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Cyclist charged post-collision with city vehicle reminder that all road users must follow laws · Kvetch & Release

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Windsor police have they say they've charged a person who
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: was riding a bike and was involved in a crash
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: on the Comcy Road at Howard last week. The cyclist
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: was charged with failing to stop for a red light.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Listeners will remember seeing the photograph of what appears to
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: be a City of Windsor mini van with a bicycle
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: right in the front of it, surrounded by a yellow
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: police tape. Last week, police said the cyclist was taken
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: to hospital with injuries not considered to be life threatening.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Footage at the scene showed that white van with the
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: City of Windsor logo on the side, with a bike
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: propped against the front of the vehicle. Again joding me
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in studio right now is Ward nine Councilor Kieren mackenzie,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: who we've spoken with often about on A eight hundred
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: about cycling issues and the need for better road infrastructure.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: But also I think this is a really important issue
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: where it highlights everyone needs to follow the rules of
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the road, regardless of who you are, if you're a pedestrian,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: if you're on a skateboard, a scooter, a bike or
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a car. Because in this case it was a cyclist
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: who ran a red and obviously you got traffic cameras.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: It's easy to put these things and piece it back
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: together exactly what occurred. It's dangerous. We know that our
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: roads aren't designed the best that they could be for
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: people who are using them for active to transit here.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: And and that's I think all the more reason why
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: it's incumbent upon users who are at higher levels of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: likelihoods of being seriously injured to take it on their
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: own to follow these laws to make sure they stay safe.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Well, look, you know, in the in these conversations John
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: that we've had, I sometimes I insist on referring to
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: the road as the public right of way, the public
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: right away because and the reason I use that language
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: is because it's designed to for all users, cyclists, pedestrians
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: and people of all ages and motorists to have safe
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: access to that space. It's for everybody. So you're right,
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: it's a good point. We all because we are all
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: going to enjoy the access to that space to get
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: to the various places that we want to go to
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: and need to go to. We all need to be
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: invested in each other's safety and our own safety. So
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: this is one of the a very unfortunate thing. I
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: wouldn't say it's necessarily just endemic to all of Windsor's
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: problems related to infrastructure. There are injuries like this that
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: happen in some of the best cycling communities from an
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: infrastructure standpoint, some of the worst cycling infrastructure communities. But
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: this is about people making human beings, making choices when
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: they're interacting in the public space, and sometimes we make mistakes.
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: You know, Listen, I don't cycle nearly as much as
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I used to in the past resulting from being involved
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: in an accident with a vehicle. But it's frustrating sometimes
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: to have to wait at a red light when you're
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: on a bike and you go, there's no cars around
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: right now. I could be across the street in five seconds.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: But that same argument could be made for people in
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: a car. Quite frankly, Tcumpsey Road and Howard Avenue is
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: one of those really big ones that we have in
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  Speaker 1: the city. Probably what seven lanes across to get across
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  Speaker 1: to Cumpsey, maybe six across Howard could be quite frankly
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the same. I mean, that's a big road. If you
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: think that you can get across it, you might not
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: realize that someone's turning a corner or coming a little
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: bit too quickly if you're looking to the left and
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: they're coming from the right. Again, we don't have the
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: worst designed infrastructure in Canada, but other cities deal with
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: these major issues as well. Are there calming measures that
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: we could do for an intersection like that. I mean,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: it's a tough one because I think other than saying
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: take a lane out, like, what is there that could
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: be Well, here's.
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  Speaker 2: The thing about taking a lane out. That intersection is
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: one of the busiest intersections in the city and it
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: will always be one of the busiest intersections in the city.
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: And frankly, it's designed to be one of the busiest
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: intersections in the city. So in some respects you and
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: you have to think about if you start removing capacity
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  Speaker 2: in some areas, there's the ancilliary effect of pushing traffic
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  Speaker 2: onto other roads. So you might see more people on Shepherd,
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  Speaker 2: for example, in motorized vehicles, which we're trying to turn
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: into a cycling corridor, and we'll be turning into a
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  Speaker 2: major cycling corridor because there is actual infrastructure that's going
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: down Shepherd that will be connecting essentially killed there all
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the way to pass Dolette. So this is you know,
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  Speaker 2: if you take away some of that motorized vehicular capacity
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  Speaker 2: out of one intersection, you're going to see some of
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: that traffic move to other places. Now you might as
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  Speaker 2: you continue to improve your transit system and your cycling infrastructure,
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  Speaker 2: you'll get some uptake in terms of people choosing to
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: use different modalities of transportation, but it's not going to
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: be one for one. Again, we could look at different
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: markings on on those busy intersections. You could you know,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: the green paint for example, which has nevated and been
• 5:09
  Speaker 2: debated a few times to to sort of highlight that
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  Speaker 2: there's like right away for cyclists in these spaces and
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: to be in for motorists or other other users of
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  Speaker 2: the roadway to be aware of it. So there's some
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: things that we could look at from looking at those
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  Speaker 2: busy intersections and frankly all of the intersections and how
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: we can improve the safety for all users. But limiting
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: capacity on major thoroughfares isn't going to just reduce the
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: number of cars. It might be in that one spot,
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  Speaker 2: but you'll see more in other places that maybe you
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: don't want them as well.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Be like if you shut down the Ecero Expressway, they're
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: still going to be needing to get east west, and
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: we'll see them on other east west thoroughfares. You know.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: Traffic. The expression is it's like water. And if water's
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: flowing in a certain direction and you dam up one
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  Speaker 2: area and you stop it from going there, the water
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: is still going to flow. It'll just find a different
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: pathway to go in the direction that it wants to go.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: Traffic is it's the analogy works so until you get
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: the major shift where people decide to do something different
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: in greater numbers, and that is a function of investment.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: But that's a slow burn. And so look to your
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: original question again. I'll just say we all just need
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: to be mindful of each other's safety as well as
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: our own, no matter what type of means of transportation
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: that we're using, whenever we're trying to get from one
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  Speaker 2: place to another.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: Okay, let's shift gears a little bit. See what I
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: did there?
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: Yet?
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: You got it right? Yeah?
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah? See, Okay, because gears and bikes gears and.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: You know, yeah exactly, we're putting a lot of forethought
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: into this. I don't want us to end on a
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: negative note. Here with this because you have told me
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: before I focus too much on negative stories when it
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: comes to cycling and our infrastructure and not being as
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: up to par as. Maybe some would hope it could
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: be like that, what good is happening right now when
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: it comes to cycling in windsor because there are always
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: stories about new trails that are being added for cycling
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: and multipaths and I've pushed back on that a few
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: times with you, but I want to know again from
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: your perspective, like, what good is there that people who
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: are like me, maybe a little bit too jaded and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: cyncle that you can say, no, look at.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: This so one thing that people and again can ask
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: for a little bit more patients. But we do have
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: the Vision zero process that continues to be underway and
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: what we've added now and it doesn't look like there's
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: a lot of things that are happening, and that's because
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: we're in a data gathering moment, I guess is the
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: fairest way to say, we've recently made investments in equipment
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: that allow us to do better traffic counts, which means
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: we'll be able to deploy the infrastructured dollars to support
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: cycling in the places that they that they in a
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: more prioritized and ordered way. We're also looking at speed
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: limit reductions in neighborhoods as well, and I think we're
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: going to start to see a lot of those new
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: measures implemented over the next year or so because the
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: data is and the data gathering capacity is finally there
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: in place for us to make good rational decisions based
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: on information and not conjecture. So that's one of the
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: exciting things. And there's there you know, there are ongoing investments.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: Just for example, along Provincial the multi use trail, one
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: of the investments in my ward and to Stretch of
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: six concession has now has pedestrian and a multi use
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: trail that was never there before. So for people who
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: live out in that part of the city, out in
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: Windsor's southeast, you can get to the superstore in places
• 8:31
  Speaker 2: like Rona a lot a lot more quickly, and you
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: can actually consider using a bike to get to those destinations,
• 8:37
  Speaker 2: and and you can cycle there in a relatively safe way,
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: depending on where your point of origin is. So we
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: are continuing to make improvements. There's the Wine Dot report
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: that's going to come back along with the Riverside Vista
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: project that is that is also in the queue and
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: the acceleration of that. From the cycling infrastructure standpoint, those
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: will be debates that we'll have in Council with respect
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: to funding. But you know, generally, I think that there's
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: consensus around the council table around the need to improve
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: and to invest. It's just the pace of investment that
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: is going to be the ongoing discussion.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: And what about the esplanot Is there going to be
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: a bike parking area there?
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: That's part of that's that's definitely again part of the discussion.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: We haven't in we haven't fully gotten into full site
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: design or site plan, but we do in the City
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: Hall campus area. Just generally speaking, I think we do
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: definitely need to improve from a cycling perspective or a
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: bike parking perspective standpoint. There's some racks in the area,
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: but I think at City Hall and if we're going
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: to walk the walk, we need to have a I
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: would argue, a more secure place for people if they
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: want to choose to ride their bike to City Hall,
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: for them to put their bike, to store their bike.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: As Again, a part of the discussion isn't just getting
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: to where you're going to be safely. But it's also
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: making sure that when you do park your bike when
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: you're done doing whatever business you might have, that your
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: bike will be there when when you're ready to go home.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: So watch how I take these two different disparate topics,
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: throw them together like a toss seller, or serve it
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: up for you right now. One other place that people
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: are really excited about getting to cycle too, I'm actually
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: one of those people is Ojibwa National Urban Park and
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: we have heard that there has been the termination of
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: this supply and confidence agreement between the NDP and the Liberals,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: and there is now the risk I just spoke with
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: a Member of Parliament, Brian mass ewins Or West. If
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: there's an election and his bill doesn't make it passed
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: before that it dies on the table. Is there a
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: risk at losing our national Urban Park? What is the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: impetus for seeing legislation passed or an all hands on deck,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: unified voice sooner than later. Is there a risk from
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the city's perspective that if this doesn't happen sooner than later,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: if it remains in flux, maybe a new government decides
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: it's not a priority and that money that was allocated
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: for future budgets could be spent for X, Y and
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Z instead.
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: So I think there is risk and I think that
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: is why there is a need for more than ever
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: a unified voice. There's a path, and I'm sure Brian
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: laid that out when you spoke to him. I've spoke
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: to him just last week about where, you know, what's
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: still out there and what's achievable moving forward given the timeline.
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: And this was before the announcement around the Supplying Confidence agreement.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: But still there's urgency there because a federal election feels
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: like it's kind of in the It felt even then
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: as though it was in the offing. So yeah, it
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: does need to go forward. It needs to go forward
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: sooner rather than later. I would just say I think
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: that we have enough of the pieces in place at
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: this point for to proceed. If it doesn't go forward
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: in this parliament, I think there's great risk. In terms
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: of timeline. I believe at some point in our history
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: there will be a national urban park in the city Windsor.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: But we're right there right now, and let's get it done.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Let's get the bike across the finish line. Ward nine
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: councilor Kieran mcay joining me here in studio. Thank you
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: so much for your time on this Friday afternoon.
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to be here.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Thanks. And one last thing I just I wanted to
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: let you know this that in the city extended until Monday,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: September twenty third, southbound Howard Avenue will continue to have
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: lane restrictions between McDougall Street and Edinburgh Street for road repairs.
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I know that you say that when people get they
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: see construction, they get upset, they don't like it, and
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: we get ominous when we present it here at am
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: eight hundred CLW. Instead, we're going to say this is investment.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: You should be happy about the road repairs, right Karen.
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: Short term pain for long term gain. If we didn't
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: have these interruptions, the gridlock that people feel is existing
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: in the city right now would never get any better.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: Well, let's just hope that we don't have to tell
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: you about the same construction happening again next year. Ward
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: nine countslir Kieren mackenzie in studio. Thank you for your time.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: Thak back back after this