The first meeting of Providence’s North Main Street Task Force brought homeless victimizing police, a bicyclist blaming business owner, and frustrated residents. The room was crowded, full of people from all walks of life, though one thing was common: all had a vested interest in the future of North Main Street. On time, the meeting started, where the creator of the Task Force, Sue Anderbois, took charge and passed the baton along to several presenters who spoke about the street’s current state over the course of the meeting. It was emphasized that the goal of these meetings was to establish connections with relevant stakeholders and document findings.
After the presenters finished, public comment was welcomed, unveiling a lot of harsh truths all the way to gross ignorance. Among the first individuals to speak, a man loudly shamed the police representative for unfairly blaming homeless people. Notably, this representative persistently attributed the source of the problem to homeless people “randomly crossing the street” and their encampments.
More residents then gave testimony about the dangerous happenings on North Main. Some mentioned they avoid walking and bicycling on it altogether because of it. Others were frustrated by the lack of action. Testimonies of personal experience, frustration, and more were both given and felt by everyone.
“We’ve created so many identical studies in previous years, but nothing gets changed!”
“RIDOT owns this, and the city owns that part… it’s so confusing.”
“We need to take action quickly.”
Then, one of the few business owners who attended—from The Parlour Providence—stood up to speak. Seemingly unable to read the room, they went on a random tirade about how bicyclists are constantly breaking the law and causing havoc in the area. “How are we going to ticket them?” she asked.
More hard-hitting and personal stories continued without acknowledgement of what was just said. Not long after, everyone had their opportunity to speak, and before adjournment, follow-ups were promised by the many leaders in attendance. Notably, it was surprising to see so many lawmakers and councilpeople in attendance. It gave some hope that perhaps change could happen this time around.
Before diving in, it’s important to highlight the outliers: the police representative and the business owner. These folks have large amounts of influence and power in our communities, and all too often, they go against the best interest of residents, whether for personal gain or due to sheer ignorance. Furthermore, with potential future remodels of North Main Street, we must be keen to these individuals in addition to the many outspoken wealthy residents in this area who may want to halt progress entirely, as recently seen on the neighboring Hope Street.
For progress to be made, we need to listen to our residents and experts who live and breathe among this senseless violence. No more kicking the can down the road by suggesting more useless studies where the results will eventually be tabled by the people in charge. And after all, by doing these continual studies, you inadvertently suggest you don’t have every single piece of data, even if, overwhelmingly, all available evidence states you’re correct. With this, you give credence to the opposition and let them control the narrative. So let’s be clear: RIDOT is wrong. The business owner and police representative are wrong. We know what works already, so let’s do that.
Fortunately, during the meeting, many threw in useful, actionable suggestions. As someone who lives off of North Main, witnessed the aftermath of one of the hit-and-runs, and has continually felt threatened traversing this street, I have a few ideas as well. What I put forward will be my own, cultivated with what I heard. I base my thinking on our need to disassociate from car-centricity and aligning our thinking to moving people, not cars.
Suggestions
Law Adjustments
- Decriminalize jaywalking. Other states have already begun doing this while more progressive countries don’t even recognize it.
- Greatly increase the penalty for both striking a pedestrian and vulnerable road user whether it be a “hit and stay” or a “hit and run.”
- If a pedestrian is at a marked crosswalk and waiting, drivers must yield and let them cross. This law is enacted in some countries, Netherlands is an example.
- Ban right turn on red.
- Decrease the speed limit to 20. There is evidence to support this; other cities have followed suit.
- Remove RIDOT’s Peter Alviti and Heather Gately for continually lying and misdirection about what has occurred as well as exclusively focusing on car travel to the detriment of everything else. In addition, charges against RIDOT pertaining to negligence should be considered.
Physical Street Changes
- Add more crosswalks as they’re scarce.
- Increasing effectiveness of crosswalks by considering the following: making them 3D, designing to be beautified and colorful, or physically elevating them.
- Utilize speed cameras. The large gray cameras we’ve installed on other streets have resulted in lower speeds as they are highly noticable. Further, as to not burden lower income individuals, incorporate lower fines or make them non-existent (i.e., the camera works as a placebo), or have it be income scalable.
- Incorporating police speed signs (“Your speed is: XX”). This was utilized recently around Christmas on North Main and I observed cars lowering their speeds substantially because of it.
- When a walking signal is pushed, all vehicle street lights should turn red in that area on the next signal or almost immediately. Currently, a pedestrian must wait several cycles for the crosswalk and unyielding cars, then wait again to cross the next part of the street or sidewalk.
- Place cones in the middle of the street throughout North Main that indicate to lower your speed / drive carefully / alert to crosswalk. These are utilized on nearby Hope Street to great success. It not only gets the attention of motorists, it forces vehicles to operate more carefully as to not hit the cone.
- Implement physical speed bumps. The only one, which is located by the Whole Foods and bus stop, works great as it’s placed before a crosswalk and gives pedestrians more opportunity to cross safely.
- Start to decrease on-street parking by beginning with the concept of ‘daylighting.’
- Increase the use of greenery such as trees and other street related vegetation as it’s been shown to improve road safety.