September 6, 2024 • 12 mins
Ward 9 city councillor Kieran McKenzie joins Jon Liedtke on AM800 CKLW to discuss a cyclist being charged after a collision with a city vehicle for running a red light and why all road users need to follow the law and rules of the road.
This interview aired on AM800 CKLW
This interview aired on AM800 CKLW
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Windsor police have they say they've charged a person who
was riding a bike and was involved in a crash
on the Comcy Road at Howard last week. The cyclist
was charged with failing to stop for a red light.
Listeners will remember seeing the photograph of what appears to
be a City of Windsor mini van with a bicycle
(00:21):
right in the front of it, surrounded by a yellow
police tape. Last week, police said the cyclist was taken
to hospital with injuries not considered to be life threatening.
Footage at the scene showed that white van with the
City of Windsor logo on the side, with a bike
propped against the front of the vehicle. Again joding me
in studio right now is Ward nine Councilor Kieren mackenzie,
(00:42):
who we've spoken with often about on A eight hundred
about cycling issues and the need for better road infrastructure.
But also I think this is a really important issue
where it highlights everyone needs to follow the rules of
the road, regardless of who you are, if you're a pedestrian,
if you're on a skateboard, a scooter, a bike or
a car. Because in this case it was a cyclist
(01:04):
who ran a red and obviously you got traffic cameras.
It's easy to put these things and piece it back
together exactly what occurred. It's dangerous. We know that our
roads aren't designed the best that they could be for
people who are using them for active to transit here.
And and that's I think all the more reason why
it's incumbent upon users who are at higher levels of
(01:25):
likelihoods of being seriously injured to take it on their
own to follow these laws to make sure they stay safe.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, look, you know, in the in these conversations John
that we've had, I sometimes I insist on referring to
the road as the public right of way, the public
right away because and the reason I use that language
is because it's designed to for all users, cyclists, pedestrians
(01:51):
and people of all ages and motorists to have safe
access to that space. It's for everybody. So you're right,
it's a good point. We all because we are all
going to enjoy the access to that space to get
to the various places that we want to go to
and need to go to. We all need to be
invested in each other's safety and our own safety. So
(02:16):
this is one of the a very unfortunate thing. I
wouldn't say it's necessarily just endemic to all of Windsor's
problems related to infrastructure. There are injuries like this that
happen in some of the best cycling communities from an
infrastructure standpoint, some of the worst cycling infrastructure communities. But
(02:38):
this is about people making human beings, making choices when
they're interacting in the public space, and sometimes we make mistakes.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
You know, Listen, I don't cycle nearly as much as
I used to in the past resulting from being involved
in an accident with a vehicle. But it's frustrating sometimes
to have to wait at a red light when you're
on a bike and you go, there's no cars around
right now. I could be across the street in five seconds.
But that same argument could be made for people in
a car. Quite frankly, Tcumpsey Road and Howard Avenue is
(03:12):
one of those really big ones that we have in
the city. Probably what seven lanes across to get across
to Cumpsey, maybe six across Howard could be quite frankly
the same. I mean, that's a big road. If you
think that you can get across it, you might not
realize that someone's turning a corner or coming a little
bit too quickly if you're looking to the left and
they're coming from the right. Again, we don't have the
(03:33):
worst designed infrastructure in Canada, but other cities deal with
these major issues as well. Are there calming measures that
we could do for an intersection like that. I mean,
it's a tough one because I think other than saying
take a lane out, like, what is there that could
be Well, here's.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
The thing about taking a lane out. That intersection is
one of the busiest intersections in the city and it
will always be one of the busiest intersections in the city.
And frankly, it's designed to be one of the busiest
intersections in the city. So in some respects you and
you have to think about if you start removing capacity
(04:10):
in some areas, there's the ancilliary effect of pushing traffic
onto other roads. So you might see more people on Shepherd,
for example, in motorized vehicles, which we're trying to turn
into a cycling corridor, and we'll be turning into a
major cycling corridor because there is actual infrastructure that's going
down Shepherd that will be connecting essentially killed there all
(04:35):
the way to pass Dolette. So this is you know,
if you take away some of that motorized vehicular capacity
out of one intersection, you're going to see some of
that traffic move to other places. Now you might as
you continue to improve your transit system and your cycling infrastructure,
you'll get some uptake in terms of people choosing to
(04:56):
use different modalities of transportation, but it's not going to
be one for one. Again, we could look at different
markings on on those busy intersections. You could you know,
the green paint for example, which has nevated and been
debated a few times to to sort of highlight that
there's like right away for cyclists in these spaces and
to be in for motorists or other other users of
(05:17):
the roadway to be aware of it. So there's some
things that we could look at from looking at those
busy intersections and frankly all of the intersections and how
we can improve the safety for all users. But limiting
capacity on major thoroughfares isn't going to just reduce the
number of cars. It might be in that one spot,
but you'll see more in other places that maybe you
don't want them as well.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Be like if you shut down the Ecero Expressway, they're
still going to be needing to get east west, and
we'll see them on other east west thoroughfares. You know.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Traffic. The expression is it's like water. And if water's
flowing in a certain direction and you dam up one
area and you stop it from going there, the water
is still going to flow. It'll just find a different
pathway to go in the direction that it wants to go.
Traffic is it's the analogy works so until you get
the major shift where people decide to do something different
(06:06):
in greater numbers, and that is a function of investment.
But that's a slow burn. And so look to your
original question again. I'll just say we all just need
to be mindful of each other's safety as well as
our own, no matter what type of means of transportation
that we're using, whenever we're trying to get from one
(06:26):
place to another.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Okay, let's shift gears a little bit. See what I
did there?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yet?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
You got it right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah? See, Okay, because gears and bikes gears and.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
You know, yeah exactly, we're putting a lot of forethought
into this. I don't want us to end on a
negative note. Here with this because you have told me
before I focus too much on negative stories when it
comes to cycling and our infrastructure and not being as
up to par as. Maybe some would hope it could
be like that, what good is happening right now when
it comes to cycling in windsor because there are always
(06:58):
stories about new trails that are being added for cycling
and multipaths and I've pushed back on that a few
times with you, but I want to know again from
your perspective, like, what good is there that people who
are like me, maybe a little bit too jaded and
cyncle that you can say, no, look at.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
This so one thing that people and again can ask
for a little bit more patients. But we do have
the Vision zero process that continues to be underway and
what we've added now and it doesn't look like there's
a lot of things that are happening, and that's because
we're in a data gathering moment, I guess is the
fairest way to say, we've recently made investments in equipment
(07:30):
that allow us to do better traffic counts, which means
we'll be able to deploy the infrastructured dollars to support
cycling in the places that they that they in a
more prioritized and ordered way. We're also looking at speed
limit reductions in neighborhoods as well, and I think we're
going to start to see a lot of those new
measures implemented over the next year or so because the
(07:52):
data is and the data gathering capacity is finally there
in place for us to make good rational decisions based
on information and not conjecture. So that's one of the
exciting things. And there's there you know, there are ongoing investments.
Just for example, along Provincial the multi use trail, one
of the investments in my ward and to Stretch of
(08:14):
six concession has now has pedestrian and a multi use
trail that was never there before. So for people who
live out in that part of the city, out in
Windsor's southeast, you can get to the superstore in places
like Rona a lot a lot more quickly, and you
can actually consider using a bike to get to those destinations,
(08:37):
and and you can cycle there in a relatively safe way,
depending on where your point of origin is. So we
are continuing to make improvements. There's the Wine Dot report
that's going to come back along with the Riverside Vista
project that is that is also in the queue and
the acceleration of that. From the cycling infrastructure standpoint, those
will be debates that we'll have in Council with respect
(08:58):
to funding. But you know, generally, I think that there's
consensus around the council table around the need to improve
and to invest. It's just the pace of investment that
is going to be the ongoing discussion.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And what about the esplanot Is there going to be
a bike parking area there?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
That's part of that's that's definitely again part of the discussion.
We haven't in we haven't fully gotten into full site
design or site plan, but we do in the City
Hall campus area. Just generally speaking, I think we do
definitely need to improve from a cycling perspective or a
bike parking perspective standpoint. There's some racks in the area,
(09:38):
but I think at City Hall and if we're going
to walk the walk, we need to have a I
would argue, a more secure place for people if they
want to choose to ride their bike to City Hall,
for them to put their bike, to store their bike.
As Again, a part of the discussion isn't just getting
to where you're going to be safely. But it's also
making sure that when you do park your bike when
(10:01):
you're done doing whatever business you might have, that your
bike will be there when when you're ready to go home.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
So watch how I take these two different disparate topics,
throw them together like a toss seller, or serve it
up for you right now. One other place that people
are really excited about getting to cycle too, I'm actually
one of those people is Ojibwa National Urban Park and
we have heard that there has been the termination of
this supply and confidence agreement between the NDP and the Liberals,
and there is now the risk I just spoke with
(10:27):
a Member of Parliament, Brian mass ewins Or West. If
there's an election and his bill doesn't make it passed
before that it dies on the table. Is there a
risk at losing our national Urban Park? What is the
impetus for seeing legislation passed or an all hands on deck,
unified voice sooner than later. Is there a risk from
the city's perspective that if this doesn't happen sooner than later,
(10:50):
if it remains in flux, maybe a new government decides
it's not a priority and that money that was allocated
for future budgets could be spent for X, Y and
Z instead.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So I think there is risk and I think that
is why there is a need for more than ever
a unified voice. There's a path, and I'm sure Brian
laid that out when you spoke to him. I've spoke
to him just last week about where, you know, what's
still out there and what's achievable moving forward given the timeline.
And this was before the announcement around the Supplying Confidence agreement.
(11:22):
But still there's urgency there because a federal election feels
like it's kind of in the It felt even then
as though it was in the offing. So yeah, it
does need to go forward. It needs to go forward
sooner rather than later. I would just say I think
that we have enough of the pieces in place at
this point for to proceed. If it doesn't go forward
in this parliament, I think there's great risk. In terms
(11:46):
of timeline. I believe at some point in our history
there will be a national urban park in the city Windsor.
But we're right there right now, and let's get it done.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Let's get the bike across the finish line. Ward nine
councilor Kieran mcay joining me here in studio. Thank you
so much for your time on this Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Thanks. And one last thing I just I wanted to
let you know this that in the city extended until Monday,
September twenty third, southbound Howard Avenue will continue to have
lane restrictions between McDougall Street and Edinburgh Street for road repairs.
I know that you say that when people get they
see construction, they get upset, they don't like it, and
we get ominous when we present it here at am
(12:25):
eight hundred CLW. Instead, we're going to say this is investment.
You should be happy about the road repairs, right Karen.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Short term pain for long term gain. If we didn't
have these interruptions, the gridlock that people feel is existing
in the city right now would never get any better.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, let's just hope that we don't have to tell
you about the same construction happening again next year. Ward
nine countslir Kieren mackenzie in studio. Thank you for your time.
Thak back back after this
Windsor police have they say they've charged a person who
was riding a bike and was involved in a crash
on the Comcy Road at Howard last week. The cyclist
was charged with failing to stop for a red light.
Listeners will remember seeing the photograph of what appears to
be a City of Windsor mini van with a bicycle
(00:21):
right in the front of it, surrounded by a yellow
police tape. Last week, police said the cyclist was taken
to hospital with injuries not considered to be life threatening.
Footage at the scene showed that white van with the
City of Windsor logo on the side, with a bike
propped against the front of the vehicle. Again joding me
in studio right now is Ward nine Councilor Kieren mackenzie,
(00:42):
who we've spoken with often about on A eight hundred
about cycling issues and the need for better road infrastructure.
But also I think this is a really important issue
where it highlights everyone needs to follow the rules of
the road, regardless of who you are, if you're a pedestrian,
if you're on a skateboard, a scooter, a bike or
a car. Because in this case it was a cyclist
(01:04):
who ran a red and obviously you got traffic cameras.
It's easy to put these things and piece it back
together exactly what occurred. It's dangerous. We know that our
roads aren't designed the best that they could be for
people who are using them for active to transit here.
And and that's I think all the more reason why
it's incumbent upon users who are at higher levels of
(01:25):
likelihoods of being seriously injured to take it on their
own to follow these laws to make sure they stay safe.
Speaker 2 (01:31):
Well, look, you know, in the in these conversations John
that we've had, I sometimes I insist on referring to
the road as the public right of way, the public
right away because and the reason I use that language
is because it's designed to for all users, cyclists, pedestrians
(01:51):
and people of all ages and motorists to have safe
access to that space. It's for everybody. So you're right,
it's a good point. We all because we are all
going to enjoy the access to that space to get
to the various places that we want to go to
and need to go to. We all need to be
invested in each other's safety and our own safety. So
(02:16):
this is one of the a very unfortunate thing. I
wouldn't say it's necessarily just endemic to all of Windsor's
problems related to infrastructure. There are injuries like this that
happen in some of the best cycling communities from an
infrastructure standpoint, some of the worst cycling infrastructure communities. But
(02:38):
this is about people making human beings, making choices when
they're interacting in the public space, and sometimes we make mistakes.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
You know, Listen, I don't cycle nearly as much as
I used to in the past resulting from being involved
in an accident with a vehicle. But it's frustrating sometimes
to have to wait at a red light when you're
on a bike and you go, there's no cars around
right now. I could be across the street in five seconds.
But that same argument could be made for people in
a car. Quite frankly, Tcumpsey Road and Howard Avenue is
(03:12):
one of those really big ones that we have in
the city. Probably what seven lanes across to get across
to Cumpsey, maybe six across Howard could be quite frankly
the same. I mean, that's a big road. If you
think that you can get across it, you might not
realize that someone's turning a corner or coming a little
bit too quickly if you're looking to the left and
they're coming from the right. Again, we don't have the
(03:33):
worst designed infrastructure in Canada, but other cities deal with
these major issues as well. Are there calming measures that
we could do for an intersection like that. I mean,
it's a tough one because I think other than saying
take a lane out, like, what is there that could
be Well, here's.
Speaker 2 (03:50):
The thing about taking a lane out. That intersection is
one of the busiest intersections in the city and it
will always be one of the busiest intersections in the city.
And frankly, it's designed to be one of the busiest
intersections in the city. So in some respects you and
you have to think about if you start removing capacity
(04:10):
in some areas, there's the ancilliary effect of pushing traffic
onto other roads. So you might see more people on Shepherd,
for example, in motorized vehicles, which we're trying to turn
into a cycling corridor, and we'll be turning into a
major cycling corridor because there is actual infrastructure that's going
down Shepherd that will be connecting essentially killed there all
(04:35):
the way to pass Dolette. So this is you know,
if you take away some of that motorized vehicular capacity
out of one intersection, you're going to see some of
that traffic move to other places. Now you might as
you continue to improve your transit system and your cycling infrastructure,
you'll get some uptake in terms of people choosing to
(04:56):
use different modalities of transportation, but it's not going to
be one for one. Again, we could look at different
markings on on those busy intersections. You could you know,
the green paint for example, which has nevated and been
debated a few times to to sort of highlight that
there's like right away for cyclists in these spaces and
to be in for motorists or other other users of
(05:17):
the roadway to be aware of it. So there's some
things that we could look at from looking at those
busy intersections and frankly all of the intersections and how
we can improve the safety for all users. But limiting
capacity on major thoroughfares isn't going to just reduce the
number of cars. It might be in that one spot,
but you'll see more in other places that maybe you
don't want them as well.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Be like if you shut down the Ecero Expressway, they're
still going to be needing to get east west, and
we'll see them on other east west thoroughfares. You know.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Traffic. The expression is it's like water. And if water's
flowing in a certain direction and you dam up one
area and you stop it from going there, the water
is still going to flow. It'll just find a different
pathway to go in the direction that it wants to go.
Traffic is it's the analogy works so until you get
the major shift where people decide to do something different
(06:06):
in greater numbers, and that is a function of investment.
But that's a slow burn. And so look to your
original question again. I'll just say we all just need
to be mindful of each other's safety as well as
our own, no matter what type of means of transportation
that we're using, whenever we're trying to get from one
(06:26):
place to another.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Okay, let's shift gears a little bit. See what I
did there?
Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yet?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
You got it right? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah? See, Okay, because gears and bikes gears and.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
You know, yeah exactly, we're putting a lot of forethought
into this. I don't want us to end on a
negative note. Here with this because you have told me
before I focus too much on negative stories when it
comes to cycling and our infrastructure and not being as
up to par as. Maybe some would hope it could
be like that, what good is happening right now when
it comes to cycling in windsor because there are always
(06:58):
stories about new trails that are being added for cycling
and multipaths and I've pushed back on that a few
times with you, but I want to know again from
your perspective, like, what good is there that people who
are like me, maybe a little bit too jaded and
cyncle that you can say, no, look at.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
This so one thing that people and again can ask
for a little bit more patients. But we do have
the Vision zero process that continues to be underway and
what we've added now and it doesn't look like there's
a lot of things that are happening, and that's because
we're in a data gathering moment, I guess is the
fairest way to say, we've recently made investments in equipment
(07:30):
that allow us to do better traffic counts, which means
we'll be able to deploy the infrastructured dollars to support
cycling in the places that they that they in a
more prioritized and ordered way. We're also looking at speed
limit reductions in neighborhoods as well, and I think we're
going to start to see a lot of those new
measures implemented over the next year or so because the
(07:52):
data is and the data gathering capacity is finally there
in place for us to make good rational decisions based
on information and not conjecture. So that's one of the
exciting things. And there's there you know, there are ongoing investments.
Just for example, along Provincial the multi use trail, one
of the investments in my ward and to Stretch of
(08:14):
six concession has now has pedestrian and a multi use
trail that was never there before. So for people who
live out in that part of the city, out in
Windsor's southeast, you can get to the superstore in places
like Rona a lot a lot more quickly, and you
can actually consider using a bike to get to those destinations,
(08:37):
and and you can cycle there in a relatively safe way,
depending on where your point of origin is. So we
are continuing to make improvements. There's the Wine Dot report
that's going to come back along with the Riverside Vista
project that is that is also in the queue and
the acceleration of that. From the cycling infrastructure standpoint, those
will be debates that we'll have in Council with respect
(08:58):
to funding. But you know, generally, I think that there's
consensus around the council table around the need to improve
and to invest. It's just the pace of investment that
is going to be the ongoing discussion.
Speaker 1 (09:11):
And what about the esplanot Is there going to be
a bike parking area there?
Speaker 2 (09:16):
That's part of that's that's definitely again part of the discussion.
We haven't in we haven't fully gotten into full site
design or site plan, but we do in the City
Hall campus area. Just generally speaking, I think we do
definitely need to improve from a cycling perspective or a
bike parking perspective standpoint. There's some racks in the area,
(09:38):
but I think at City Hall and if we're going
to walk the walk, we need to have a I
would argue, a more secure place for people if they
want to choose to ride their bike to City Hall,
for them to put their bike, to store their bike.
As Again, a part of the discussion isn't just getting
to where you're going to be safely. But it's also
making sure that when you do park your bike when
(10:01):
you're done doing whatever business you might have, that your
bike will be there when when you're ready to go home.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
So watch how I take these two different disparate topics,
throw them together like a toss seller, or serve it
up for you right now. One other place that people
are really excited about getting to cycle too, I'm actually
one of those people is Ojibwa National Urban Park and
we have heard that there has been the termination of
this supply and confidence agreement between the NDP and the Liberals,
and there is now the risk I just spoke with
(10:27):
a Member of Parliament, Brian mass ewins Or West. If
there's an election and his bill doesn't make it passed
before that it dies on the table. Is there a
risk at losing our national Urban Park? What is the
impetus for seeing legislation passed or an all hands on deck,
unified voice sooner than later. Is there a risk from
the city's perspective that if this doesn't happen sooner than later,
(10:50):
if it remains in flux, maybe a new government decides
it's not a priority and that money that was allocated
for future budgets could be spent for X, Y and
Z instead.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
So I think there is risk and I think that
is why there is a need for more than ever
a unified voice. There's a path, and I'm sure Brian
laid that out when you spoke to him. I've spoke
to him just last week about where, you know, what's
still out there and what's achievable moving forward given the timeline.
And this was before the announcement around the Supplying Confidence agreement.
(11:22):
But still there's urgency there because a federal election feels
like it's kind of in the It felt even then
as though it was in the offing. So yeah, it
does need to go forward. It needs to go forward
sooner rather than later. I would just say I think
that we have enough of the pieces in place at
this point for to proceed. If it doesn't go forward
in this parliament, I think there's great risk. In terms
(11:46):
of timeline. I believe at some point in our history
there will be a national urban park in the city Windsor.
But we're right there right now, and let's get it done.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
Let's get the bike across the finish line. Ward nine
councilor Kieran mcay joining me here in studio. Thank you
so much for your time on this Friday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
It's a pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
Thanks. And one last thing I just I wanted to
let you know this that in the city extended until Monday,
September twenty third, southbound Howard Avenue will continue to have
lane restrictions between McDougall Street and Edinburgh Street for road repairs.
I know that you say that when people get they
see construction, they get upset, they don't like it, and
we get ominous when we present it here at am
(12:25):
eight hundred CLW. Instead, we're going to say this is investment.
You should be happy about the road repairs, right Karen.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
Short term pain for long term gain. If we didn't
have these interruptions, the gridlock that people feel is existing
in the city right now would never get any better.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
Well, let's just hope that we don't have to tell
you about the same construction happening again next year. Ward
nine countslir Kieren mackenzie in studio. Thank you for your time.
Thak back back after this
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