Greater City Providence
Image from Google Streetview
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We have been lucky in Rhode Island recently to have avoided deadly collisions involving bicyclists. That streak has now, tragically, ended. On Friday, Charlie Hawkins of North Providence was hit and killed while crossing a four-lane road in Warwick in the early evening.
Traffic fatalities are not acceptable. Until our state and local governments take responsibility for making our streets safer, this sort of horrific tragedy will continue to happen. Failure to make our streets safer for all road users is unacceptable.
I am one of several who posted on ribike about Charlie who I knew as a dedicated Chafee staffer on transportation issues, truly concerned with promotong public input, better bicycling conditions which for him wasn’t just theoretical, he biked! This is a real sad loss.
Though the State Senate passed several highway safety bills, they all died in the House where I’ve seen no indication the House leadership cares about improving safety on the roadways, not even for other motorists nevermind pedestrians or bicyclists.