The chair of the Downtown Windsor Business Improvement Association supports the idea of 'car-free streets' in the core.
Chris MacLeod told AM800's The Dan MacDonald Show that it's something that residents want, and they have heard that message loud and clear at the BIA.
MacLeod points to the NFL Draft weekend in Detroit in late April, which included several streets being closed in Windsor's core, attracting 6,000 people to NFL Draft-related events downtown.
"We closed Ouellette Avenue from Pitt Street to University Avenue. We had 6,000 people downtown from the Farmer's Market, which is another great example of street closures that get done on a regular basis downtown. For our businesses downtown, they said, Tree House had its best day ever,' he says.
The concept of car-free streets is being discussed and considered in towns and cities across Canada.
Montreal is making 11 of its streets car-free this summer, and cities like Ottawa, Halifax, Toronto, and Vancouver are also exploring the idea.
MacLeod the biggest challenge is how to provide street closures cost-effectively.
"Right now, the way that they are done, you need to have barriers up and people manning them all the time when the barriers are up," he says. "For example, a weekend street closure can cost upward of $10,000. So we need to look at more cost-effective ways of doing those."
MacLeod believes some of the challenges around barriers and downtown street closures can be addressed through planning with the city.
"The other challenge downtown obviously is we have an international border crossing that comes right into our downtown, so they have to be placed very strategically in terms of where they are placed and how we do them because of all the other considerations for necessary services and border access," he says.
The Canadian side of the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel is right downtown and sees the traffic exit on Park Street East, a very short distance from Ouellette Avenue.