Nobody’s against the idea of people riding bikes down Island Park, but there are still outstanding issues here.”

Tom Casselman, Island Park resident

We went to great pains this year, not only going door to door with the notification and the letters, but we also prepared lamented maps and instructions to specific restaurants so they would be less impacted.”

Chris Barker, Bike Newport

PORTSMOUTH — Something was distinctly missing from a two-mile stretch of Park Avenue, Point Road and Hummocks Avenue between 9 a.m. and noon on Saturday: motor vehicles.

Kids, grownups and a few pets had the whole road to themselves as they pedaled, walked or ran during the Sakonnet Coastal Bike and Stroll hosted by Bike Newport and the Island Park Preservation Society.

It was the town’s fourth event just for cyclists and pedestrians. In what was billed as a first for Aquidneck Island, people pedaled and walked along a long stretch of Middle Road in 2018 and 2019 during Bike Newport’s “Farm-to-Farm” Bike Ride. After the pandemic, it moved down to Island Park and the Hummocks last year.

One of the major goals of the event was to get people thinking more about bike-friendly lanes on public roads, said Bari Freeman, founder and executive director of Bike Newport, a nonprofit that advocates for road infrastructure that supports safe travel for pedestrians and cyclists.

“I have had the most amazing conversations with people who are very interested in bicycle infrastructure projects on Aquidneck Island,” said Freeman, who was stationed with other Bike Newport representatives under a tent at Sunset Cove. “They’re interested in understanding what can be done, and how people can be involved. 

“There’s a conversation I had with a family, where the father said he wanted to ride his bike to work, the mother said she wanted to ride her bike to work, and the kids said they wanted to ride their bikes to school. All of them lived in Amsterdam before and they were used to doing that, but they won’t do it here because they don’t feel safe. That’s the story, that’s the narrative — that we need to make it possible for people to get to short distances by biking and walking because people want to, and they can’t.”

That’s what Ride Island, an initiative to advance and support active transportation on Aquidneck Island, is all about, she said.

“The answering to reducing traffic congestion is reducing cars,” said Freeman. “The space we have is enough for (everyone), but we just have to re-orient ourselves around the distribution of the road and we have to give people the opportunity to get out of their cars sooner.”

Not everyone was happy with closing down Park Avenue to motor vehicles for three hours. Island Park resident Tom Casselman reiterated concerns he made last year, that the shutdown was an inconvenience to residents as well as local businesses.

“Nobody’s against the idea of people riding bikes down Island Park,” said Casselman. “But there are still outstanding issues here.”

Casselman said it wasn’t right that delivery services had no access for three hours (“They see barricades and just turn around,” he said), or that restaurants potentially lost revenue because customers found it difficult to access their businesses.

Although Bike Newport reached out to those in the neighborhood before the event, others still had no idea, he argued. “It doesn’t help all the people who come down to Island Park on the weekend,” he said, pointing out that many are from Massachusetts. “Those people never got the flyers.”

Bike Newport, he said, wasn’t aware of all the issues Island Park has been dealing with, “when we feel we’ve been put upon, with no voice.”

Instead of closing the entire road to vehicle traffic, Casselman suggested a separate travel lane for pedestrians and bikers, so that motor vehicles could still access the road. 

Bike Newport told him that would take away from the experience, he said. “The attitude was, we want what we want and nothing’s going to change,” said Casselman.

Not the same

Chris Barker, Bike Newport’s development director, said separate corridors for bikes and cars wouldn’t be the same.

“You can’t replicate the feel of a full open road with just a lane. It’s not the same level of relaxation for parents with children,” Barker said.

He said this year, Bike Newport did its best to address concerns raised over the 2023 event.

“We reached out to all the delivery services we could — UPS, USPS and FedEx — and informed them of the routes and made sure they knew there was still access of all the side streets of Island Park,” Barker said. “We went to great pains this year, not only going door to door with the notification and the letters, but we also prepared lamented maps and instructions to specific restaurants so they would be less impacted. We delivered to Graziano’s (501 Café) a specialized laminated sheet that showed the route that their regulars could use to go from Mason to street parking on Cedar and just walk across the street. We listened last year to any concerns that were raised and we did our best to adapt to those.”

Barker said anyone who still has concerns about the event should reach out to him (chris@bikenewportri.org).

Increased turnout

Along Park Avenue on Saturday, there were nothing but happy faces. 

“This is amazing,” said Barker. “Turnout is stronger than it was last year. Last year it was around 400. I don’t have a count yet for this year, but I’m guessing it’s higher.”

In front of Localz restaurant, co-workers Michelle Arsenault and Jenn Alix turned heads, as they were dressed in full pirate regalia.

“We just wanted to storm the place and make an impression; that’s what I always like to do,” said Arsenault, the restaurant’s general manager. “We put up a lemonade stand and put out pirate booty, with the four of us dressed like pirates. Hopefully next year, everyone will dress like pirates. It will be so much fun.”

John Vitkevich, one of the event organizers, was hanging out by the art creation station close to Localz, where younger riders were invited to stop and draw on the pavement with chalk.

“What an awesome day, what an awesome event,” Vitkevich said. “I can’t thank enough the people from Bike Newport and the Island Park Preservation Society.”

He also had kind words for the R.I. Department of Transportation, a group he has been known to criticize from time to time.

“They called me at 6:30 this morning to say they were going to take advantage and send the street-sweepers down. That’s why the curbs are all nice and clean,” Vitkevich said.

“It’s a great event, and it’s getting bigger and bigger every year.”

The event was sponsored by BankNewport, Sunset Cove, Ocean State Air Solutions, Inc., Rail Explorers USA, The Bow Bar, Whipple Tree, and The Green Grocer.