clear yet when those games will be played but Dalal said police will be ready.

“Our security presence is going to grow with the crowds so as we work with the partners to try and project how many people are going to come down and help celebrate so will our security presence.”

SIDEWALKS DESIGNED TO SHIELD PEOPLE FROM NORMAL TRAFFIC NOT DELIBERATE ATTACKS

In light of the recent van attack in Toronto and similar incidents elsewhere protecting pedestrians has become a key issue for communities around the world

Concrete barriers and planters protect people walking along certain sections of Portage Avenue but University of Manitoba civil engineering Professor Ahmed Shalaby said these features, mainly used in high density areas, only go so far.

“Normally we look at separating pedestrian traffic from vehicular traffic on the design of a road,” said Shalaby. “So when there is a sidewalk we would like to have that separated through greenspace, sometimes there are flower boxes or other features on the roadside that provide that shielding of pedestrians from traffic.”

"It's never been designed with the intent of averting someone who's intent on harming pedestrians. It's designed with the intent of shielding pedestrians from normal traffic."

Shalaby said if these attacks keep happening communities may have to take a closer look at the issue to find ways of minimizing the threat.

But it’s not possible to make every pedestrian safe without turning communities into militarized zones at huge financial costs according to Alan Tate, a professor and head of the Department of Landscape Architecture at University of Manitoba.

“That said, it certainly felt safer walking behind the barriers on Westminster Bridge last July after the attack there,” said Tate. “I just don’t think it is feasible to think about providing that kind of protection city-wide – anywhere.”

The city of Winnipeg said in a statement safety features are incorporated into new and existing infrastructure but made no mention of specific elements to curb vehicle attacks.

“When designing roads, sidewalks, and active transportation infrastructure, the city factors in standard safety considerations to reduce incidents between motorists on the road and pedestrians,” the statement said. “It is not realistic to retrofit all sidewalks in the city with heavy barriers or bollards due to cost of installation and maintenance, the impact on snow storage capacity in the winter, and other factors,”