Overwrought fears of a Providence bike trail
Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GoLocal24.com
The controversy over setting up a bike and walking lane (sometimes called an “urban trail”) in a commercially successful and charming stretch of Hope Street on Providence’s East Side has raised the inevitable issue of parking, which upsets some merchants and shoppers alike.
See:
The proposal would replace some of the street-side space now allocated to parked cars. Big parts of the fight come both from too many Americans’ unwillingness to walk more than a few feet from their cars to shop (and you can see the results in their physiques) and residential neighbors not wanting cars crowding nearby streets.
This gets me to think that the strip needs some sort of attractive (faced with brick or wood?) parking garage to take off some of the pressure.
Meanwhile, a big problem with bike lanes in some places is the failure of bicyclists to learn and obey basic traffic rules, e.g., signaling, and of police to enforce them. Time for Providence Police and other officials to work on that, including with signs and hefty fines!
Some of the local merchants want the city to call off a trial of the trail set for Oct. 1-8. No, the experiment should go forward! Let’s see how it unfolds and then either drop the idea or, if the project is to become permanent, adjust as needed. Of course, any change like this brings out Nimbyism and anxiety in people who have operated in a setting that has changed relatively little over the years.
But read what’s happened elsewhere.
https://thesource.metro.net/2017/11/20/biking-is-good-for-business/
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/biking-lanes-business-health-1.5165954
https://medium.com/sidewalk-talk/the-latest-evidence-that-bike-lanes-are-good-for-business-f3a99cda9b80
Bicycle parking at the Alewife subway station, in Cambridge, Mass., at the intersection of three cycle paths.
— Photo by Arnold Reinhold