Riverside Drive is one of the main

road A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved. Th ...

s in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor ( ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Esse ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, travelling along the

Detroit River The Detroit River is an List of international river borders, international river in North America. The river, which forms part of the border between the U.S. state of Michigan and the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ont ...

, between its riverfront

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

s and high-rise

office tower A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Most modern sources define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition, other than being very tall Tower block, h ...

s and

apartment building An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement ( Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) ...

s. The road travels through

Downtown ''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...

, and towards the east end. The road is roughly 17.5 km in length, and is quite busy. The road continues as Riverside Drive through the town of

Tecumseh, Ontario Tecumseh () is a town in Essex County in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is on Lake St. Clair east of Windsor and had a population of roughly 23,300 as of the 2021 census according to Statistics Canada. It is part of the Windsor census me ...

, and through the village of St. Clair Beach, Ontario, where it ends at Brighton Road (

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

County Road A county highway (also county road or county route; usually abbreviated CH or CR) is a road in the United States and in the Canadian province of Ontario that is designated and/or maintained by the county highway department. Route numbering can ...

21). For around 3 km of its length (from Rankin Avenue to Crawford Avenue (in front of CBC Windsor), there are

bike lane Bike lanes (US) or cycle lanes (UK) are types of bikeways (cycleways) with lanes on the roadway for cyclists only. In the United Kingdom, an on-road cycle-lane can be firmly restricted to cycles (marked with a solid white line, entry by motor ...

s, with the Riverfront Bike Trail just to the north in the parkland. Much of Windsor's most expensive residential real estate is housed on the waterfront side of Riverside Drive.

Sandwich Street

The road was once named Sandwich Street, for the former community and now neighbourhood on the west end of Windsor. The road continues as Sandwich Street from the intersection with University Ave. West just past

Huron Church Road King's Highway 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario which travels parallel to the northern shoreline of Lake Erie. It has three segments, the first of which travels from ...

, and continues past Ojibway Parkway to the

Brighton Beach Brighton Beach is a List of Brooklyn neighborhoods, neighborhood in the southern portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, within the greater Coney Island area along the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Brighton Beach ...

Power Plant, Black Oak Heritage Park, and the Brighton Beach neighbourhood of Windsor.

Riverside Drive Vista Project

Throughout late 2005, and all of 2006, Windsor City Council has been trying to convert and widen the sidewalk along Riverside Drive (from Strabane Avenue to roughly Lauzon Road), to improve cycling access from the west side and downtown to the east side. The road is currently two lanes for most of its length, having either bike lanes or upscale residential properties that extend from the riverfront to the roadway. The vista project will be a multimillion-dollar beautification project to plant trees, re-surface Riverside Drive, and re-surface sidewalks, possibly installing either bike lanes, or a

bike trail A trail, also known as a path or track, is an unpaved lane or a small paved road (though it can also be a route along a navigable waterways) generally not intended for usage by motorized vehicles, usually passing through a natural area. Howe ...

along the road. Residents who reside on the eastern portion of Riverside Drive are angry that the road is treated like a

two-lane freeway A two-lane expressway or two-lane freeway is an expressway or freeway with only one lane in each direction, and usually no median barrier. It may be built that way because of constraints, or may be intended for expansion once traffic volumes ri ...

, with drivers speeding well above the posted speed limit of 50 km/h, and are calling for the City of Windsor to honour the promise made to them ten years ago to improve other roadways and divert the commuter traffic from their residential area.

References

Windsor Star

Mapquest

CHWI-TV 16/60 A-Channel Windsor

External links

Bike Trails at City of Windsor's website, CityWindsor.ca

City of Windsor "Riverside Vista" Plans
{{Roads in Windsor, Ontario County roads in Essex County, Ontario Bike paths in Windsor, Ontario Streets in Windsor, Ontario

Sandwich Street

Riverside Drive Vista Project

See also

References

External links