Local business groups ask for help in slowing down speeding drivers
Cars “flying” down Wyandotte Street East with little regard for red lights have spurred the city’s nine business improvement associations to seek fine-doubling Community Safety Zone designations.
The Windsor BIA Advisory Committee unanimously passed a motion Tuesday asking city council for the traffic-calming designations — which typically step up enforcement and double many fines for offences such as speeding.
The purpose of Community Safety Zones is to slow down traffic and make it safer for people, be they motorists, pedestrians or cyclists, said Bridget Scheuerman, who represents the BIAS in Old Riverside Town Centre and Pillette Village, where speeding traffic has become intolerable.
“Along Wyandotte Street now, if you are trying to get out of your car when the traffic is flying, you will get your car door taken off,” she said after Tuesday’s meeting. She cited high volumes and high speeds, and a street that has four lanes of traffic and two narrow parking lanes.
“We want traffic slowed down primarily for safety, but also to give people the opportunity to see they’re in the Riverside Business Improvement Association or the Pillette Village Business Improvement Association and to see the stores and shops and to stop and take advantage of our businesses.”
A Community Safety Zone is typically used around high-pedestrian areas like schools and hospitals. It holds speeders accountable, she said.
“I know myself, when I’m in one, I just slow right down because you know ... it’s there for a reason, for safety. And if you’re ignoring it you’re going to pay.”
The committee members — BIA representatives as well as several city councillors — heard Windsor police Insp. Andrew Randall talk about what can be done to slow Wyandotte traffic. This year to date, he said, 670 speeding tickets have been issued on the street between Chilver and Lauzon roads.
Scheuerman asked about traffic blitzes, or the Interceptor strategy police employ on E.C. Row Expressway in which one officer operates a radar gun then radios for another officer to pull over the speeders. Stepped-up enforcement, she said, would “send a message” to motorists who are speeding and paying little heed to traffic lights.
Randall said devoting officers to Wyandotte would have to be weighed against enforcement in other high-need areas, including intersections that record the most crashes annually.
For example, he said, cars have been clocked going 90 to 100 km/h early in the morning when traffic is light on Riverside Drive, and 70 to 80 on Casgrain Drive, a residential road in South Windsor.
“We have to try to prioritize things day by day,” he said.
He urged the BIAS to have members use the Windsor Police Service’s online complaint system, which helps determine where police dedicate their resources. Road Watch, for example, is an online service where people can report traffic infractions and the licence plate of an offending motorist. A registered letter can be sent to the car’s owner telling him the fine he would have to pay if an officer had seen the infraction.
Ward 3 Coun. Rino Bortolin, who chaired Tuesday’s meeting, said in a BIA, you want traffic to slow down, so people can feel safe and comfortable as they cross the street, walk down the street, sit at a sidewalk café or enter a store. Some BIAS have improved traffic problems with improved street designs, like in Walkerville where extensive streetscaping has provided bumpouts (reducing traffic to two lanes), a pedestrian crossing and wide sidewalks. But others still have challenges.
“And Riverside is probably the worst one,” said Bortolin, recounting how he recently parked on the street and spent 20 minutes trying to cross in heavy traffic. “You get to the point where that’s not comfortable, I’m not going to go to that BIA to go for lunch or anything, if that’s how it feels.”
A Community Safety Zone is one tactic, along with increased enforcement, redesigning the street, traffic calming measures and red-light cameras — a controversial initiative that city council will consider at budget time.
There are currently only three Community Safety Zones in Windsor: Huron Church Road between College Avenue and city limits; Tecumseh Road between Windsor Avenue and Kildare Road; and Wyandotte Street West between Church Street and Victoria Avenue.
Juan Paramo, a transportation policy analyst with the city, said each BIA would be individually reviewed to see it meets the criteria of a Community Safety Zone. The review takes in many factors including daily traffic volumes, pedestrian volumes, speed limits, tickets issued, sidewalks and whether there’s a high-pedestrian generator nearby such as a school or hospital.
“We combine all that data and come up with a recommendation,” he said, which council would ultimately rule on. Once approved, signs would go up telling drivers it’s a Community Safety Zone, where fines are increased.
Windsor’s BIAS are: Downtown Windsor, Ford City, Olde Sandwich Towne, Walkerville, Ottawa Street, Pillette Village, Via Italia (Erie Street), Wyandotte Towne Centre and Olde Riverside Town Centre.