Welcome to Ride Island?
Blackstone Valley would be central part of ‘dream’ statewide bike path network
If you look at a map of the state’s existing bike paths, it looks like a series of discontiguous squiggles that fan out mainly from of a few major population hubs – Providence, the Central Falls-Pawtucket area and Woonsocket – with a few more broken strands around the fringes.
Add some new squiggles for bike routes that are in some pre-construction phase of development, from idea to design, and another image starts to emerge. It’s a map that looks more like a spider’s web, in which all the routes are interconnected, with unbroken lines that stretch all the way from Newport to the far reaches of Burrillville.
But this grid of interconnected bikeways crisscrossing the length of the state is more than just an imaginary map – it’s the dream of a coalition of activists who have banded together as Rhode Island Paths to Progress. And they were offering a bit of cautious applause this week after the House Finance Committee approved a budget that includes a $10 million down payment on turning the dream into a reality.
“Our group has worked over the last 13 months in supporting this vital effort to connect the entire state of Rhode Island in completing our state’s bikeway system,” said Robert D. Billington, president of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council and the chairman of Paths to Progress. “When approved by voters, the funding will begin to connect our bikeways to our state parks, from Westerly to Woonsocket, from Burrillville to Bristol and everywhere in between.”
Billington includes the caveat “when” in his remarks because the bikeway funding isn’t a done deal. It’s included as part of the “Green Economy Bond” that calls for $35 million in spending on seven initiatives in all. In addition to bikeway extensions; they include $4 million for historic state park development; $4 million for acquisition of state land; $10 million for brownfields remediation and economic development; $3 million for prevention of stormwater pollution; $3 million for local recreation grants and $4 million for open space grants to cities and towns.
To become available for spending, the Green Economy Bond must be approved as part of the state’s $9 billion budget by the General Assembly. Also, voters must approve the spending on a statewide referendum in November.
Billington says the ultimate goal of Paths to Progress is to have the Division of Statewide Planning adopt a master plan for connecting all of the bikeways in the state into one unified path with multiple legs. Such a system of alternate transportation would be a boon for recreation and tourism throughout the state, he says.
The coalition represents more than a dozen government agencies, tourism councils, policy advocates and bicycle clubs. They include the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission, Bike Newport, the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, Discover Newport, Charlestown Bike Committee, East Coast Greenway Alliance; Grow Smart RI, Ocean Community Chamber of Commerce, Providence-Warwick Convention & Visitors Bureau, Rhode Island Bicycle Coalition, South County Tourism Council, South Kingstown Healthy Places by Design, Women Bike RI and the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council.
AMONG THE eight bikeways in the state, one of the longest is the Blackstone River Bikeway, stretching 11.6 miles, roughly from Town Hall in Cumberland to Hamlet Avenue in Woonsocket.
But plans call for adding more than seven additional miles of the bikeway with extensions at either end, including several miles through Central Falls and Pawtucket. Several more would be connected to the Hamlet Avenue terminus in Woonsocket.
Woonsocket Special Projects Coordinator Joel Mathews said there are four unfinished segments that would pass through the city and North Smithfield. The earliest construction is slated to begin on any of them is 2017.
When they’re done, the Blackstone River Bikeway will link up with its counterpart in Massachusetts – the Blackstone River Greenway. Construction of a section running from the state line at Blackstone, through Millville and Uxbridge, is presently under way. But plans call for the Greenway to run all the way to Worcester.
Mathews says the city wholeheartedly endorses the Green Economy Bond because the fund would be used to advance projects included in the statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP), including the Blackstone River Bikeway.
At least two of the unfinished segments between Woonsocket and the state line call for the construction of new bike bridges.
“This money will help,” said Mathews. “There’s quite a bit of money needed to complete the design and quite a lot of money needed to build these segments.”
But Mathews says the bikeway is a worthwhile investment.
“We’ve seen tremendous use of the bikeways,” he says. “It will be a substantial benefit to the city as has been to other towns that bikeways go through. It’s been a big benefit to Barrington and Bristol, and we would expect the same in Woonsocket, if not moreso. Quite frankly, it’s a quality of life issue for the people of the city. I don’t know how many people have mentioned to me who use the bikeway and look upon it as a major asset that makes Woonsocket attractive to them. They enjoy it. So we’re trying to push the bikeway along as fast as we can.”
Billington, who promotes the region as director of the Pawtucketbased Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, carries out part of his chore on two wheels. An avid bicy- clist, Billington leads bicycle tours of the Blackstone River Bikeway every other weekend as a way of getting people to appreciate the river-based heritage of the region close-up.
From the perspective of the bikeway, it’s possible to get a bird’s-eye perspective on the dams, canal locks, and the remains of other infrastructure that helped harness the power of the Blackstone River and make the region the cradle of the nation’s Industrial Revolution.
There’s no question that tying all the disparate bikeways of the state together would be a boon for tourism- and recreation-based economic development, says Billington.
On its website, Rhode Island Paths to Progress touts also touts the plan for a statewide network of interconnected paths as a prescription for reduced vehicular traffic congestion, improved health and a cleaner environment. The group says bike paths could also help businesses land workers interested in certain kinds of recreational amenities.
“As the state seeks to attract more visitors to boost our economy, we must provide multimodal transportation options so that tourism does not add to traffic congestion on our roads,” the organization says. “When businesses choose where to locate, it’s not just about tax rates, but whether their employees will find the active transportation culture they want. To stay competitive, we must provide that.”
Given the chance to connect their bikeways, Billington says he believes most residents of the state would take it.
But it would be a long-term project, spanning many years and costing far more than $10 million.
Many of those dollars will be gobbled up by planning and engineering design studies, according to the tourism director. But he says it’s an important first step toward the long-term goal of creating a network of bicycle and recreational trails.
“The truth is if we’re going to connect all the bike paths in our state, from Westerly to Woonsocket, we’re going to need $100 million,” he says.