Council throws curve into bike-lanes tussle
PROVIDENCE – The City Council is making another bid to block the removal of bike lanes from South Water Street, this time more formally with an ordinance that would require Mayor Brett Smiley to get the council’s permission before eliminating the lanes.
The ordinance, spearheaded by Councilman John Goncalves, is to be introduced Thursday night.
It states that any installation, removal or alteration of a bike lane must undergo review by the Green and Complete Streets Advisory Council – which already happens – but adds that the City Council “shall approve or deny proposals for the removal of bicycle lanes.” That latter part is new, and would give the council a way to halt Smiley’s plan.
In addition to Goncalves, the ordinance is also being sponsored by Council President Rachel Miller, Councilwomen Sue Anderbois, Althea Graves, Mary Kay Harris and Ana Vargas, and Councilmen Justin Roias and Miguel Sanchez. With those eight votes, the ordinance has enough support to pass.
Smiley could simply veto it, but a veto-proof majority of 10 votes would nullify that, Goncalves said.
The council already passed a resolution opposing the removal of the lanes, but resolutions are largely symbolic statements without teeth. The proposed ordinance, if passed, would be a city law.
The Providence Journal has contacted Smiley’s office for comment.
Smiley’s office has not provided data to support how the removal of the South Water Street bike lanes would improve traffic flow in that area.
When asked, the mayor’s office sent several pages of data to The Journal claiming it supports the removal of the bike lanes. The data included was on how many people use the bike lanes, not how the bike lanes cause traffic tie-ups on South Water Street.
Jamie Pahigian, a member of the Providence Streets Coalition, which advocates for shared roads and is pushing
A cyclist travels along one of the bike lanes on South Water Street in Providence.
hard against removal of the lanes, sent a public-records request to the city in search of data that supports its decision. He said he didn’t get any.
Pahigian wrote in his request that he wanted “any traffic-volume data, traffic-flow modeling, reports detailing quantitative measures of traffic backups or extended wait time or other relevant documents.” In responding, the city said it had no documents to share. The Journal has reached out to the mayor’s office to confirm.
That further raises a question bike lane advocates have been asking since the mayor announced he wanted to remove the bike lanes: On what basis was the decision made?
Smiley, before his swearing in, expressed a desire to move the South Water Street bike lanes. But in announcing just two weeks ago that he would do that, he said the issue was traffic stemming form the partial closure of the Washington Street Bridge. Smiley said the bike lanes would eventually be relocated after a public comment period, but there are no firm details on where they would go, when they would be installed and how much they would cost.
What Smiley has said is that removing the lanes and adding a raised crosswalk on the street would cost $750,000, at least by his administration’s estimate. Some councilors have said that would be a misuse of city funds.