I do believe that if you build it, they will come.”

Charles Levesque, Portsmouth Town Council

Although it doesn’t seem additional road diets on East Main Road will happen any time soon, an island-wide plan has been endorsed by the Town Council as a guide toward improving safe biking networks.

After tweaking some of the original language, the council voted 6-0 on April 6 to approve a resolution that endorses “the use of the Ride Island Bike Plan as an advisory resource for guidance in the planning and redevelopment of transportation related infrastructure improvements in the Town of Portsmouth and the greater Aquidneck Island communities where consistent with the Comprehensive Community Plan and town ordinances.”

Ride Island, an initiative that advocates for a connected pathway network to allow for safe cycling and walking on Aquidneck Island, is led by Bike Newport along with Grow Smart Rhode Island, the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, and national active transportation experts at Toole Design. 

According to Ride Island, Aquidneck Island is perfect for a cohesive bike network since it’s relatively small — five miles wide and 15 miles long — but with many nearby destinations. About 80 percent of trips on the island are four miles or less, and more than 50 percent are two miles or less, according to Ride Island’s data.

Unfortunately, there are few places to safely ride a bike on the island as well as few walkable neighborhoods, the group says. Ride Island wants to change that by creating an island-wide network of paths for walking and biking. 

According to Bari Freeman, executive director of Bike Newport, Ride Island looked at the “accepted reports,” include the state Transportation Improvement Report, Comprehensive Transportation Management Plan, comprehensive land use plans of all three island communities, Bike Mobility Plan, the Transit Plan, and Newport’s North End Development Plan.

“Imagine taking all of the maps of the routes and ideas that have been discussed over the years and layering them up and shining a light through and seeing where the concentration of discussions were,” Freeman said.

Council member Daniela Abbott strongly supported the plan. “I feel that this is one of the important tools needed for us to even start talking about getting funding for some of these projects,” she said.

Council member David Gleason said East and West Main roads were “bad areas to target (for bicycles), and that’s my biggest concern about this report.” He said he was more interested in focusing on the roads that link East to West Main.

Questions safety on main routes

Another council member, Keith Hamilton, said the report leaves out a lot of important information, such as creating a rail trail.

“East Main Road and West Main Road, I don’t care what we do, are never going to be safe for bicycles,” Hamilton said. “We need to get people as far off those roads as possible. I used to have a paper route that went back and forth on East Main Road. I would not put a kid anywhere near that today.”

Freeman said those were good points, and the current plan is not “stagnant” to changes down the road. 

Council member Charles Levesque said something needs to be done to increase routes and safety for biking on the island.  

“I do believe that if you build it, they will come,” he said. “I’m tired of saying we can’t do something because it may turn out to be a problem, when we are already in the midst of a problem.”