02.11.08
Posted in Advocacy, Alerts
by Mark at 11:17 am
I posted this over on the Bike-To-Brown site as well, but it’s important enough to repeat it here. RIDOT has a request listed on the agenda for the February 13th, 2008 meeting of the State Traffic Commission (STC) to:
approve the restriction of bicycles to use the sidewalk area only on the Henderson Bridge.
Naturally, this causes some problems:
- bicycles can’t legally ride on the sidewalks, the railings are too low
- the sidewalks don’t go far enough for people traveling farther East than Massasoit Ave
The meeting is a 10am on February 13th at the State House, Room 203. We should definitely arrange to have one or more people attend.
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02.04.08
Posted in Alerts
by Mark at 12:05 pm
According to a RIPTA ferry report, the high speed ferry service between Providence and Newport will end after the 2008 season.
RIPTA’s Providence/Newport Ferry Service has been a hit since it was introduced in 2000. In 2007, ridership for the five month ferry season was 47,002, the highest ridership in the ferry’s eight-year history.
The federal funding that made this service possible is set to expire at the end of this season. It will be a shame to see, yet another, public transit option fade out of existence. I know that many cyclists enjoyed a day trip to Newport by taking their bikes on the ferry. I know RIPTA can’t afford to fund this service, they are already running with record deficits. Perhaps some private organization will step up to the plate to keep this service running?
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10.22.07
Posted in Alerts
by Mark at 11:32 am
The cyclists over at Bike-To-Brown are tracking what could become a serious problem for cyclists traveling in and out of Providence to and from the East Bay area. As most everyone is aware, the Washington Bridge pedestrian walk way is closed and will likely remain so for many more years. This is diverting cyclists over the Henderson Bridge. RIDOT has now decided to start concurrent work on the Henderson Bridge, including lane closures. Don Rogers over at Bike-To-Brown members concisely stated:
If the single option remaining available to cyclists for crossing between Providence and the East Bay is to become a single lane shared on what many motorists consider to be high-speed freeway, then there can be little option other than large numbers of conflicts and very hazardous conditions for cyclists. There must be proactive and effective mitigation of these conditions to protect life and safety of cyclists and motorists alike.
This is a huge and very dangerous condition that RIDOT is setting up for transportational cyclists, the largest blow I’ve seen in the 10 years I’ve been cycling the Providence area. Close the Washington Bridge to bikes, and we can suffer the rerouting. But restrict the Henderson in this way at the same time, and now the action is effectively ruling that bikes are not a viable transportation alternative to travel between Providence and the East Bay. RIPTA is not a drop-in replacement by any stretch of the imagination.
We are working to determine who we can voice our concern with over at RIDOT and will let everyone know once we have this information.
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