The 8½-mile cycling route from Robert Isenberg’s Cranston home to his job at the Jewish Alliance of Greater Rhode Island on Providence’s East Side is equal parts scenic and harrowing.
At some points, Isenberg pedals past river views along bike trails far from car traffic. At other points, he feels exposed on busy roads, with only a painted line separating him and his bike from vehicles whooshing by, if there’s a line at all.
He doesn’t bike to work often, but when he does, he’s never entirely comfortable.
“I do pretty much feel constantly unsafe,” Isenberg said. “I don’t blame the drivers. A lot of the streets are very narrow, there’s a lot of motor traffic and drivers have a hard time seeing cyclists.”
But that’s changing as the city forges ahead with plans to install a network of protected bike lanes in the hopes that more people like Isenberg – including more women and children – will feel safe to use bikes and scooters as reliable, inexpensive forms of transportation around the city.
Supporters of Mayor Jorge O. Elorza’s Great Streets Initiative to create 78 miles of “urban trails” tout it as a way to reduce and “calm” traffic, combat climate change, boost economic development and improve the quality of life in Providence.
But opponents, including some in the business community, have been left steaming over losing space they believe would be better used to ease traffic congestion, and would leave room for parking and commercial deliveries.
So far, it’s been a pitched battle.
A dedicated two-way bike lane on Eaton Street near Providence College was installed in 2019 then removed weeks later when neighbors complained that there was too little room on the street to drive safely. A similar trail proposed for Mount Pleasant Avenue never happened after residents raised similar objections.
The outcome was different along South Water Street last summer when protected bike lanes changed the one-way, two-lane road into one lane. Some nearby businesses protested, as did Brown University, Rhode Island School of Design and the R.I. Department of Transportation. Still, the bike infrastructure stayed, in part because of the backing of City Councilman John Goncalves.
In contrast, reaction to new sections along Empire Street in the downtown area and along Manton Avenue near Olneyville Square has been muted, at least so far.
The site of the next skirmish could be Hope Street, a popular business district on the East Side lined with small shops and restaurants that rely heavily on parking along the street.
The Great Streets plan proposes a two-way bike lane along one side of Hope, and advocates of the plan are organizing a temporary demonstration project in the spring to win over naysayers.
[caption id="attachment_393527" align="alignright" width="231"]
NOT IN FAVOR: Kim Clark, owner of the Rhody Craft LLC gift store on Hope Street in Providence, is opposed to a planned two-way bike lane replacing one side of street parking and fears that increased traffic, congestion and parking woes will hurt her business. / PBN PHOTO/MICHAEL SALERNO[/caption]
They may have a bumpy road ahead.
Some business owners – already badly stung by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic – are leery of claims that bike lanes could boost their sales.
“This is Rhode Island, where people drive everywhere,” said Kim Clark, owner of the gift shop Rhody Craft LLC on Hope Street. “To mess with parking and logistics in a business area is just crazy. We are a good thing for the community. Don’t make it more difficult for us.”
ADDING MILEAGE
It’s clear Elorza, who’s been known to frequent the bike lanes that circle Roger Williams Park, has been the driving force behind the Great Streets plan.
The city has about 33 miles of lanes already in place – some just painted lines such as those along Promenade Street and Douglas Avenue, others featuring protective bollards and more-permanent cement “floating” bus stops, such as along Empire and Fountain streets.
Providence completed 20 miles of lanes in 2021 and is slated to add another 20 this year. In all, about $8.3 million has been either spent or allocated for projects.
But with the term-limited Elorza poised to step down after the November elections, the future of his vision remains uncertain – particularly because many of the benefits of urban trails depend on a connected network, rather than leaving disjointed sections scattered across the city.
“Bike infrastructure throughout Rhode Island is just kind of spaghetti thrown at a wall that doesn’t make up the whole dish,” said Liza Burkin, organizer for the nonprofit Providence Streets Coalition, one of the big supporters of the Great Streets plan. “They’re just lines on the map.”
Elorza is confident the plan will continue to take shape after he’s left City Hall.
“There will always be ongoing work, maintenance, improvements that can be made,” he said. “The greatest contribution we have made through the Great Streets plan is integrating this thinking into every aspect of city operations, from our planning and parks department to public works.”
Yes, there’s little to stop the next administration from reversing course, diverting taxpayer money elsewhere and removing existing bike lanes, but Elorza believes the ideas behind Great Streets have the support of most city residents.
Seventy percent of Providence voters surveyed in a June 2021 poll by national nonprofit People for Bikes said they would like to bike more often, while half cited concerns with worsening car traffic and congestion. Most of the 500 residents surveyed were still unfamiliar with the Great Streets plan, but 86% expressed “strong or moderate support” when presented with information about it.
Elorza cited this data, as well as national studies, as evidence of the growing movement behind urban bike lanes, but the city had no numbers of its own before starting its draft plan in 2019. Elorza did not see this as a problem, citing general “consensus understanding,” as well as feedback from voters during his 2018 reelection campaign.
“Traffic-calming and speeding came up overwhelmingly as the No. 1 issue,” Elorza said. “People understand that cars are just flying too fast.”
The Great Streets document details a public input process based on 12 neighborhood meetings in the spring of 2019, during which 180 residents shared comments incorporated into the final plan. Hope Street was one of the most-requested segments during that public comment period, prompting the city to add the East Side neighborhood to the plan when it was not originally included, according to Martina Haggerty, the city’s specific projects director.
Other streets were chosen based on safety and traffic concerns, accessibility and access, and residential and business density.
But Eric Bilodeau, president of the Hope Street Merchants Association, was skeptical that enough people got a chance to weigh in.
“For a city of this size, [180 comments] doesn’t tell me the community was involved that much,” Bilodeau said. “In fact, it tells me quite the contrary.”
Bilodeau, who emphasized his views do not represent the merchants association, says he’s unsure of the need for or benefits of the two-way protected bike lane planned for Hope Street, but he feels certain the city’s outreach was lackluster, at best.
The city’s attempts to notify the public about upcoming projects have been a source of complaints. Mistakes were made, especially early on, Elorza acknowledges.
A 3.2-mile pedestrian and cycling track around Roger Williams Park built in 2017 – the first designated bike lane under Elorza’s administration – sparked petitions by angry residents worried about changes to traffic patterns.
Two years later, the lanes on Eaton Street, built ahead of schedule to coincide with other construction work, angered neighbors and City Councilwoman Jo-Ann Ryan, who were surprised when the painted lines and bollards suddenly appeared, shrinking the space dedicated to car traffic. The backlash led the city to remove the lanes.
Ryan says she’s not against bike lanes but felt the community input was lacking.
“It seems like there’s just a hasty rush to get the lanes in, and the feeling is, once they’re in, people will get used to it,” Ryan said. “That’s not the way great cities are built.”
Elorza has persisted.
Beyond the 180 comments added to the draft of the Great Streets plan, the city has continued with meetings, door-to-door canvassing and mailed notices to area property owners before individual projects begin.
Officials note that after business owners sought to stop the half-mile stretch of bike lanes along South Water Street last year, the city amended the design. The city didn’t add raised speed bumps and adjusted the bike lanes adjacent to key loading docks.
“We realized it was not just a matter of doing the right thing but also the process of getting there,” Elorza said.
[caption id="attachment_393524" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]
SELF-POWERED:
Liza Burkin, organizer for the Providence Streets Coalition, makes use of new bike lanes on the Clifford Street bridge over Interstate 95. Burkin has been a leading advocate for the city’s bike infrastructure. PBN PHOTO/
ELIZABETH GRAHAM[/caption]
WORTH IT?
An October review by the city of South Water Street – which is adjacent to a riverfront park – showed that motor vehicle speeds had been reduced by an average of 27% since the bike lanes were added. And so far, predictions of long traffic backups at rush hour haven’t materialized, according to Bristol Maryott, owner of Jala Studio Yoga & Art LLC.
Maryott, who stopped short of signing the petition seeking to halt the project, still worries traffic will worsen when pre-pandemic commuting habits return.
Street parking, always troublesome to find for studio clients, has also suffered, with loading zones formerly on South Water Street now taking up parking spaces near Maryott’s South Main Street studio. Meanwhile, the two-way bike lane remains largely empty, save for a few scooter riders and cyclists hearty enough to brave the winter temperatures.
How much the 33 miles of existing bike lanes are being used is unclear.
The city has installed counters to monitor use, but officials say there’s not enough data yet to show any substantial changes in usage. Whether the city has gotten any initial return on the $8.3 million it has allocated on Great Streets thus far depends who you ask.
Audrey Finocchiaro, co-founder of The Nitro Cart LLC, said she sees more backpack-laden cyclists on bike lanes in front of Nitro’s Broadway location at Dash Bicycle Shop on weekday mornings – presumably commuting to work or school.
But on Hope Street, cyclists are scarce, according to Clark, who could only recall seeing a bike in the rack outside her storefront once or twice in the last five years. She doubts the two-way bike lane proposed to replace parking along one side of the business district would change that, at least not in a way that would help any time soon. “In the 10 or 15 years it’s going to take for them to come, we’re all going to be out of business,” Clark said.
The Providence Streets Coalition is planning a one-week demonstration Hope Street project in the spring. Burkin touts the benefits of these creative outreach efforts to help win over skeptics such as Clark.
But putting on a demonstration project for all 78 miles of projects is logistically and financially impossible. What could more realistically help ease the path is a greater emphasis on the economic benefits of a more-accessible and safe city.
“When we’re communicating to the general public, we’re focusing on the top priorities of the city, which are safety, access and sustainability,” Burkin said. “Sometimes the bottom line of business gets kind of missed in that.”
A 2021 meta-analysis published in Transport Reviews found that bike and pedestrian infrastructure projects across the U.S. and Canada benefited or had no impact on area retail and food businesses. The only businesses that potentially suffered were auto-centric ones such as gas stations and repair shops, according to the study.
Cyclists are often more connected to their community and more likely to spend their money in local shops, Burkin says.
“If you ride a bike, you don’t drive out to Market Basket and do a two-weeks-worth shopping trip,” she said. “You go to [the local co-op market] every other day.”
[caption id="attachment_393529" align="aligncenter" width="816"]
PEDALING PATHS: Here’s what bike infrastructure is already in place in Providence, where construction started last year,
and what’s slated for construction this year. SOURCE: PROVIDENCE PLANNING DEPARTMENT | ILLUSTRATION: PBN/ANNE EWING[/caption]
CYCLING CUSTOMERS
A walkable and bikeable city can make it more desirable to outsiders, too.
Charlie Adams, regional vice president for Philadelphia developer Pennrose LLC, said the company’s interest in constructing an apartment building on vacant land in the I-195 Redevelopment District was partly fueled by its location close to offices, stores and recreation spots. Indeed, plans for the first phase of the project on Parcel 9 call for 66 apartments, with just 25 parking spaces and an indoor bike storage area.
“People are looking to go get goods and services right out their front door more and more,” Adams said, adding that reduced parking and amenities such as bike racks and bus shelters are being incorporated into company projects across the region.
Smaller organizations are embracing cycling culture, too. Farm Fresh Rhode Island opened its new Sims Avenue facility in 2020, complete with bike racks, repair tools and pumps, and a shower for workers who wanted to cycle to work. An unprotected lane already ran past the property along Kinsley Avenue.
Jesse Rye, Farm Fresh’s co-executive director, said accommodating employees who bike was the main focus, but the organization saw the benefits of attracting cycling customers as well.
“Bicycle traffic is additive to a business,” he said. “You are bringing in customers who aren’t taking up parking spots or contributing to vehicle traffic.”
And companies who have come out against the city’s bike lanes risk alienating cycling enthusiasts.
Daria Brashear, an avid cyclist who uses her bike rather than her car as much as possible, said she has stopped frequenting any businesses that publicly opposed city bike lanes and urged friends to do the same.
“If someone asks me where to go for vegan food, you can bet I won’t say Plant City,” Brashear said, referring to the popular South Water Street restaurant and food hall, which was among the opponents to the project.
The owner of Plant City did not return multiple inquiries for comment.
Isenberg is less condemning. He could empathize with the small-business owners worried about losing their livelihoods, but he was confident in the city’s vision and hopeful the critics’ objections would fade as they saw the plan come to life.
“I am definitely going to use as much as I can,” he said of the city’s bike network. “I think we as cyclists have a responsibility to really take advantage of it, to do it in all seasons and to take the bull by the horns. It’s an incredible luxury.”
Nancy Lavin is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Lavin@PBN.com.
Bikes are for parks.
Cars are for roads.
Stop Elorza’s CRAZY bike-lane plan. It will destroy small business. If people near Hope Street want to ride a bike, they have the entire Blackstone Boulevard to do so WITHOUT interrupting small businesses by taking away critical parking spaces.
WHEN, OH WHEN will Providence become PRO-BUSINESS rather than pro-left-wing loudmouths?