Windsor approves Ouellette overhaul without bike lanes

A fight to add bike lanes to a$5.9-million overhaul of a portion ofOuellette Avenue in Windsor's downtown failed Tuesday night as council moved ahead with a plan without cycling infrastructure.

Cycling advocates were caught off guard by the plan that excludes bike lanes, but makes plenty of room forbenches, chess tables, extended patios and wide open pedestrian space.

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Coun. Jo-Anne Gignactried at length to postpone the plan for a month, so the city's bicycling committee could be consulted. Her efforts were rejected by council, which voted to approve the latest plan.

"How could you explore it, if you didn't even talk to the bicycle committee?" Gignac asked Mayor Drew Dilkensduring the discussion.

Bike lanes considered, but rejected

City staff say they seriously considered bike lanes, but such a plan did not fit with the Bike Use Master Plan, which calls for bike lanes on streets that run parallel to Ouellette.

Lori Newton, executive director at Bike Windsor-Essexmade a pitch to add bike lanes. Given the width of that stretch of Ouellette, she was surprised the city couldn't include cycling infrastructure.

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"Cities across Canada, the United States, Europe are all finding ways to incorporate bike infrastructure into their downtown and it's puzzling to me that we can't," Newtonsaid.

Dilkensreminded Gignac regularly about the master plan,created in the 1990s, which does not call for bike lanes on Ouellette.

Newton criticized that argument as well.

"Relying on a 20-year-old plan to determine where bike lanes go today, is shortsighted," she told CBC News before the council meeting.

Officials from the Downtown Windsor BIA regularly asked for bike lanes during consultation for the project, but those requests were regularly rejected.

"They said it simply wasn't feasible and couldn't be done," said Debi Croucher, executive director of the DWBIA.