Some Windsor cyclists say road conditions are bad and there needs to be better route connectivity

Some cyclists in Windsor say not enough is being done to address accessibility and quality of cycling routes in the city.

Saeid Angadji says his main concern when he rides is bike paths not being "steady."

"The fact that the bike path ends and now you're on the main road and you're too close to cars, especially somewhere like Riverside [Drive]," said Angadji.

"It's quite dangerous."

Robert Morin agrees with Angadji, pointing to an area of Riverside Drive.

"There's a section you can drive alongside for a certain length, but then there's a section where there's no bike lane or anything else," said Morin.

I'm nervous like hell when I go down there.​​​​​​- Cyclist Robert Morin

"You have to drive along there and the roads are really bad. There's a few miles and it's pretty dangerous.

"I'm nervous like hell when I go down there."

Another person, who is new to cycling in Windsor, says the condition of bike lanes is poor for roads shared by cyclists and drivers.

"The roads need to get repaired, not just for bikes," said University of Windsor student Varsil Shah.

"Bikes can be ridden on the footpath, but buses and cars don't have that option."

Shah says Wyandotte Street on the city's west side "really" needs to be repaired.

"When we sit on a bus, it's noisy when the bus travels on the road," said Shah. 

"This road needs to be repaired and it should be repaired so that travel becomes easy and it's less noisy."

Because of the bad road conditions and lack of cycling lanes, cyclist Dean Facca says he ends up reluctantly riding on the sidewalk sometimes, getting in the way of pedestrians.

"But then if I go on the road, I get honked at because there's no room for me to ride my bike," he said.

A leading cycling advocate in Windsor says she's familiar with all of these concerns.

Lori Newton says debris and sewer grates in cycling lanes also have the potential to cause bike damage.

"We can keep a student mechanic busy everyday all day just fixing flats," said the executive director of Bike Windsor Essex.

"We have people who come in and they've already had three or four flats this season. When you take the tire off, you can see that there's a nail or some kind of something that's embedded into the tire and that can wreck the tire and the tube."

When drivers and cyclists share the road, drivers are required to give at least one metre of space when overtaking a cyclist, according to the Ontario's Highway Traffic Act.

Newton says some Windsor drivers don't respect the vulnerability of cyclists, potentially making things more dangerous.

"You've got drivers who feel that they need to go ahead of you so quickly that they're buzzing by you and you maybe have a foot between them. Are you in such a hurry that you can't give someone on a bicycle [room]?

City's plan to promote cycling

A report included in the city's Civic Esplanade Concept Master Plan features what some residents think of cycling conditions in Windsor.

The city has not had a bicycling committee since its last meeting in December, just two months after the municipal election.

CBC News has requested an interview with Karen Kadour, committee coordinator with the City of Windsor.

The University of Windsor surveyed its students, staff and faculty for two weeks in March about what improvements they would want to see within the city's transportation network.

Nadia Harduar, the school's sustainability officer, says while the data has not been fully organized as of yet, comments from cyclists such as adding bike lanes and improving existing ones were common.

Harduar also shared some responses from cyclists.

"I cycle along Wyandotte and there's a stretch between Campbell and about Wellington that's like riding over a ploughed field," one survey respondent said.

Harduar says she hopes the full report will be released in the summer.