Jef NickersonOctober 20, 2015, 2015 – 4:45pm
30 Exchange Terrace, 1st Floor Conference Room[/alert] [box style=”alert”]Note: This meeting is at a different location than regularly scheduled meetings[/alert]
Agenda
- Roll call
- Approval of meeting minutes from September Commission meeting
- Introduction of Peter Garino, RIDOT Deputy Director (Martina Haggerty)
- Discussion with Peter Garino, RIDOT Deputy Director, regarding ways to improve coordination between RIDOT and BPAC and status updates on several RIDOT projects within the City of Providence
- Update on bike share program (Leah Bamberger)
- Adjournment
Has there ever been any consideration for 1 way street bike lanes (s.water for example) where the lane is on the left instead of the right ? In NYC this is evident to avoid opening drivers doors into cyclists …
Yes, left side bike lanes are part of the design considerations the engineers use, but not all scenarios or roads are really suitable for such treatment. We already have two examples of left side bike lanes on Promenade and Kinsley streets between Aborn Street and Providence Place Mall.
S. Main needs more interventions than just a left side bike lane to address its shortcomings: too widetravel lanes, excessive driver speeds, driver disregard for cross walks, pedestrian beg buttons, frequent double parking by delivery vehicles, lack of bike lane.
And unfortunately, RIDOT has so far refused to make any meaningful changes to the layout of the roadway or signals to make the street better suited for walking and biking in its upcoming ADA compliance project, which will involve a full road repaving.
Can’t we have one of these? College Street, Doyle, anywhere?
http://trampe.no/en/home
http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2014/12/02/trompe_cyclocable_the_bike_lift_in_trondheim_norway.html
It snows in Norway too. I’d use it to get downtown. Too old for those hills!
Sumati
I think it’s a bit premature to copy Trondheim. We don’t have any infrastructure! (And either do they–see the David Hembrow coverage of Trondheim where he notes that much of their bike plan amounts to having legalized biking on the sidewalk–he notes that this works ‘so long as you’re in no hurry’). Trondheim’s lift is a fun idea, but expensive.
Car Free PVD long ago pointed out the importance of the “P-Wiggle” (being able to go to Wickenden and up Hope or Brook to get around the steep hills). I would add that a proper car-lite desogn on Benefit, coupled with protected bike lanes on N. Main, Olney, and Hope would help, since they’re low grade. RIDOT and the city need to put away the paint and join the civilized world by building protected bike lanes on these routes–the P-Wiggle would be a key starting point.
The S. Main business association and the Flea both support. It’s time!