Windsor is the western terminus of both Highway 401, Canada's busiest highway, and of VIA Rail's Quebec City-Windsor Corridor. The city is served by Windsor Airport with regular, scheduled commuter air service by Air Canada Jazz and heavy general aviation traffic. The Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (ranked 11th in the United States in terms of passenger traffic according to Airports Council International), is located roughly 20-30 minutes across the border in Romulus, Michigan. Detroit Metro is also a hub for Northwest Airlines. It is the airport of choice for many Windsor residents as it has regular flights to a larger variety of destinations than Windsor Airport.
Local transportation is handled by Transit Windsor, the city-owned bus company, which shares its newly-constructed $8-million downtown depot with Greyhound Lines.
Windsor has completed a municipal highway, E.C. Row Expressway, running from east-west through the city. Consisting of 15.7 kilometres (10 miles) of highway and nine interchanges, the expressway is the fastest way for commuters to travel across the city. E.C. Row Expressway is actually in the Guinness Book of Records as the shortest freeway that took the longest time to build. It is only 16 km (11 miles) long but took more than 15 years to complete. The expressway stretches from Windsor's far west end at Ojibway Parkway east to Banwell Road on the city's border with Tecumseh.
As Windsor's development has sprawled out along the banks of the Detroit river and Lake St Clair, the city is wider than it is deep meaning that the majority of development stretches along the water instead of in-land. Due to this trend, there is a severe lack of east-west arteries compared to north-south arteries. Only Riverside Drive (even though it is meant to be a scenic route rather than a commuter thoroughfare), Wyandotte Street, Tecumseh Road and the E.C. Row Expressway serve the over 20 km from the west end of Windsor eastward. All of these roads are already over-burdened with east-west commuter traffic from the booming development in the city's eastern end and suburbs.
The construction of the E.C. Row Expressway split the city in half. There are eight north-south roads (and expressway interchanges) of Huron Church Road, Dominion Boulevard, Dougall Avenue, Howard Avenue, Walker Road, Central Ave, Jefferson Boulevard and Lauzon Parkway. Including three bike trails that cross E.C. Row Expressway, the total increases to 11 north-south arteries. Traffic backups on some of these north-south roads at the E.C. Row Expressway are common.
The city is connected to Essex and Leamington via Highway 3, and is well connected to the other municipalities and communities throughout Essex County via the county road network. Nearly 17,000 vehicles travel on Highway 3 on a daily basis. It is the main route to work for many residents of Leamington, Kingsville and Essex.
Windsor is linked to the United States by the Ambassador Bridge, the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, a Canadian Pacific Railway tunnel, and the Detroit-Windsor Truck Ferry. The Ambassador Bridge is North America's #1 international border crossing in terms of goods volume: 27% of all trade between Canada and the United States crosses at the Ambassador Bridge.
Though usually considered as part of its park system, Windsor also has a fairly extensive bike trail network. Three trails in particular have been built and extended (Riverfront Bike Trail, Ganatchio Bike Trail, and Little River Extension). These see a great deal of use by citizens in Windsor, and have become a blend of parkland and transportation, as people have begun to commute to work or across downtown on their bicycles.
Port Windsor is located on the Great Lakes/St. Lawrence Seaway System, on the Detroit River opposite Detroit, Michigan. The port is the third largest Canadian Great Lakes port in terms of shipments.
