Heavy trucks banned as through traffic on Drouillard: Ford City BIA

Heavy transport trucks no longer permitted as through traffic on Drouillard Road from Edna Street to Tecumseh Road East (Source: Ford City BIA)

The Ford City BIA has announced heavy transport trucks are no longer permitted as through traffic on Drouillard Road from Edna Street to Tecumseh Road East.

Kaitlyn DiPietro, former executive director of the Ford City BIA, said this is the result of two years of work.

“I’m very happy to see this come to fruition,” she said.

“It was a lot of meetings with some external folks that the city had hired, and with city employees as well. Lots of BIA members from across the City of Windsor were involved in these meetings to discuss the impacts of heavy transport trucks through our commercial districts and our busy streets in Windsor.”

St. Luke Road has also been removed as a trucking route altogether. The work was apart of a plan approved by city council last summer which updated the list of permitted truck routes.

Smaller local delivery trucks can still use parts of Drouillard between Tecumseh, Richmond, and Walker.

DiPietro said if a business in the neighbourhood needs a delivery, nothing changes as any truck can still use Drouillard or St. Luke to reach its final destination.

“It’s not to say that businesses won’t be able to get deliveries that need it, but, it’ll just lighten the traffic and those large semi-trucks going down Drouillard Road as we see an increase in foot traffic and more local small businesses joining the area,” said DiPietro.

She added that she believed the new restrictions would make Drouillard Road safer.

“It’s going to take some stress off the street, as well when I was with the BIA, we had a big focus on traffic calming because unfortunately we have a lot of drivers who love speeding down Drouillard Road, and so we’re really just trying to make it a safe place for pedestrians, both on their bikes and on foot,” she said.

In a social media post, the Ford City BIA asked businesses that operate heavy trucks to follow the new routes along Wyandotte, Edna, and Walker to help make the area safer and more walkable.