Gridlock guru hired by Windsor to fix city congestion

WINDSOR, (April 23, 2004) — The city of Windsor hopes a gridlock guru from New York will be able to cure some of the border point’s bottleneck headaches and truck traffic chaos.

The Windsor Star reports Samuel Schwartz — otherwise known as Gridlock Sam — has been called in to help the city combat its growing problem with border traffic leading up to and from the Ambassador Bridge linking Windsor and Detroit.

Twenty-five per cent of all Canada-U.S trade passes between Windsor and Detroit. Approximately 10,000 trucks per day converge on Huron Church Road and secondary arteries in Windsor, creating a bottleneck that constricts trade flows, puts severe strain on infrastructure and raises concerns about public health and safety.

Schwartz — who has been attributed with coining the term “gridlock” — says the truck situation in Windsor is one of the biggest challenges he’s faced in his career.

Some twenty-five years ago Schwartz began his professional career as a New York City taxi driver, which he notes “provided basic training for maneuvering through the city’s streets … “I thought I would save the subways,” he says, “but the Transit Authority wouldn’t offer me a job. I ended up as a junior engineer at the old Traffic Department.”

In 1980 he became chief engineer in charge of traffic operations for New York, and has since been credited with solving some of that city’s traffic and infrastructure problems.

— with files from the Windsor Star