Sunday is Jane Jacobs Day
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2007/05/04/jacobs-day-walks.html
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Mark Boscariol in Kitchener’s Mayor and 7 or 8 new Trends :
Chris, Glad you asked that...- JCS in You are what (you can) eat:
I grew my own tomatos and peppers in my backyard garden but... - Urbanrat in Kitchener’s Mayor and 7 or 8 new Trends :
The same question came to my mind... - pc in You are what (you can) eat:
let me know what you got cooking up chris. i’m working on...
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Indeed, it was a very good day for walk and walk I did! From Riverside drive in the north to Tecumseh road in the south, from Ouellette in east to Janette in the west, lugging a camera and photocopies of addresses from city directories, tracing family addresses as they moved about Windsor from about 1900 to 1958. I also used early census records to locate the other addresses from 1872 (the year of the great fire in Windsor) to 1911.
It was an interesting excursion into old Windsor, many of the, then homes are gone now, some might still be the original homes, more research in the Municipal Archives into deeds will have to be done. And I wondered how many of those homes my great great grandfather and his son, my great grandfather built! They were general contractors from 1862 to well into the 1920’s in Windsor.
Taking my cue from the blog, International Metropolis and its recent postings of streetcars in this city, I mapped their routes in conjunction with the addresses and neighbourhoods my families lived in. I found that one, Windsor was very walkable as a primary means of getting around, and second that most people were within a ten minute walk or less of a streetcar line.
These neighbourhoods are old and in some cases looking very very tired and beyond gentrification but they could become more walkable if there were some amenities, like pocket size markets, hardware stores etc. Food Basics isn’t really walkable from the southern end of my day’s journey, convenience stores are only stop gap stores for real food needs. But their density is fantastic and they would be great neighbourhoods if only the one way streets were abolished and returned to two way traffic. I found that cars are moving too fast in these neighbourhoods and aren’t paying attention to those using the streets or can’t use the streets as a neighbourhood. It was Sunday and some drivers were treating these one way streets as drag strips!
I have two articles from the Border City Star, one in 1904 and the other from 1920 featuring my great grandfather, who remembered bare foot romances in the summer time along Sandwich street, the great fire and when Ouellette stopped at Pitt. I remember the British American Hotel, the train station on the riverfront, the cement company at the foot of Bruce, the old brewery and on and on when the town now city of Windsor was more robust than it is now.
In conclusion, I agree with the Windsor Star and others that have posted here, that doing away with one way streets in the core, would go a long way to revitalizing these old great neighbourhoods and make them what they were once, people friendly!
A quiet cheer for Jane!
One way streets issues. The only problem with converting one way streets to two way streets is that the traffic department has said on the New WI that it would cost $250,000 alone to convert pelissier and Victoria.
I am skeptical about those numbers. Especially when streetscape on pelissier is already occuring which would already pay for 4 of the intersections that need changing. I’d like to see what the real incremental cost from converting. My uneducated guess is about 30-50 k. I wish the traffic department would be taken to task on their numbers.
When the Casino did their traffic study to end McDougall a few years ago, the DWBIA was promised that traffic study would include conversion of one way streets to two way. (Specifically Chatham and pitt, Victoria and Pelissier)
Chatham and Pitt are more difficult to convert due to the lack of alleyways for deliveries. With Delivery trucks blocking one lane it would be difficult (but not impossible to deal with the remaining lane)
The conversion to one way streets was an experiment that tookplace in the 50’s more than a decade before I was born. THe experiment has proven a failure and its time end it.
I also find concern with the traffic department and their numbers to reconvert the streets in the core to two way. As for delivery trucks blocking a lane, it will slow down the traffic at least. Have you been in the alleys in the core lately, nothing but dumping grounds for garbage, their dispicable and they can be seen in all their glory from the streets!
Another thing that I have noticed over the years with Pelissier street from Wynadotte to Park, that drivers for some reason treat that stretch as a race track, speeding up on the two lanes with the slight bend in them. Can’t figure out why.
I watched on Sunday as I said above, that Dougall southbound from Wynadotte to Tecumseh is used almost like a drag strip or a race way, with cars just flying down that street, without a care to the neighbourhood. Sorry I shouldn’t have mentioned that , the traffic department might be reading this and want to widen the street to four lanes.
THe experiment has proven a failure and its time end it.
What evidence do you have to indicate that one-way streets are a failure? Two-way traffic is not going to improve those two streets.
I wouldn’t say it is a failure but the “experiment” is over. We do not have the haords of vehicles that the city thought they would have downtown anymore, which is why they brought in the one-way streets in the first place.
Making it easier to navigate downtown, along with bringing back more on street parking may help to bring more people downtown and dispell the myth that there is a lack of parking downtown.
Have you observed traffic on Pelissier street downtown, Vincent? The extra same-direction lane is treated soley as an overtaking tool (rather than convenient place to turn left at the next intersection). On a delivery route I worked this winter I actually got in my first accident in twenty two years when some lane jockey trying to get to the light at University 2.3 seconds faster misjudged his distance and clipped my fender. Impatient drivers play pole position all the way up to Chatham street. I saw it every day. If we ever want to see a return to a pedestrian-safe downtown, Pelissier is one ‘expressway’ where they need to install calming devices to get motorists to cool their jets.