Editorial: Residents won't be able to drive through

Posted 12/8/16

The fact that Bristol’s roads are often congested — especially in the afternoon and during the summer tourism season — is no secret to anyone who’s ever driven in …

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Editorial: Residents won't be able to drive through

Posted

The fact that Bristol’s roads are often congested — especially in the afternoon and during the summer tourism season — is no secret to anyone who’s ever driven in town.

Residents who suffer through the daily mid-afternoon traffic jams on Hope Street certainly hope Bristol Zoning Board members at least occasionally steer their cars north of Chestnut Street at that time of day. If they do, there’s no way they would consider allowing a drive-thru Dunkin’ Donuts along that stretch.

The Zoning Board is scheduled to rehear a misguided proposal Monday that it has already postponed indefinitely because of concerns over traffic. Nothing has been done to allay those fears, yet the plan is back before the board, even though the traffic study the Town Council requested has yet to be done.

The council asked the state Traffic Commission to conduct the new study because the original provided by the applicant was woefully inadequate. For some reason — perhaps to attain the desired results — traffic engineers chose to perform their study early in the morning, during Bristol’s off-season. A Thursday morning in December is not exactly the right time to evaluate traffic in a town that attracts warm-weather visitors. And early morning is the exact wrong time to count cars in an area that is much more congested later in the day.

Despite this, Christopher Prazeres, who owns the existing Dunkin’ Donuts in Gooding Plaza, has proposed cramming a free-standing Dunkin’ with a drive-thru between the Defiance Fire Company and BankNewport, directly on the heavily congested Hope Street. Mr. Prazeres is well aware that a drive-thru will greatly increase traffic to his restaurant. In fact, that’s his stated goal for building the new store.

No one wants to hold his business back, but the frustration of drivers and the public safety impacts of overly congested roads  must be considered. Hope Street is simply the wrong location for the drive-thru that could be situated elsewhere in Gooding Plaza, perhaps on the eastern end near the Gooding Avenue entrance.

Fortunately, Zoning Board members have a chance to show they actually work for their constituents, and stand up for the interests of Bristol residents. Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear all on the board are interested in doing so. Board member David Simoes seemed to indicate he doesn’t believe a drive-thru would make the traffic problems worse. But since an adequate traffic study has not been done, he has no way to know that.

“They’ve got to realize they can’t condemn Dunkin’ Donuts when the traffic has nothing to do with it,” he said. “They’re making such a stink of it.”

You can bet they will continue to do so. Zoning Board members would be wise to listen to the concerns of the dozens who are sure to attend Monday night’s meeting. They should not issue a special use permit at least until a proper traffic study is performed.

Dunkin' Donuts, Bristol Zoning Board, Bristol traffic

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Jim McGaw

A lifelong Portsmouth resident, Jim graduated from Portsmouth High School in 1982 and earned a journalism degree from the University of Rhode Island in 1986. He's worked two different stints at East Bay Newspapers, for a total of 18 years with the company so far. When not running all over town bringing you the news from Portsmouth, Jim listens to lots and lots and lots of music, watches obscure silent films from the '20s and usually has three books going at once. He also loves to cook crazy New Orleans dishes for his wife of 25 years, Michelle, and their two sons, Jake and Max.