On the other hand, if motorists were treated as we bicyclists are, they’d all be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.

Here’s another set of irresponsible actions: Closed entry ramp to 1-195 at Wickenden street, which forces a lot of traffic onto the Point St bridge, a crucial transit between East and West bay. Eliminated the shoulder at the end of Allens Ave, which supposed to be a major bike lane, which pinch cyclists off where traffic is the worst. It’s incredibly aggravating, not at all necessary, and ILLEGAL! Who do we throw into jail?

Yes, they did us a huge disservice by doing work on both the Henderson and Washington Bridges at the same time. We’ve expressed our frustrations and we worked with them to minimize the impact during this phase. Why do you think they actually uncovered the sidewalks? Why do you think they swept the Henderson bridge whenever we asked them to? Why do you think they only shut down one side of the bridge to bicycles at a time? Because we worked WITH them.

The work on the George Redman Linear Park is not permanently stalled. It’s still going to happen. You might as how I know this, because I was invited to be at the table during the Value Engineering Study to make sure the project as proposed made sense. One of the reasons it’s on hold right now, is RIDOT is going back to to determine whether they actually need to rip the whole thing down, closing it to bikes for 2+ years or whether the existing structure is safe. We’ve also asked them to figure out how they can accommodate bicycles during the construction project, assuming it goes forward without a complete rebuild. You might ask, why is the existing sidewalk open again? Because we asked them to do so until such time as they knew what the future held.

Yes, RIDOT can do more to support bicycles, pedestrians, and public transit. For many years RIDOT engineers focused primarily on cars. Their beginning to realize there is more out there than just cars to plan for, but it will take time until all of their engineers think about all forms of transportation automatically. I for one think it’s much more productive to work with them, than try and legislate their position or even interface with them only in an attack mode.

RIDOT stuck it to you good. Permanently stalled construction on the George Redman transit, incomprehensible limited use of H, and concurrent work on Division Street. They just don’t want you cycling. MASSDOT is almost as insufferable. They closed County Street bridge in Attleboro while they work on Rt. 1. Just how are you supposed to get around?

Perhaps it’s time to enact laws that prohibit repair work on adjacent bridges until at least one is complete. Or maybe they supply temporary bridges.