Ward 7 traffic an issue

Traffic is a major issue for Ward 7 constituents.

Speeding, signage and parking were the most common issues brought up to Windsor Ward 7 councilor Percy Hatfield at an Oct. 30, Ward 7 meeting. Another issue brought up was Ward beautification. Hatfield said most of the issues brought up are regarding enforcement issues. He said the police have done a good job with enforcing speeding, specifically along the Wyandotte extension to Banwell. He said motorists not stopping for stop signs are another issue that police must deal with.

“How do you educate somebody about that unless somebody gets hit,” said Hatfield. “We don’t want to see anyone get hit or hurt, that’s why enforcement is an issue.

Many of the comments made by constituents were directed at getting more signage such as stop signs and speed regulating signs.

“There is all kinds of things in the Highway Traffic Act and the city by-laws, that regulate how many cars per minute or hour would have to go through this intersection in order for a

warrant, in order for it to be authorized to become a signalized intersection or a stop sign intersection,” said Hatfield. “If you don’t meet the warrants then you can’t get a left turn lane or things like that.”

With the majority of constituent issues being about motorists speeding, Windsor’s manager of traffic operations said posting signage and enforcement go together.

“Without enforcement, signage is no good, and enforcement obviously can’t be done without the signage,” said John Wolf

The idea of traffic cameras was brought up as a possible enforcement tool but Wolf said that it isn’t practical for use in Windsor.

“We looked at it for about a year when the program first started,” said Wolf. “Since then we really haven’t had a lot of reason to do it.”

Wolf said it is more difficult than just putting cameras up at intersection and taking pictures of cars.

“Installation of every site is like ($300,000) so if you want to do one intersection and you have to have four dummy sites, that’s like a million and a half dollars putting cameras,” said Wolf. “If its something that’s really needed its certainly something that we would look at.”

The idea of a public swimming pool in Ward 7 was brought to Hatfield’s attention and he said he would love to see something of that nature come to the Windsor area whether it is an indoor or outdoor pool. However he said he still wants to see Ward 7 keep their taxes down as much as possible.

“Keeping taxes down means that you cant necessarily go out and spend money on swimming pools,” said Hatfield.

He said that the best way to appeal to everyone is to concentrate services in a populated area.

“If the Riverside pool ever does move, why not move it out this way where there are more people, and more people who might use it,” said Hatfield. “That’s right next to the Riverside Arena which has been torn down, and the Riverside baseball diamonds which want to relocate off of Wyandotte in this area, so maybe they could put something together for everyone, again concentrate on the east side of the city.”

He said with so many issues it is hard to make all of his constituents happy with their neighbourhoods.

“You’ve got to try to balance all of the priorities and everybody’s concerns,” said Hatfield.