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Middletown advances Safer Streets planning and adopts Vision Zero resolution
Summary
Town council heard a RIPTA-funded Safe Streets for All planning presentation, directed staff to finish a local safety action plan to seek federal implementation grants, and adopted a Vision Zero resolution committing to reduce fatal and serious-injury crashes.
Middletown’s Town Council received a presentation on a federally funded Safe Streets for All planning process and adopted a Vision Zero resolution committing the town to work toward eliminating fatal and serious‑injury crashes.
The council heard that Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) secured federal SS4A (Safe Streets for All) funding to develop municipal safety action plans; Tool Design is the consultant for the work on Aquidneck Island. Town Planner Ron Wolanski told the council the plan will identify high‑injury corridors and a portfolio of projects the town could pursue for federal implementation funding.
“The purpose is to significantly reduce and eliminate fatalities and serious injuries,” consultant Shauna Kitzman said, describing the federal program’s safe‑system approach and the central role of speed management. Kitzman, senior transportation planner with Tool Design, said the town’s draft analysis shows about 25 crashes that resulted in death or serious injury over the last five years and that community input repeatedly called out East and West Main Road, missing sidewalks, and poorly lit crossings.
Wolanski said the town has convened a local task force that includes public works, police and advocates and will finalize goals, performance measures and an action list this winter. He told the council the consultant intends to present a final plan for adoption in late winter or early spring so Middletown can apply for federal implementation grants under the same SS4A program.
After the presentation, the council voted to adopt a Vision Zero resolution placing the town on record in support of a goal to eliminate fatal and serious‑injury crashes within the next 10 years and to pursue the identified actions. Council members said they expect the plan to focus both on engineering (sidewalks, crosswalks, lighting) and on education and enforcement.
The consultant and staff emphasized the plan is meant to be iterative: the town will monitor crash data, track performance measures, and adjust strategies as projects are implemented and new data arrive.
The resolution and the presentation position Middletown to apply for USDOT implementation funding once the local plan is finalized and adopted.
