Riverside Drive (Windsor, Ontario)

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Riverside Drive is one of the main roads in Windsor, Ontario, travelling along the Detroit River, between its riverfront parks and high-rise office towers and apartment buildings. The road travels through Downtown, and towards the east end. The road is roughly 17.5 km in length, and is quite busy.

The road continues as Riverside Drive through the town of Tecumseh, Ontario, and through the village of St. Clair Beach, Ontario, where it ends at Brighton Road (Essex County Road 21).

For around 3 km of its length (from Rankin Avenue to Crawford Avenue (in front of CBET-TV's studios), there are bike lanes, with the Riverfront Bike Trail just to the north in the parkland.

[edit] Sandwich Street

The road was once named Sandwich Street, for the former community and now neighbourhood on the west end of Windsor. The road continues as Sandwich Street from the intersection with Huron Church Road, and continues past Ojibway Parkway to the Brighton Beach Power Plant, Black Oak Heritage Park, and the Brighton Beach neighbourhood of Windsor.

[edit] Riverside Drive Vista Project

Throughout late 2005, and all of 2006, Windsor City Council has been trying to convert and widen the sidewalk along Riverside Drive (from Strabane Avenue to roughly Lauzon Road), to improve cycling access from the west side and downtown to the east side. The road is currently two lanes for most of its length, having either bike lanes or upscale residential properties that extend from the riverfront to the roadway.

The vista project will be a multi-million dollar beautification project to plant trees, re-surface Riverside Drive, and re-surface sidewalks, possibly installing either bike lanes, or a bike trail along the road.

Residents who reside on the eastern portion of Riverside Drive are angry that the road is treated like a two-lane freeway, with the occasional driver speeding well above the posted speed limit of 50 km/h (30 mph) and 40 km/h (25 mph) at curves. These residents insist that the road should not be repaved (event though most drivers agree that it needs repaving, post-haste), to discourage other residents from using "their" road. They claim that if the road is not paved, drivers will choose other routes across the city, such as the E.C. Row Expressway or Wyandotte Street East, and avoid their street, rendering it quieter, ensuring their property values will increase.

The commuters, mostly residents in Tecumseh, Ontario, the Forest Glade community, and from Downtown, feel the road should be repaved for everyone, not just the Riverside neighbourhood residents, as well as install a bike lane, so cyclists don't have to risk their lives by riding on the road or sidewalk. Some residents have opposed having to give up some property for the construction of bike lanes, but City Hall appears to be progressing with the Vista Project, in debate and committee at least. The vista project is proposed as an alternative to putting bike lanes along the dangerously busy Wyandotte Street just a short distance south, or buying out the existing CN Rail/VIA Rail line leading from Lesperance Road to Hiram Walker to convert into a massive greenway/bike trail or two-lane arterial road.

[edit] See also

• Ganatchio Trail
• Little River Extension
• Devonwood Bike Trail
• Riverside Drive Vista Project
• Bike Trails in the City of Windsor
• Trans-Canada Trail

[edit] Sources

• Windsor Star
• Mapquest
• CHWI-TV 16/60 A-Channel Windsor

[edit] External links

• Bike Trails at City of Windsor's website, CityWindsor.ca
• City of Windor BUMP (Bike User Master Plan)
• City of Windsor "Riverside Vista" Plans