By SANDY McGEE

CUMBERLAND — Residents of New Clark Road will soon see an end to their traffic woes, according to Town Councilor Mia A. Ackerman.
Ackerman, who represents the Cumberland Hill district, has been working with members of the Cumberland Police Department, Public Works Department and the mayor’s office to find a solution to repeated reports of excessive speeding by vehicles on New Clark Road.

Town officials and residents discussed the traffic issue for many months before agreeing that a “street choker” would be the best solution, according to the town councilor.
A street choker narrows a roadway in order to encourage drivers to decrease speeds.
The street choker on New Clark Road will reduce the width of one section of the road by adding curbing on each side of the street.
The section, located between Leonard Street and Bellevue Street, will reduce New Clark Road to a width of about 22 feet.
The length of the section reduced will be about 30 feet on one side and 40 feet on the other. The road will remain a two-way street.
“People will visually see it and slow down,” Ackerman said. “There has been a problem on New Clark Road for some time now. I have met with residents and have heard many shocking stories.”
The “shocking stories,” she said, include incidents of dogs being hit by cars and near misses of vehicles almost striking children.
The speed limit is 15 mph on New Clark Road, according to the town councilor, but traffic police have reported vehicles traveling more than double that speed.
The road is reportedly used as a shortcut to and from Cumberland High School for many drivers.
“These people on New Clark Road have waited a long time,” said Ackerman. “One couple said they waited 14 years for something to be done. People shouldn’t have to wait for someone to get injured before something gets done. I don’t want to wait for someone to get injured before I take some traffic calming measures.”
Construction of the street choker is estimated to only take a day to complete. Officials expect to begin construction before the summer, depending on weather conditions.
The cost of the street choker is estimated between $3,000 to $7,000, depending on materials. According to Ackerman, funds for the project are available in the traffic calming line item of the town’s 2007 to 2008 budget.
The town councilor is also advocating for some type of landscaping to adorn the sides of New Clark Road.
“I want it (the street choker) to look like it is part of the neighborhood,” she said.
According to Cumberland Police Chief John R. Desmarais, this will be the first street choker ever-constructed in town.
“We are proposing a new traffic-calming initiative that has never been done in Cumberland before,” Desmarais said in a recent press release.
According to the Institute of Transportation Engineers in Washington, D.C., street chokers are “preferred by many fire department and emergency response agencies to most other traffic calming measures.” Street chokers have been used locally in Providence and Warwick.
“We spent a great deal of time sitting with the police department and the traffic division to devise the best plan for this neighborhood,” Ackerman said. “We also sat down with the mayor. This was truly a joint effort.”