Bicycles big in transportation plan
Advocates enthused by proposals headed to city council next week
Cycling advocates are excited about new targets being recommended to Windsor city council to dramatically increase cycling, walking and bus riding over the next 22 years.
The new targets are part of a preliminary version of the muchanticipated Active Transportation Master Plan, which goes to council Monday for endorsement. The document includes a proposed bicycle network involving hundreds of cycling routes throughout the city.
Included is a straight shot down Wyandotte Street East, eliminating a much-criticized “zig-zag ” detour around the Riverside commercial areas suggested by administration in 2017. There’s also a “downtown grid” of bicycle-friendly streets criss-crossing through the core, and “regional spines” connecting the city ’s neighbourhoods, including a University Avenue route from the downtown to the University of Windsor.
Making Wyandotte a regional spine is “fantastic news,” said Lori Newton, executive director of Bike Windsor Essex. Though she sees some omissions she would like to have changed — such as failing to identify Ouellette Avenue and Tecumseh Road East as spines — the update is “thrilling,” she said. “There’s a lot of really good here. The grid in the downtown core, connecting the downtown to the university, it’s wonderful to see.” What’s also exciting, said Newton, is that the consultants crafting the Walk Wheel Windsor plan are recommending that the targets for increased walking, cycling and transit use be bumped up following consultations with thousands of residents last year.
The original target was to increase active transportation from 10 per cent of all commuting trips currently to 20 per cent by 2041. “The majority of feedback from the public indicated that this target felt too long-term, was not bold enough, and suggested a higher target,” a report to council says. So the consultants now say the 20 per cent mark should be reached 10 years earlier, by 2031, and that by 2041 the percentage should be 25 per cent.
“Based on the experience of other communities, this is a bold target but is comparable to targets in several other communities,” the report says. “To achieve this target, it is expected that significant additional priorities, resources and funding towards active transportation will be required.” Excluding transit, only five per cent of Windsor commuter trips are by bike or foot. The goal is to increase that number by 160 per cent.
For comparison, Ottawa aims to up its 10 per cent rate by 50 per cent, London wants to increase its 7.2 per cent rate by 108 per cent, Hamilton’s six per cent rate by 150 per cent, Kitchener’s 5.3 per cent rate by 126 per cent and Oakville wants its 4.1 per cent rate boosted by 229 per cent.
Walk Wheel Windsor suggests myriad strategies to get more people opting for active transportation instead of driving their cars. These include enhancing the city’s sidewalk network; filling in gaps in the existing bicycle network; expanding and integrating pathways and trails with on-street networks; developing “complete streets,” which include needs of all road users, including cyclists and pedestrians; making sure new developments are connected with active transportation networks; ensuring these networks are well-lit; connecting Windsor’s networks with the networks of surrounding towns; providing bike parking facilities; and investigating bike sharing programs. “This is a culture shift, a major culture shift, and we’re going to have to prepare for it,” Newton said.
Boosting the target levels came after the public consultation, said Josette Eugeni, the city’s manager of transportation planning. The bike network includes many roads that already have bike lanes. She said that all the identified roads won’t necessarily end up with bike lanes. There could be multi-use trails or shared roadways. “For the city of Windsor, (the consultants) felt this combination of a downtown grid, regional spines and then connectors to the spines works with our roadway pattern,” she said.
When the “zigzag ” around Wyandotte Street was proposed in 2017, there was a groundswell of opposition and council deferred the issue so it could be studied as part of the Active Transportation Master Plan process.
“At this stage, they’re saying Wyandotte Street is a good regional spine for the cycling network,” Eugeni said. “Whether that takes the form of bicycle lanes or shared facilities or how those get achieved is not defined in the study.” She said the final plan should be ready for council by the end of June or early summer. So far, there are no dollar estimates for what all the improvements, to be done over many years, would cost. Eugeni said the revised targets will be more challenging to achieve. The percentage of active transportation commuter trips has actually decreased in recent years, from 13 per cent in 1996 to 10 per cent in 2016.
“So we’ve got to go against the current trend and turn that around, targeting 12 per cent by 2021 and then 20 per cent by 2031 and 25 per cent by 2041,” she said. “You’ve got to turn around the downward trend and turn upwards fairly aggressively.”