Middletown rejects 'road diet' on East Main. Here's how they'll address safety instead.

MIDDLETOWN – Martha Koziara still remembers her car accident from 37 years ago when she turned on East Main Road from Wyatt Road.

Her car was torn in half and she suffered permanent physical damage. She still wonders how she managed to survive after being hit by an alleged drunk driver, but the memory persists.

This testimony, however, did not persuade town council to encourage the Rhode Island Department of Transportation to create a "road diet" on the approximate 1.3-mile stretch of East Main Road from Wyatt Drive to Miller’s Lane. The plan would have turned a stretch of East Main Road into a three-lane route to slow down traffic as part of a proposed repaving project on that section of the road.

Previously, officials said that the stretch would encompass close to 2 miles, but recent data estimated it at 1.3 miles, according to residents and officials.

Why the 'road diet' was proposed

The council held a hearing on Monday and members of the public, as well as some council members, were encouraging a road diet on that stretch as part of RIDOT’s repaving project. Supporters called it an opportunity to improve safety, especially for pedestrians and bicycle riders.

Talks began earlier this year. At the April 1 meeting, the council decided on a public hearing before an upcoming April 19 deadline.

Council members agreed that safety is a growing concern, especially for bicycle riders and pedestrians, but RIDOT gave the town a April 19 deadline to decide.

Both Town Administrator Shawn Brown and state Sen. Louis DiPalma said the repaving project is on an accelerated project list from RIDOT and a no vote could jeopardize the planned repaving project.

Some proponents, including Bari Freeman, said that a road diet would present an opportunity to slow down traffic there and the delay in traffic would only result in a 30-second to three-minute delay for motorists during peak travel hours.

Would it reduce car accidents?

Freeman, executive director of Bike Newport, said that road diets have been touted federally as the top way for slowing traffic and reducing accidents.

Freeman, citing her extensive discussions with RIDOT, said that it would reduce accidents by 50 percent.

“They know the delays are little to nothing,” Freeman said.

Freeman, at the previous town council meeting on April 1, said that RIDOT did not recommend the road diet, but was basing it off outdated data from 2018.

At the April 1 meeting, it was revealed that VHB, a consultant for RIDOT, said that it recommends these “diets” for locations where the traffic is under 20,000 vehicles per day for the state’s road diet program. According to  VHB’s data, that stretch of town logs 21,500 vehicles per day during the summer months and 17,500 during the spring.

Freeman and others have questioned the currency of that data.

RIDOT, however, has left the final decision to the town.

Freeman and other proponents were pushing for the road diet option in between the coats of asphalt during the repaving stages. Some were calling for an experimental road diet plan through the painting of lines before RIDOT’s contractor finishes the final asphalt coat.

Daniela Abbott, a member of the Portsmouth Town Council, said her council by a majority voted to support the philosophy of a road diet on East Main Road, most of which is in Portsmouth.

However, some members of the public and council members said the issue is a broader one and both Newport and Portsmouth should band together for a solution.

Much of the road has no sidewalks, small shoulders and no physical means for widening it.

'Accidents aren't going to disappear'

Only two council members were in favor of a road diet for this project. Other council members said traffic and accidents would spill over to the side streets and West Main Road.

They speculated that motorists would seek alternative routes and that the accidents would find new locations.

“Accidents aren't going to disappear,” said Councilman Christopher Logan. “We are just shifting the problem somewhere else.”

Council President Paul Rodrigues said there needs to be more traffic enforcement. He said there is no way to widen the road and more extensive work would be complicated.

“We really have to make a concerted effort for enforcement, “ Rodrigues said.

“I dont think it’s a good idea to put bikes and cars on a road like that,” he said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Middletown to RIDOT: No road diet needed on East Main Road