Tina Dolen announces traffic study

The Portsmouth Town Center project took a step closer to reality tonight, with the Town Council hearing good news from our local planning agency and an encouraging progress report from The Mayforth Group, the consultants developing the funding strategy.

Tina Dolen, the Executive Director of the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission, announced that they had secured $500K from RIDOT for a "holistic," island-wide traffic study.

"We made proposal to RIDOT to conduct a corridor study," said Dolen, "A comprehensive analysis of how traffic moves across this island, as well as making sure that it flows." And she promised that two items of interest to Portsmouth would be fast-tracked: the Town Center and the potential impact of Burma Road.

This was of particular importance, given that the first part of this evening's meeting was taken up with a protracted discussion of re-striping East Main Road. Not part of the Town Center per se, the item was continued from Monday night, since RIDOT was here. And Bob Smith, the Managing Engineer of road design, confirmed that this had the solid support of the DOT.

Citing the "success of the restriping of Turnpike Avenue," Smith described a reconfigured East Main Road that would be two 12-foot travel lanes, with a 12-foot center turning lane, and 2-foot shoulders. Not only would it be safer for pedestrians, who would have less live traffic lanes to cross, but it would help reduce the rear-end collisions which make up the majority of accidents on that stretch. And since it's just a matter of removing the current lane markings, it could be done fairly quickly.

Police Chief Lance Hebert spoke in favor of the proposal. "You can only enforce so much," he said, and added that when it comes to speed, "we are our own worst enemies." He stressed that more important than adding cops with radar was making the road safer through design, with wider lanes and better visibility. "I believe that this design will do that," he said.

There were a couple of notes of concern from local property owners about mail deliveries and the risk of collisions in the shared turning lane, which Smith addressed with descriptions of how similar roads work elsewhere. Tailgunner Gleason took the questioning in a bizarre direction. She zeroed in on the crosswalk at the foot of Patriot Drive, and argued that it should be blasted off the pavement ASAP.

"Let me ask you a real dumb question," said Gleason. "Do you need to do the job?" What she had in mind was sending sending our Portsmouth DPW out to take off the markings. Smith patiently explained that it was a bit more complicated — a bad grinding and paint job could actually make the markings more prominent at night. And Town Solicitor Kevin Gavin reminded her that East Main Road is actually a State Highway. "It's the state's duty," said Gavin. "We have to remember it is not the town's responsibility." Oh, good idea Ms. Gleason. Can you imagine the liability if the Town improperly removed a crosswalk and something happened there? Way to add value, Tailgunner.

The Council approved a resolution asking RIDOT to do further analysis, and Smith promised to come back in a month or two. Then the Council finally got to the Town Center.

Carol Dietz, the chair of the Town Center Committee, did a quick recap of the project and next steps. They have developed a web site, and are ready to got out with two RFPs, a design study of the look-and-feel (a "streetscape" study) and an analysis of the bike/walking path. Committee memeber John Corbishley talked about a visual identity program in partnership with local businesses to help build awareness and begin to mark the section of road as different, something that could help with traffic safety even before the potential start of construction in 2011. After some back and forth, the Council agreed to let the Town Center committee earmark $20K of their Federal grant money. But Councilor Peter McIntyre wasn't happy about it. "I have a problem with spending that kind of money for that purpose."

Also quite unhappy was Cheshire Kathy Melvin, who questioned whether there was any data to support the idea that businesses would be motivated to locate in the proposed area, and called the whole project "an idea limping from Federal grant to Federal grant."

But Town Administrator Bob Driscoll did not let that go unchallenged. "Fundamentally," he said, The Town Center project is a traffic safety project. The goal is to make East Main Road safe in what is a very dangerous location." The attractivness to business, said Driscoll, was a side benefit. "Once the idea got out into the business community, they realized that having traffic slow down would be better for businesses. You're looking at the effect and confusing it with the cause."

"Maybe I'm having a dense moment," said Melvin, "But how does a dense concentration of small businesses add to the safety of the traffic condition?"

I know she's heard the answer before, but Driscoll tried again. "People drive the speed they perceive as safe. Right now, when you drive down East Main Road there, you don't see Clements, you don't see Posh and Naughty, you don't get the visual clues to drive slowly."

"It's a roundabout way to get to traffic safety," Melvin responded, prompting widespread chuckles. It seemed to take Melvin aback for a second until she realized why people were laughing. Because the project has roundabouts, you see. Get it? Uh, anyway. After more discussion, the Council voted 6-1 to approve the earmarking for the identity program, with Gleason the lone holdout.

I'm going to skip Bob Gilstein's review of the data on roundabouts. If you haven't see it at one of the previous workshops, you can get the skinny at the Town Center site. (Wait for the movie to download. Takes a minute, but it's fun to watch.)

Rick McAuliffe, Mayforth Group

The last item on the agenda was a preview of the funding proposal developed for the Town Center committee by the Mayforth Group, an advocacy consulting firm with deep experience in both Providence and Washington, D.C. Okay. That's a euphemism.

"We are lobbyists," said Mayforth Group chairman Rick McAuliffe, "Hired to work on a plan to identify Federal, state, and private funding." And with VP Erin Donovan, he did just that, quickly walking the Council through the report they'll be handing over later this month.

Considering that the total outlay for the project may be as much as $15M by the time DOT begins work in 2011, knowing we have the support of our Congressional delegation, as McAuliffe confirmed tonight, will be key. "This is a high priority for them," he said, adding that they received strong support from Rep. Patrick Kennedy, and were pleasantly surprised by the interest and knowledge Sen. Whitehouse showed. "It was surprising how much he knew," said McAuliffe, adding that Whitehouse knew the color of some of the houses along that stretch of road.

In one example that shows how wide a net they're casting, McAuliffe described how they helped the committee apply for funding for Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality (CMAQ). "We made the argument that [the roundabouts] would mean cars not idling at a stop sign."

They are also working at the state level, where they are advocating legislation that would reduce the cost of relocating utility lines. "Rhode Island is the only state in the country where DOT pays the utilities. In every other state in the country, DOT tells the utilities and they pay for it." And, at a question from the Council, McAuliffe said it's not just shifting the burden to the ratepayers, since our bills are in line with Massachusetts and Connecticut.

McAuliffe also said that he received word from Senator Reed's office of plans for a stimulus package in September focusing on infrastructure projects like roads and bridges. Having that kind of program, said McAuliffe, "greatly enhances our opoortunity to get money this year."

Unfortunately, the Council was trying to wrap up the meeting, so McAuliffe didn't get a chance to go through all their slides, but did promise the report will be posted on the Town Center web site within two weeks.

It was a most impressive presentation. Even McIntyre was pleased, saying "We should have had YOU on first."

Agree completely. Having people in our corner like Mayforth, with their clear research skills and access are a must to put wheels on a project this big. And I know, there are probably some doubters out there who hear the word "lobbyist" and cringe. But remember: Lobbyists are only evil in the third person, as in "their lobbyists." In the first person, as in "our lobbyists," they are money in the bank. Literally. And that's just what we need to make this happen. Kudos to the Town Center Committee for hooking up with these folks.