Watch your step! Windsor's most dangerous pedestrian, cyclist pathways

The most dangerous walkways for pedestrians in Windsor include a stretch on Wyandotte Street East and on Tecumseh Road East — but the city says it's en route to making them better. 

The first Vision Zero progress report heads to the city's Environment, Transportation and Public Safety standing committee Wednesday. Outlined in the report are trends and patterns from the most recent traffic collisions in Windsor, specifically those leading to deaths and major injuries.

This update comes amid an investigation into the latest fatal hit and run, when a man in his early 80s was struck and killed in downtown Windsor on Oct. 15. Police are still searching for a suspect, but have identified two possible vehicles. 

This latest report headed to the city is a step toward creating an action plan for the Vision Zero policy, which was implemented in February 2020. 

"We've identified strategic priorities based on the collision data for the collisions that we actually see in Windsor, so not just theoretical ideas about what might be going on but what has been going on historically," said the report's author Jeff Hagan, who is also the city's transportation planning senior engineer. 

The nine page report identifies a handful of key themes from the most recent data collected between 2015 and 2019. 

A main takeaway from the report is that although pedestrians, motorcyclists and cyclists are only involved in five per cent of all collisions, they make up nearly half of all deaths or major injuries. 

According to the data collected, the worst stretches of road — those with highest risk of injury — for pedestrians include Wyandotte Street East, between Ouellette Avenue and Chilver Road, and Tecumseh Street East, between Jefferson Boulevard and Forest Glade Drive. 

For cyclists, the most dangerous bit of road is Wyandotte Street from Pelissier Street to Parent Avenue.

Although alcohol played a role in about 12 per cent of all collisions between 2015 and 2019, drug impairment became an increasingly common factor. 

The report also found that intersections with traffic lights had the greatest number of deaths and major injury collisions for all road users, except for motorcyclists. 

"A lot of our signalized intersections are the intersections of our busiest roads and carrying the highest speeds," Hagan said.