Windsor Way is a special community street that links four parks and three elementary schools as well as a bike path in East Vancouver, Canada, which was identified as a local Greenway in the Kensington-Cedar Cottage Visioning process. As there was no funding available to turn the many blocks of this street into a local Greenway, the local community worked with the City of Vancouver planning department to implement a demonstration project called "Blooming Boulevards". This demonstration project allowed residents to garden the frontages of their yards between the street and the sidewalk. This section of street contains the wires and ducts of the city, and this was the first time that gardening on these city owned frontages was allowed. The program was so successful that Blooming Boulevards are now city policy and boulevards are now gardened throughout the city.
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Bike Route
The Windsor Bikeway is a 4.3 km north/south bike route that follows Glen Drive and Windsor Street from Great Northern Way to 43rd Avenue and was chosen for its proximity to Knight Street. This route provides a connection for the Off-Broadway and 10th Avenue Bikeways to the Midtown/Ridgeway and Inverness Bikeways. The Windsor Bikeway passes through Mount Pleasant and Kensington-Cedar Cottage neighbourhoods and goes by Memorial Park South.
Measures along the proposed bikeway to reduce vehicle speeds and to help cyclists cross busy arterials include traffic circles, corner bulges, centre medians, speed humps, and traffic lights controlled by cyclists and pedestrians.
Estimated cycling time for the full length of the Windsor Bikeway is 18 minutes. A leisurely walk from 12th Avenue to 49th Avenue along Windsor Way will take 30 minutes.
History
Without the funding for a greenway, the community along Windsor Street participated in a demonstration project where they gardened the city owned boulevards in front of each of their residences. This Blooming Boulevard project was wildly successful. The community was also successful in getting a Community Public Art Grant. Public Artist Karen Kazmer created "Windsor Way-Moments, Memories and Objects" which are attached to many of the street poles along Windsor Street. The illustrations attached on the street poles are of neighbours' hands, objects in the neighbourhood, and things that have significance to people in the neighbourhood.
A survey was completed in 2001 of local residents to gauge support for the bike path. City Council considered a recommendation from staff in 2003.
Windsor Street was selected over other streets near the major north-west transportation corridor, Knight Street, for a number of reasons including:
Public art
Public art has been installed along the Windsor Way bike route to further beautify the corridor and calm traffic. This work was completed in two phases.
Phase 1 was led by the Mt. Pleasant Community Centre Association, which led what was called "one of the most successful community public art projects ever", installing metal banners on street lamps along Windsor Street. Funding was approved by the City in 2002.
Phase 2 of the public art portion of this project built on the "Windsor Way/Art Way" plan. To support this, the City of Vancouver approved funding ($15,000) for the project in 2004.