Following a conversation at the September full City Council meeting on what Cranston’s Traffic Safety Commission does, Councilwoman Nicole Renzulli invited Traffic Engineer Stephen Mulcahy and members of the Cranston Police Department to come before the Safety Services and Licenses Committee Monday to talk about the commission’s practicality. Both departments agreed the commission is unnecessary.

The city’s Traffic Safety Commission first met in January of 2015 and has been inactive for multiple years now. According to the City Charter, the commission's main function is to study citywide traffic issues and investigate remedies to alleviate speeding. Members advise the City Council and Mayor through periodic reports. The body would consist of 12 individuals, nine would be appointed by each council member and additional personnel from the administration and police department. 

Mulcahy is responsible for preparing staff reports that recommend or reject the appropriateness of traffic control devices. In these situations, he looks at the site, crash data, traffic data; his recommendations are based on the principles laid out by the Federal Highway Administration and included alongside ordinances where council members suggest putting in stop signs, parking restrictions or crosswalks.

Mulcahy said the issue of speeding comes down to human behavior.

“In the City of Cranston, we have an overuse of stop controls on residential streets,” said Mulcahy.

According to Mulcahy, overusing these controls generates disrespect for the signs; when motorists approach a stop sign in a residential area and see no opposing traffic, they may choose to ignore the sign.

He added that speed bumps in this region are impractical when dealing with snow and said emergency services are dramatically slowed.

“In a situation where minutes or seconds count, those obstacles in the roads really don't pan out,” Mulcahy said.

The council doesn’t always follow Mulcahy’s recommendations.

“I give recommendations in a formalized report to the council and on many occasions, they don’t adhere to the recommendations, so I’m not sure what purpose it would serve to have more people [on a commission],” Mulcahy said.

Mulcahy said there is not much diversity in Cranston’s roadway network and the situations they see are repetitive. Therefore, it makes sense for larger jurisdictions (Boston or New York City) with more complicated traffic issues to have a large, qualified group of people on a commission would make sense.

Mulcahy said most speeding occurs when individuals travel the same route every day. He said residents create a log of speeding cars by jotting down the street name, time of day, and snapping – all of which can be shared with police.

Councilwoman Aniece Germain questioned the feasibility of Mulcahy’s idea.

“Do you think every resident has the time to log this information?” said Germain.

The Safety Services and License Committee received a historical perspective from Cranston Police Department’s Captain Gerard Carnevale who was a member of the old commission. He said the commission met once a month and discussed residents’ concerns from the previous month and would go from there.

“It was too time consuming,” said Carnevale.

He said now, the process has been streamlined and the police department receives complaints by email and noting that “you can’t beat that speed.” Chief of Staff Anthony Moretti agreed that the commission would slow down responsiveness in acting upon traffic concerns.

The police department studies accidents, looking at data of where they happen and where the speeding is. The police department does have speed boxes which they place on utility poles that collect how fast individuals are going. Carnevale said the collected data usually shows cars going an average of 27 or 28 mph in a 25 mph zone.

He told council members to pay attention to how they drive and they’ll notice that the closer they are to their home, the faster they will drive. He added most accidents happen within a mile of their home.

Councilman Robert Ferri said he put the Traffic Safety Commission update on the September City Council meeting’s agenda, to raise awareness that the city had a commission and that council members were asked to appoint someone. The intention was to see if the commission would have a say in making recommendations to the council.

“I still feel the commission could offer recommendations to the city,” said Ferri, with four potential meetings a year.

Councilman John Donegan said he thought this commission was meant to give community members the opportunity to discuss their experiences with traffic and speeding and thinking of ideas to address that. He noted that speeding and traffic are one of the more common frequent issues heard about.

Attorney Stephen Angell said the traffic safety commission was superfluous – adding that the police and traffic engineer department’s testimony supports that theory.

Council President Chris Paplauskas suggested it would be worth looking at the city’s commissions and boards, to see which are defunct and no longer needed.