To the editor:

I read with interest — and disappointment — your story ("Bill amending bike path use heads to committee," eastbayri.com) about the bill proposed by Reps. Speakman and Spears to change the state’s laws about bike path use so that all users, on foot and on wheels, stay to the right instead of the current law where bikes stay to the right, pedestrians to the left.

I live in Barrington just two houses from the East Bay Bike Path. I use the path daily as I walk, run, and bike. I have biked in many regions of the U.S. and across Europe. This is the first place I’ve seen the bike right, walk left system — and I find it brilliant. As a walker or runner, I stay to the left and face any oncoming bicyclists. That way cyclists don’t surprise me by coming up behind me and they know it’s their responsibility to slow down to pass, not mine. As a bicyclist, I stick to my right lane and don’t have to call out to the walkers and runners that I pass to my left, because they stay in their lane and expect me to be on the right. Again, I find the system brilliant.

Central North Carolina, where I lived before moving here, has miles of nice bike paths but they are plagued by the common problem of speeding cyclists surprising — or worse, crashing into — pedestrians. I have recommended our system to bicycle advocate friends there. Yes, Rhode Island’s bike paths still have the lycra-clad cyclists who ride too fast for a greenway and the illegal e-bikers–on throttle bikes, not e-assist–who should travel on our roads instead of our bike paths. But the vast majority of trail users that I see daily follow the rules and co-exist nicely.

I would be sorely disappointed if Rhode Island changes its bike traffic law just because other states have different rules. Instead we should continue to offer a fine, innovative example for others to follow.

Lisa Watts
Barrington