More options will be explored to address and deter panhandling in intersections in Windsor.
City Council approved a motion from Ward 4 Councillor Mark McKenzie to defer discussion on the issue and direct administration to come back with some options for consideration to prevent people from standing on the medians in intersections to ask drivers for money.
A report presented to Monday's council examined the issue of people standing on the medians along municipal roadways after the council asked for infrastructure-related strategies to discourage unsafe behaviours in the public roadway.
The report calls medians a critical component of roadway design that serves an essential safety function and cannot be altered or removed as a means to deter panhandling.
The report instead recommends anyone who observes unsafe behaviours on the road, including actions that put pedestrians or drivers at risk, to report it to Windsor Police.
The Safe Streets Act, 1999, and a 2024 Ontario Superior Court of Justice decision that amended the act prohibit soliciting a person who is in or on a stopped, standing, or parked vehicle.
The act only allows that in cases involving registered charitable organizations and those by a bylaw of the municipality.