The road network in

Windsor, Ontario Windsor is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from Detroit, Michigan, United States. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Essex County, it is the southe ...

is a

grid Grid, The Grid, or GRID may refer to: Common usage * Cattle grid or stock grid, a type of obstacle is used to prevent livestock from crossing the road * Grid reference, used to define a location on a map Arts, entertainment, and media * News ...

system with elongated blocks, generally aligned with the

Detroit River The Detroit River flows west and south for from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie as a strait in the Great Lakes system. The river divides the metropolitan areas of Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario—an area collectively referred to as Detro ...

, with East-West roads running

parallel Parallel is a geometric term of location which may refer to: Computing * Parallel algorithm * Parallel computing * Parallel metaheuristic * Parallel (software), a UNIX utility for running programs in parallel * Parallel Sysplex, a cluster of ...

to it, and North-South streets running

perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the ''perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It ca ...

(90 Degrees) to it. This is an adoption from when French Canadian settlers first built

farm A farm (also called an agricultural holding) is an area of land that is devoted primarily to agricultural processes with the primary objective of producing food and other crops; it is the basic facility in food production. The name is used ...

s and streets in the area. Many streets have French names in result, such as Lauzon Parkway, Marentette Avenue (a quiet residential street),

Ouellette Avenue Ouellette Avenue (most commonly pronounced Oh-Let, pronounced by French-speakers as 'Wellette') is one of the main North-South Roads in Windsor, Ontario, and acts as its Main Street. The road diverges from Dougall Avenue south of Downtown Win ...

(considered by many Windsorites to be its " Main Street"), and Pelissier Street. The current street system of Windsor (grid with elongated blocks) reflects the French method of agricultural land division where the

s were long and narrow, fronting along the river (this originates from French methods of

tax collection A revenue service, revenue agency or taxation authority is a government agency responsible for the intake of government revenue, including taxes and sometimes non-tax revenue. Depending on the jurisdiction, revenue services may be charged with ...

, with more

taxes A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

being paid by

property Property is a system of rights that gives people legal control of valuable things, and also refers to the valuable things themselves. Depending on the nature of the property, an owner of property may have the right to consume, alter, share, r ...

owner Ownership is the state or fact of legal possession and control over property, which may be any asset, tangible or intangible. Ownership can involve multiple rights, collectively referred to as title, which may be separated and held by different ...

s with waterfront properties, thus why

riverfront A riverfront is a region along a river. Often in larger cities that are traversed or bordered by one or more rivers, the riverfront is lined with marinas, docks, cafes, museums, parks, or minor attractions. Today many riverfronts are a staple of ...

lots were usually narrow).

Introduction

Most of the city is uniform in its grid, but a few

neighbourhoods A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; American and British English spelling differences, see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community ...

have their own system. Forest Glade and The Villages of Riverside were built recently (in the 1960s and 1970s, and have circular patterns, while

Sandwich A sandwich is a food typically consisting of vegetables, sliced cheese or meat, placed on or between slices of bread, or more generally any dish wherein bread serves as a container or wrapper for another food type. The sandwich began as a po ...

has its own grid roughly 45 degrees off from the rest of the city, in a

triangle A triangle is a polygon with three edges and three vertices. It is one of the basic shapes in geometry. A triangle with vertices ''A'', ''B'', and ''C'' is denoted \triangle ABC. In Euclidean geometry, any three points, when non- colline ...

from

Huron Church Road King's Highway 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario which travels parallel to the northern shoreline of Lake Erie. It has three segments, the first of which travels from t ...

and the Detroit River, south to

Tecumseh Road The road network in Windsor, Ontario is a grid system with elongated blocks, generally aligned with the Detroit River, with East-West roads running parallel to it, and North-South streets running perpendicular (90 Degrees) to it. This is an adopti ...

and Prince Road. This is due to the river turning southwest-ward just west of the

Ambassador Bridge The Ambassador Bridge is a tolled international suspension bridge across the Detroit River that connects Detroit, Michigan, United States, with Windsor, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1929, it is the busiest international border crossing in North ...

. Another major part of the city where the streets "jog" across Tecumseh Road is Fountain Bleu, when Tecumseh Road was the former city limit with the former Township of Sandwich South until the 1960s.

Expressways

Windsor has one

freeway A controlled-access highway is a type of highway that has been designed for high-speed vehicular traffic, with all traffic flow—ingress and egress—regulated. Common English terms are freeway, motorway and expressway. Other similar terms ...

, the

E. C. Row Expressway The E. C. Row Expressway is a municipal expressway in the city of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. It divides the city in half as it crosses it between the Ojibway Parkway in the west and Banwell Road in the east, a distance of . It was built between 19 ...

Highway 401 King's Highway 401, commonly referred to as Highway 401 and also known by its official name as the Macdonald–Cartier Freeway or colloquially referred to as the four-oh-one, is a controlled-access 400-series highway in the Canadian provinc ...

skirts the City Limits from Provincial Rd (exit 14). to Cabana West/Todd Lane (exit 6), and enters the city in the far west end to Ojibway Pkwy. (exit 1). A former spur, Highway 3B, now known as

Dougall Parkway King's Highway 3, commonly referred to as Highway 3, is a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario which travels parallel to the northern shoreline of Lake Erie. It has three segments, the first of which travels from ...

is a limited access freeway between the 401 and Howard Avenue. Just north of Howard Avenue, Dougall Parkway becomes Dougall Avenue. There are a few other

divided highways A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

dual carriageways A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

with varying levels of development, access, and intersections, such as

Ojibway Parkway King's Highway18, commonly referred to as Highway18, was a provincially maintained highway in the Canadian province of Ontario, located entirely within Essex County. Since 1998, the majority of the former route has been known as Essex County ...

, Lauzon Parkway,

, and

Main East-West Roads

These main East-West

arterial road An arterial road or arterial thoroughfare is a high-capacity urban road that sits below freeways/motorways on the road hierarchy in terms of traffic flow and speed. The primary function of an arterial road is to deliver traffic from collector r ...

s are listed from the Detroit River, heading towards the south: * Riverside Drive * University Avenue * Wyandotte Street * Tecumseh Road * Eugenie Street (short, but very busy connector) *

* Cabana Road/ Division Road

Other East-West Roads

* Erie Street * Giles Boulevard * Ottawa Street *Shepherd Street * Grand Marais Road/ West Grand Boulevard * Plymouth Road (originally built to direct traffic from the now-demolished Pillette Road Van plant away from residential areas to the north and east) *

(leads to Ontario Highway 401, serves South Windsor and Southwood Lakes subdivision) *North Talbot Road * Totten Street * College Avenue (a busy truck route) * Prince Road (continuation of Totten Street, meets up with Tecumseh Road) * Forest Glade Drive * Wildwood Drive

Main North-South Roads

These main North-South arteries are listed from west to east: * Sandwich Street * Matchette Road * Malden Road *

(extremely busy connector linking Ontario Highway 401 to

and

Interstate 75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end in 5, it is a major cross-country, north–south route, traveling from St ...

) * Campbell Avenue/Dominion Boulevard (originally intended to become a freeway in the 1970s as a spur route from E.C. Row into downtown, anti-freeway sentiments by downtown and west side residents and businesses killed it) *

Dougall Avenue Dougall Avenue is a busy four-lane urban arterial road, linking Downtown Windsor, with South Windsor and Highway 401. The road is a minimum of four lanes for its entire length, and is among Windsor's busiest, with an Average Annual Daily Traffi ...

* McDougall Avenue * Howard Avenue * Provincial Road * Banwell Road *

Walker Road Walker Road is one of the busiest roads in Windsor, Ontario. It has an average annual daily traffic (AADT) level of 32,000 cars per day at the CP Rail crossing. History The road is named after Hiram Walker, distillery baron. The CP Rail cros ...

* Central Avenue * Pillette Road * Jefferson Boulevard * Lauzon Road/Lauzon Parkway

Other North-South Roads

These other North-South routes tend to be short, but busy, as they serve heavily built-up areas in Downtown and other areas: * Victoria Avenue (notable for having some of the oldest houses in the city along it. It is a quiet downtown residential street otherwise) * Drouillard Road/Chrysler Center Many of these roads in Windsor pass by Big Three

Automaker The automotive industry comprises a wide range of companies and organizations involved in the design, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industries by revenue (from 16 % suc ...

plants, such as

Ford Motor Company of Canada Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited (French: ''Ford du Canada Limitée'') was founded on August 17, 1904, for the purpose of manufacturing and selling Ford automobiles in Canada and the British Empire. It was originally known as the Walkerville W ...

General Motors Canada General Motors of Canada Company (french: La Compagnie General Motors du Canada), commonly known as GM Canada, is the Canadian subsidiary of US-based company General Motors. It is headquartered in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. In the aftermath of the ...

and

Chrysler Canada Stellantis Canada (formerly, FCA Canada, Inc. and Chrysler Canada) is the wholly owned subsidiary of Stellantis through its North American division operating in Canada. Incorporated in 1925, the Chrysler Corporation of Canada acquired a Maxwell ...