RDVIP a go!
According to today’s Windsor Star, the neverending saga of the Riverside Drive Vista Improvement Project has met with a kindly judge up the 401 who promptly threw the case out of court.
The success that Riverside Neighbourhood Inc., the small handfull of AltTrans naysayers who opposed the city’s plans, realized was delaying the project past the period in which the city could have applied for stimulus cash to pay for the infrastructure, as the RDVIP was entirely shovel-ready and ready to go. This has, in effect, killed off the project as Windsor’s limited funds and the Mayor’s constant desire to see budgets slashed by 10% per year means the chance of seeing this as a line in any budget is remote.
One thing we must keep in mind with this positive news is the possible resulting threat on our neighbourhood’s Main Streets and BIAs (Olde Riverside, Olde Walkerville, Wyandotte Towne Centre, etc.) after traffic has been diverted off of Riverside Drive. This has always been on our radar screen and the next hurdle to jump. The last thing our core needs is to have Wyandotte Street morph into another pedestrian-hostile environment like Tecumseh Road.
But, for the meantime, Riverside Neighbourhood Inc. has preserved the hostile cycling route along The Drive, the huge amounts of traffic they must deal with, and in turn our Main Streets along Wyandotte Street East. Hopefully one of these days we’ll all realize that by working together we’ll build the city we deserve instead of incorporating groups to do legal battle with each other. Both sides of this “fight” could have handled things better (myself included) and we must learn from this example.
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The changes are already taking place and have been for a few weeks. From Strabane east, they’ve been relocating hydro poles and pushing them out from the road closer to the homes to make way for the new bike/walking lanes. It’s been wonderful to see.
I do wonder what will happen to the traffic. I strongly support Riverside Neighbourhood’s idea to lower the speed limit to 40km/h on the drive. I don’t know if that will happen, but if it does, will it push traffic onto Wyandotte?
Either way, we need those bike lanes. While we can’t apply for stimulus funds (although the deadline has been extended), there will be other grants that the city can apply for.
In all my years of reading about this stuff, one thing I’m convinced of is the fact that we don’t have to sacrifice one aspect (bike/ped infrastructure) of good urban design in favour of another. (local economic development in a walkable environment) We just have to make it a priority and intelligently lobby for it. The general public is starting to come around to the importance of a diverse, local economy and the appeal of walkable spaces, we just have to build on that knowledge. We just have to avoid the common trap of turning on one another (not saying that is what you were implying, Steve)
Well I think we need bike lanes on both Riverside and Wyandotte, along with traffic calming devices.
Riverside Neighbourhood Inc. is at it again!
http://www.windsorstar.com/travel/Bring+Drive+into+21st+century/4016936/story.html
I think it is time for the neighbourhoods representing all those who will benefit from the quality of life improvements of this project to stand-up. Enough already with this bending-over-backwards to please a small special interest group that is clearly only interested in delaying this project at the detriment to the rest of us.
This is what it feels like for a pedestrian trying to cross Riverside Drive.
Takeshi’s Castle - Gauntlet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIW-OrUIDFA
I think Windsor residents should launch a class-action lawsuit against Riverside Neighbourhood INC. for reducing our quality of life, limiting our choice of transportation, endangering pedestrians and cyclists and unnecessarily polluting our air and water. Know of any lawyer who would take this on, pro bono?