Less daylight and cold weather doesn’t have to mean less time on the bike. 1) Embrace the weather It’s coming and there’s nothing we can do to stop it so let’s get out there and enjoy it. Experience those frosty views with a cold breeze on your face, raindrops on the end of your nose and the warm buzz of warming up afterwards. 2) Weather proofing You don’t need fancy biking gear to ride all year round. Layering is key. A warm base layer, mid-layers and a waterproof/wind resistant jacket will do it. Rain pants work well, a hat under your helmet, warm socks and gloves and you’re good to go. 3) Speed and conditions Winter roads often mean wet roads. Slick, greasy, dirty roads mean less traction. Slow down sooner and be even more aware of the road ahead. If you don’t have fenders yet, they could be your best friend in wintery conditions. Block out that salt, sand and dirt from the roads and protect your bike from the elements. 4) Get lit Having lights with you at all times also relieves the worry that you will get caught in the dark during shorter days. Headlights: Handlebar mounted headlights can be USB rechargeable or run on batteries. There’s a range of brightness, and settings that are steady and flashing. Many cyclists use a flashing front light during the daytime for increased visibility. Bike shops can help you choose the best light based on how and where you ride. Light up your helmet: A front helmet light sends light whichever way you look. Smart! Rear light: Many cyclists use red blinking lights throughout the day to be more visible as cars approach from the rear. Rear lights can be mounted on fenders, seat posts, seat stays, racks, or saddlebags. Reflective Vest or Jacket: Reflective material increases visibility exponentially and can make cyclists much more obvious on the road at night. In fact, highly reflective material can be far brighter even than the bike lights. Be careful – brightly colored clothing is not the same as reflective. Bright clothing may be highly visible in the daylight, but no different from any other color at night. Be sure that nightwear is reflective. 5) Check your bike Don’t forget the simple ABC Bike Check. Read more on how to check your air, brakes, cranks and chain. Give your bike a regular look over, and try and wash off the accumulated grime regularly. Check for wear on rims and brake blocks, as wet weather can be particularly harsh on these areas. And don’t forget to come to Bike Newport’s Open Bike Garage nights and learn how to take care of your bike, get advice and make any winter tweaks to your bike you need. See you there! Mon, Wed & Thurs 4.30 – 7pm and Saturday 1-4pm – 62 Broadway, Newport. 02840 The post Tips for riding through the winter appeared first on Bike Newport.
Southeast and Islands - Bristol and Newport County
Biking is a Solution. Here’s Why:
Originally posted here: Biking is a Solution. Here’s Why:
Vote Yes on 6!
Bike Newport is one of a number of organizations throughout the state promoting and advancing the vital $35 million statewide Green Economy Bond. Voting Yes on 6 supports a healthier Rhode Island, provides resources to improve our parks, bikeways, and other recreational areas; preserves green spaces; and helps to clean up waterways and contaminated land for redevelopment. Of these funds $10 million is dedicated to expanding the state’s bikeway network. These investments connect people with nature and opportunity, enhancing quality of life, public health, and tourism.
Be sure to vote for this measure and invest in Rhode Island’s greatest strength–our natural assets!
The Green Economy Bond is supported by over 24 cities and towns and several organizations listed here.
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Dreaming Bike-Friendly is Easy. Building Bike-Friendly is Hard.
2015 has been a banner year!
Bike Newport continues to gain traction on the roads, in the community, and around the region. Our “By the Numbers” card details exciting progress: more bike education, more bike infrastructure, and more bike riders. That’s the Bike Newport story – MORE and BETTER bicycling.
No matter why you ride, or even if you don’t ride, you’ll love the community we’re working to create. A bike-friendly Newport will also be a kid-, pedestrian-, elder-, business-, and environment-friendly Newport. Newport will be a better community for motorists, as well. We’re working to educate all road users about safety – better bicyclists, better pedestrians, and better motorists.
Our efforts are all based on a three-part promise of more and better infrastructure, education, and ridership:
On the road to this bike-friendly vision, we’re working toward more bike lanes, more bike parking, better bike routes, better bike education, better road sharing, and, yes, dedicated bike paths on Aquidneck Island – starting with the First Mile. We will hold our course until we have connected the North End with the center of town, and we have afforded our residents and visitors a healthful and enjoyable way to arrive in Newport walking and biking. That First Mile of bike path will be one more step on the path to a bikeable and walkable island – for transportation and for recreation. We can do this – with your help. We can hold our course and continue to strengthen our partnerships, deepen our traction, and advance our progress.
Please support us today. Because dreaming bike-friendly is easy. But funding bike-friendly is hard.
Every contribution helps! Donations are tax-deductible.
Contributions over $50 will receive a free Bike Newport 2016 membership.
Join us, visit us, be part of the action.
Take a class, rescue a bike, come for a community ride, share your road knowledge, mark the maps, teach a kid to ride or to keep her tires inflated, help park some of the 3,369 bikes at the Folk Festival! Stop by our HQ at 437 Broadway any time and say hello. Grab a Newport Bike Map and a Commuter Guide while you’re here. Visit our Bike Garages and get a tour of the inventory, learn a little about wheel truing from an expert, or how to fix a flat from a recent basic bike maintenance graduate. Bear witness to the crowd of kids circling Miantonomi Park on Bike Library bikes.
We need your help to make it all happen! To keep us in the saddle and at the tables where decisions are made. We need your help to keep the doors open to our Bike Library, the tools busy at our Bike Garages, the routes shared in our Bike Map, the spotlight on local and statewide Bike Plans, and funding for safer on-road biking as well as multi-use paths.
If you have ideas, questions, feedback, please reach out to us. Our email is info@bikenewportri.org. Our phone number is (401) 619-4900.
Explore this website – it’s chock full of great information, maps, and resources.
THANK YOU! For your support, and for being part of Bike Newport.
Bike Newport Board:
Dawn Euer, Chair; Allison McNally, Vice Chair; Don Jagoe, Treasurer; Laura Murphy, Secretary; Sarah Atkins, Renee Kaminitz, Peter Harty, James Ryan, Chip Young
Bike Newport Staff:
Bari Freeman, Executive Director; Mark Chesterton, Director of Education; Liza Burkin, Program Manager
The post Dreaming Bike-Friendly is Easy. Building Bike-Friendly is Hard. appeared first on Bike Newport.
The Ten Year Plan and the Next TIP
Photo: Gus LeSaffre on Sakonnet Bridge Bike Lane / by David Hansen, Newport Daily News
On Friday, 10/23/15, RIDOT released the much-anticipated Ten Year Plan –a body of recommendations for statewide transportation priorities. The Ten Year Plan makes recommendations for the TIP.
The Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP) is the list of transportation projects that the state intends to implement. It is overseen by Rhode Island’s federally-mandated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) – the State Planning Council.
Here’s what we can so far expect from both documents:
The RIDOT Ten Year Plan
RIDOT’s Ten Year Plan makes recommendations for priority projects and budgets. The Plan provides scenarios both with and without Rhode Works, the proposed funding plan that introduces truck tolls, specifically to increase funds for bridge repairs.
The Ten Year Plan is asset management focused, and dedicates early funds to urgent bridge repairs in response to the severely compromised condition of the state’s bridges.
With the limited exception of bridges that include both bikes and cars, the Ten Year Plan addresses bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure in two general line items –
$129.7M is budgeted for Transportation Alternatives that include bike, pedestrian, Safe Routes to School, recreational trails, and retrofit sidewalks to meet ADA requirements.
$5M is recommended for incentives to choose transportation alternatives such as transit passes, vanpools, bike opportunities, and employer incentives.
The TIP (Transportation Improvement Plan)
The current TIP for years 2013-2016, expires in September 2016.
The next TIP will serve years 2017-2025, with proposed annual reviews and updates.
The invitation to submit applications for the next TIP will be released soon.
Applicants will be alerted as to which projects from the prior TIP have been resubmitted by RIDOT and which projects will need to be resubmitted by an applicant.
As no bike projects are specifically detailed in RIDOT’s Ten Year Plan and therefore are not resubmitted by RIDOT, all bike projects from the previous TIP will have to be resubmitted by the applicants, even if they were identified as high priority.
Applicants will receive guidance in public workshops and from staff at the Statewide Planning Program.
Each applicant organization and/or community will RANK priorities for their municipal area, including RIDOT’s recommended projects, along with the new and resubmitted projects included in their application.
There will be a public process to review all projects submitted.
Bari Freeman, Bike Newport’s Executive Director, is a member of the state’s Transportation Advisory Committee (TAC), a key advisory group participating in the development of the TIP. She has requested that the RESUBMIT process be spelled out very specifically in all correspondence and in the Application Guide so all stakeholders are fully aware that bicycle infrastructure projects from the previous TIP must be resubmitted.
Again, the Ten Year Plan can be viewed, downloaded, and searched HERE.
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Be Your Own Best Defense.
(above graphic: www.looksavealife.com)
Two pedestrians died this week in Newport – in two separate incidents – both were hit by cars while crossing in a marked crosswalk. Robert Silvia, 56, was in his wheelchair crossing Memorial Blvd. Sharon Gerlach, 58, was crossing Bellevue Avenue in front of the shop she has co-owned with her sister for 32 years. Our hearts and prayers are with their loved ones.
While total traffic deaths nationwide are decreasing, the numbers of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths are increasing. This statistic can be attributed to many factors combined – more people walking and cycling, conditions at the moment, as well as increasingly distracted behaviors by motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. We are off-season at the moment, but it is highly relevant that in Newport we experience the added complications of high-season tourism – visitors on holiday, excited, confused, distracted, and unaware of local ordinances.
Newport’s pain is felt in cities across the country – 2013 saw record-breaking numbers of pedestrian fatalities in Tucson and San Jose, while in NYC there were seven pedestrian deaths in the first 12 days of 2014.
The most important thing we can do in the wake of these tragedies is to be aware and pay attention – in our cars, on our feet, and on our bicycles. As drivers, we need to keep our eyes on the road. As cyclists and pedestrians, we must pay attention, and we MUST not assume that we are seen. We must be in the habit of making eye contact before trusting a stop sign or crosswalk to protect us.
Ultimately, we are all our own best defense. Be aware, vigilant, visible and predictable.
Please pledge to follow, model and teach these common sense rules of the road – regardless of circumstance, mood, or condition. Review these practices with the young people in your life. In this way, we can prevent more tragedies.
Motorists:
Expect and respect cyclists on the road.
Leave plenty of room when passing cyclists and pedestrians – at least three feet.
Approach crosswalks with extra caution. Expect pedestrians to use crosswalks.
Never use a cell phone or other device while driving. It can wait!
Be prepared for all driving conditions. If it’s sunny, wear sunglasses. If it’s icy, check brakes and tires. Adjust your speed to the conditions, including slowing down to the speed you need for control and visibility in ice, rain, snow, fog and sun.
Never honk at cyclists.
Be attentive and focused.
Foster a better relationship among all road users by being considerate, friendly, and polite.
Pedestrians:
Pay attention. Make eye contact.
Don’t use your cell phone while crossing the street and avoid dulling your perceptions with headphones.
Look up and make eye contact with drivers.
Do not assume that cars will stop even when you are in the crosswalk.
Enter the street only once you are certain that the car is stopping.
Foster a better relationship among all road users by being considerate, friendly, and polite.
Cyclists:
Follow the rules of the road. Always ride in the SAME direction as traffic.
Ride on the right side of the road as far to the right as practical and safe.
Do NOT ride in the door zone. Check cars as you approach them to avoid any possibility of being hit by a suddenly opening door.
Ride single file when on narrow, curvy, and busy roads.
Be as visible as possible to traffic – wear reflective gear and proper lighting in the dark.
Communicate with the drivers on the road – use hand signals.
Make eye contact whenever possible before turning or crossing in busy traffic.
Understand and obey the laws regarding stopping and yielding at stop lights and stop signs, which are, in Rhode Island, the same for cyclists as for motorists.
Wear a helmet on every ride, not just in group rides and races.
Foster a better relationship among all road users by being considerate, friendly, and polite.
Bike Newport is working with all stakeholders to make every effort to improve the safety and education of all road users. Both Deanna Casey (Board Chair) and Bari George (Executive Director) sit on the newly formed Newport Bicycle and Pedestrian Commission. Additionally, Bike Newport works closely with the Highway Safety Program of the RI Department of Transportation on the statewide Vulnerable Road User Safety Action Plan currently in progress. This statewide project uses Newport as the model and pilot for statewide recommendations.
We welcome your comments, suggestions, and participation as we work to improve both the frequency and safety of cycling – and walking – in Newport. All are invited to attend our monthly Community Meeting, which takes place from 8:00 – 9:00 am in our office at 435 Thames St. on the second Tuesday of each month.
Please also remember that we offer FREE Smart Cycling workshops to any group of 8 or more – tailored to all ages and abilities. For more information, please contact Bike Newport at (401) 619-4900; or email info@bikenewportri.org.
Look both ways before crossing. Ride safe. Ride happy. Ride!
The post Be Your Own Best Defense. appeared first on Bike Newport.
RhodeMap RI with a Bike/Ped Twist
RI residents have an opportunity to shape the state’s future through Rhode Map RI, a project that began in early 2013.
Join Bike Newport on Jan. 30 for a discussion with local and state officials on how to build a community that will accommodate and nurture Rhode Island’s future growth while protecting its natural and cultural resources, focusing on bicycle and pedestrian issues in Newport.
When: Thursday, Jan. 30, 5:00 – 8:00 pm
Where: Newport Police Department, 120 Broadway
Hosted by: RhodeMap RI and Bike Newport.
Invite your friends to the Facebook event to give everyone with bicycle and pedestrian interest the opportunity to join this tailored discussion.
The post RhodeMap RI with a Bike/Ped Twist appeared first on Bike Newport.
Washington Bridge (George Redman) Linear Park – Update
Latest update from RIDOT on progress of the George Redman Linear Park upgrades: We’re currently installing the new bridge deck, starting at the East Providence side and working west.
Central (White Church) Bridge, Barrington – Update
Many cyclists riding through Barrington are familiar with the White Bridge. If you’ve ridden through the area in the last few weeks, you’ve undoubtedly noticed that RIDOT is working on the bridge. Here is a quick update we received from RIDOT on the work being done: Crews will begin demolition of the existing bridge.… read more
George Redman Linear Park Update
We received an update on the George Redman Linear Park from RIDOT today. Some highlights: They anticipate having the decking, arches, and columns on the Washington Bridge completely demolished by the end of this month. Concrete placement for the new decking is already underway The right lane at Exit 4 (Tauton Ave/Veteran’s Memorial Parkway) on… read more
Providence Park(ing) Day Noontime Bike Ride!
This Friday marks a very special event in our state capital – Park(ing) Day is an annual global event where artists, designers, activists, and citizens transform metered parking spots into temporary public parks. The Rhode Island Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and Transport PVD have helped to organize the inaugural Park(ing) Day in Providence, where 35 “parklets” will occupy parking spaces outside businesses throughout the city.
From the Downtown Providence Blog:
“On Friday, September 20th, you’ll get a chance to linger within temporary 170-square foot on-street enclaves. As part of PARK(ing) Day, an annual world-wide event that raises awareness about the need for pedestrian-friendly spaces within urban environments, 35 parking spots will be redesigned as small public parks. The rule for the day is: if you can park a car in it, you can have a park in it.”
We at Bike Newport are thrilled to be participating in the festivities by leading a mini-bike tour of the parklets in Providence’s West Side and Downcity neighborhoods. We will leave from Saint John’s Park at Atwells & Vinton Streets at 12 PM. The route will be relatively slow, and will take about one hour to complete. As always, helmets are required to be a part of the ride.
Here’s a map of the route:
Hope to see you there!
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Public Workshop – Bristol/Warren National Grid Public Easement Feasibility Study
The Towns of Warren and Bristol have partnered to study the feasibility of a trail (biking, walking or both) on the National Grid Easement from Child Street in Warren to Tupelo in Bristol. This path, if found feasible, would offer neighborhoods in Warren and Bristol a pedestrian link off of Metacom Avenue and create access… read more