COMMUTER CYCLING DISPUTE

Advocates slam list of bike projects

Cycling advocates lashed out Monday at a list of infrastructure projects the city intends to submit to a provincial commuter cycling fund, claiming not one of the ones recommended by administration “will increase commuter cycling in Windsor.”

Bike Windsor Essex submitted eight proposed commuter cycling routes to the city, hoping they would be included in the list the city compiled for the Ontario Municipal Commuter Cycling Grant. Only two were included, Bike Windsor Essex’s Lori Newton said.

“Windsorites are afraid to cycle on our streets,” she told council. The Ontario fund provides up to 80 per cent of funding for commuter cycling routes.

“We together have an exciting opportunity,” she said. “Let’s not squander this opportunity.”

The city list is for a total of $9 million in cycling projects. City engineer Mark Winterton said the idea of commuter cycling infrastructure is to provide cyclists with a means to get from Point A to Point B.

“And all of these projects provide some level of that,” he said.

On Monday night, council voted to add two more to the list: commuter cycling routes along Rhodes Drive so people can more safely cycle to work in the industrial subdivision; and a tunnel underneath E.C. Row Expressway to connect the Twin Oakes industrial subdivision with Forest Glade.

“Why leave these two great projects off the list?” asked Coun. Irek Kusmierczyk. Also on Monday, Coun. Paul Borrelli asked for a city report to do a pilot project allowing sidewalks to be used for both pedestrians and cyclists in a few areas where riding bikes on the road is considered hazardous. The motion was strongly defeated.

The biggest project on the list for government funding is a $6.7-million multi-use tunnel to solve cycling problems going through the “Dougall Death Trap” where the road narrows at the CN rail overpass.

Bike Windsor Essex says this is definitely a commuter route, but questioned whether it will be built on time to qualify for funding.

The next biggest project is a $1.1-million project to connect the Herb Gray Parkway trail network to the Gordie Howe International Bridge. It’s not a commuter route, according to Bike Windsor Essex.

The Ontario program is funded by the government’s cap-and-trade program, with $40.5 million available in the first year. It’s supposed to encourage more people to take their bikes instead of cars, with the intent of lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Other proposed routes include: cycling routes along North Service Road; a multi-use trail along Ojibway Parkway; completing the cycling network in the Sandwich area; Seminole Street bike lanes; Northwood Street bike lanes; Rivard Avenue bike lanes; Pillette Road bike lanes; bike lanes along McDougall Street; and bike lanes on California Avenue from Wyandotte Street to Totten Street.