Hi Everyone,

Thank you to everyone who came out to the meeting on the IWay local street design last night. For those of you who couldn’t make it or who didn’t have a chance to provide comments on what was presented, the plans and alternatives presented will be posted shortly on the RIDOT website. Comment on the plans presented and alternative preferences will be accepted until the close of business on Tuesday February 16, 2010. Please direct your comments to me or to Lambri Zerva at lzerva@dot.ri.gov.
If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me or Lambri.
Regards,

Melanie

Three options were presented last night. The concensus was for option two. Notice that a spur from the EBBP will come down George M. Cohen to the intersection at the shell station. I am encouraged that they did their best to route these cyclists – who often will not be comfortable in traffic – and pedestrians by crosswalks towards the river and still provide bike lanes along wickenden/point st. for through users.

I think we should be vigilant of how they control speeds coming off of the highway into that intensely pedestrian neighborhood. I don’t see why they don’t just rebuild the off ramp as is to fly over that intersection onto South Main Street. I guess they are planning parking lanes on the approach to Wickenden (for who to use I don’t know) which will offer some narrowing and friction. Red light cameras might have a prudent application here. The rest is signals and traffic control. Seems like it will be a mess, but that’s not our issue.