I am recused from certain items regarding the East Greenwich Planning Board and the board’s biggest decisions over the past year, including the 400 units on Division Road and the Ridgeline Estate 39 condos. The former because I had an issue with the owners/developers Ned Capozzi/former Gov. Philip Noel and the latter because I am a direct abutter. I could speak on each but I could not vote. I did consult with the Board of Ethics on both. The Planning Board is an appointed board by the Town Council and only the Planning Board can sit on comprehensive plan permits.

However, I can still request info regarding these projects as a resident, so that’s what I did. I requested info regarding both projects regarding traffic. I also got my neighbor and a friend who lives in Tiverton (her local state roads) to request the same. Traffic is not part of the Planning Board’s decision-making process on the comprehensive permits. Planning boards may not use traffic concerns as a reason to deny comprehensive permits.

Division Road/Street (Route 401) is different. It is a state road and is managed by the state, not the town. The Rhode Island Department of Transportation manages the plowing during winter and the maintenance for the most part during other seasons. In order for a developer to get an egress onto Division Road, they must apply and receive permission from RIDOT. The above new developments all received RIDOT permission.

RIDOT accepts the traffic studies as provided by the developer as proof the road can handle more traffic. I have requested actual traffic studies from RIDOT because Division is not only used by East Greenwich residents, but also the bordering towns of West Greenwich, Coventry, West Warwick, and Warwick, as well as others traveling through. I can see (at least anecdotally) that our accident rate along the Division Road corridor is growing, especially during the summer months.

Despite the growth of homes and businesses on Division Street/Road and the area surrounding it, RIDOT cannot give any current traffic count. RIDOT’s response has always been that I need to ask the towns for their traffic studies (as done by developers). Yet, in order for a developer to get permission to create an egress onto Division, RIDOT uses a metric to make its decision. How does RIDOT decide what is an acceptable load and how does RIDOT know what developers are claiming as traffic impacts are correct if they do not have their own traffic count to verify?

The last publicly available traffic counts I can find on the RIDOT website are from 2016. Both Connecticut and Massachusetts DOTs have current (or almost current) counts on their websites for local state roads. One simply cannot find traffic counts for state roads on RIDOT’s website.

Last year I APRA’d traffic information from RIDOT and was denied. I appealed that decision and was denied by the director himself. I appealed to the attorney general’s office and was told that there is no provision in R.I. General Law or RIDOT itself that requires traffic counts. I have spoken to our General Assembly delegation and am working with them.

However, in the meantime, there are several potential developments coming to Division Road and the surrounding areas in Coventry and West Warwick. Without accurate information, how does the state know what is occurring on its roads? Meanwhile, the lack of sidewalks and bike lanes on state roads is truly disheartening, especially since East Greenwich has a growing population who have been asking for more alternative accessibility, not less.

While commenting on both of the above projects, I am reminded that comprehensive permits do not allow towns to use traffic as a means to deny. In fact, despite the fact RIDOT can show no improvements to any of our state toads, we must ignore those potential traffic concerns.

Meanwhile, Warwick also has parts of Division Road in that town and they have freely given egress to developers while East Greenwich has taken all of the load or more plainly, we get the traffic and headaches while Warwick gets the tax revenue. This also occurs on the western part of Division with West Warwick and West Greenwich. Between the hours of 3 and 5:30 p.m. East Greenwich’s intersection at Division Road and Route 2 is impassable. The improvements that RIDOT did on the bridge over Route 4 are years too late. The left-hand turning queue is not nearly long enough for the amount of traffic it handles. I sat on the traffic study for the town in 2006 at which time the Route 2/Division Road intersection was slated to fail by 2020. Now, according to RIDOT, with minor improvements, the intersection is OK to handle thousands more vehicles than previously envisioned.

East Greenwich and the state deserve better from RIDOT. Our RIDOT leader is too preoccupied with other failures to notice East Greenwich even though he spent an inordinate amount of time on our roads. East Greenwich has Route 2 (South County Trail), Route 401 (Division), Route 1(Main/Post), Route 4 and Route 402 (Frenchtown Road), all state roads, and the state has done nothing to lessen the burden placed on our town services.

We have had a pedestrian killed at the corner of Division and Route 2 because RIDOT does not even have crosswalks or adequate lighting at that corner, even though New England Tech has students crossing that area. We, along with other towns in this state, caring for state roads with little help from RIDOT should know why the agnecy is not keeping accurate traffic counts and not invested in alternative modes of transportation, including public transit and safety.

Renu Englehart is a member of the East Greenwich Town Council.