It seems that the Mayor of Johnston wants to to prevent the
continuation of the Woonasquatucket Greenway into and through his
town.
He has discounted the input of non-residents and only considers the
opinions of voters – right now the nimbys along the proposed greenway.
If you are a resident of Johnston we need you to keep on top of this
situation. If you have the inclination you can write or email the
Mayor about this issue. We need to counter the influence of the nay
sayers who fear that marauding thieves will plunder their
neighborhoods on bikes.
I wasn’t in the area at the time the EBBP was built, but from what I hear, these concerns are similar to those raised prior to the EBBP. I doubt there are many people who now look at the EBBP as a blight on their neighborhood.
If you live in Johnston, here is your call to action.
Tina Dolen, the Executive Director of the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission, announced that they had secured $500K from RIDOT for a “holistic,” island-wide traffic study.
“We made proposal to RIDOT to conduct a corridor study,” said Dolen, “A comprehensive analysis of how traffic moves across this island, as well as making sure that it flows.” And she promised that two items of interest to Portsmouth would be fast-tracked: the Town Center and the potential impact of Burma Road.
If there ever was a time to impact cycling on Aquidneck island, now might be our chance. Any cyclists living down there looking for an advocacy project? I’m concerned about the “potential impact on Burma Road” comment. This is the only decent road for bicycles traveling the length of the island, are they going to shunt more traffic down there? Apparently they are already planning to reconfigure some striping along East Main Road:
Citing the “success of the restriping of Turnpike Avenue,” Smith described a reconfigured East Main Road that would be two 12-foot travel lanes, with a 12-foot center turning lane, and 2-foot shoulders. Not only would it be safer for pedestrians, who would have less live traffic lanes to cross, but it would help reduce the rear-end collisions which make up the majority of accidents on that stretch. And since it’s just a matter of removing the current lane markings, it could be done fairly quickly.
Naturally, there is no mention of bicycle safety. It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden either East or West Main and I don’t remember there being a shoulder at all, but two feet sounds pretty narrow for a road where cars are traveling at speed. By law, all road projects conducted by RIDOT must attempt to accommodate bicycles.
REI is offering a free bicycle maintenance at their Cranston store on March 29 at 2:00pm. An REI bike technician will go over practical applications in regards to season-long maintenance for wheel and tires, drive train, and brakes.
A link to this video came across the NBW email list.
It seems to be sponsored by London’s Mayor through the Transport for London program and is a great example of how concentrating on a particular task cause you to easily miss other events. This really makes me wonder how anyone can consider sending a text message while driving a car safe.
On Thursday, March 6, 2008, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) ordered states to return $3.15 billion in transportation funds. Although this is not the first time that USDOT has issued such notices, historically the resulting effect has been that Transportation Enhancement Funds (TE) have been disproportionately targeted by many states, it is important to note that this time states will be required to limit the amount they can cut from their TE program.
According to research provided by Rails-to-Trails Conservancy (RTC) the new legislative provision that cuts must be fair and balanced across programs could potentially save $100 – $200 million nationally to spend on trails, bicycling and other valuable non-motorized projects. This is good news and we all should keep a vigilant eye out to make sure that every State Department of Transportation adheres to the new provision.
Does anyone know what RI’s allotment of TE funding is for the year? We should definitely make an effort to ensure that RI limits the amount they cut from their TE funding.
More info: Join us for a 5-mile after-work bike trip along the new paved off-road portion of the Fred Lippitt Woonasquatucket River Greenway. This ride is safe for kids, so bring the whole family!
Come join us at our monthly advocacy meeting to discuss what we can do to make Providence a better place for cyclists. The next meeting is @ 6pm at The Hub on April 3rd. We will be holding a B2WD meeting immediately following the regular advocacy meeting, a two for one special.
If you are interested in helping to shape Bike to Work day this year, please join us for our next B2WD meeting. Our next meeting is @ 6pm on March 21st at the headquarters of Red Five Sports Group (269 South Main Street).
If you are interested in helping with the B2WD preparations, please be sure to sign up for our B2WD email list. We will be using this list as our primary means of communications as we prepare for the event. If you’ve been looking for a way to become involved in bicycle advocacy, this is a great way to get started!
