Island bike path seen as boon for real estate

A NEW LANE: A rendering of the proposed bike path that would link Aquidneck Island’s communities. / COURTESY AQUIDNECK ISLAND PLANNING COMMISSION
A NEW LANE: A rendering of the proposed bike path that would link Aquidneck Island’s communities. / COURTESY AQUIDNECK ISLAND PLANNING COMMISSION

Bicycles and islands are a natural fit, but as anyone who has followed the fury over Sakonnet River Bridge tolls knows, Rhode Island’s largest island runs on cars.
For years, Aquidneck Island bicycle advocates have worked to make the Newport area friendlier to two-wheeled transport, touting it as relief from summer traffic, parking problems and sometimes fatal accidents.
With bicycle paths in other parts of the state extremely popular, Aquidneck cyclists have pushed for something similar, a Shoreline Bike path spanning the island.
Progress toward that goal has been minimal, until now.
This summer, the Aquidneck Island Planning Commission, supported by the R.I. Department of Transportation and funded with a $75,000 grant from the van Beuren Charitable Foundation, released a proposal for a transisland bikeway they hope marks a new era in Newport County cycling.
It will not be the dedicated, off-road bike path they have been pursuing.
For all but a small section, the new route will share existing roads with cars.
Creating a dedicated bike path, like the East Bay Bike Path or Blackstone Bike Path, remains outside the group’s resources and poses technical challenges.
But Planning Commission Chairwoman Tina Dolen said while she would have preferred to see the full “real” Shoreline Bikeway, the route now under consideration is the best alternative and builds momentum.
“It doesn’t have a direct progression to the Shoreline Bike Path,” Dolen said, “but takes advantage of more immediate opportunities to install a safe bikeway that serves recreational, environmental and commuting purposes while providing exercise and economic returns.”
Even though most of the work on the route will consist of erecting signs and painting new stripes on roadways, Dolen said it could take between two and four years to complete. The $75,000 committed to the bike route by the van Beuren Charitable Foundation will cover a feasibility study expected to be completed in one year before the plans can be finalized.
The Aquidneck Island Planning Commission has had a full 8-mile Shoreline Bike Path design on the books since 2004 that would follow a similar path along the Secondary Rail Line on the west shore.
But that plan is estimated to cost $25 million and is complicated by the fact that, unlike the East Bay or Blackstone, which follow the “rails to trails” model, the Aquidneck rail line is still in use (albeit not for transit) by the Old Colony and Newport Scenic Railway and Newport Dinner Train.
Still, optimism for the bike route on Aquidneck Island is high and extends to the real estate community, where agents see potential to market the path as an amenity.
“I do believe it would enhance the real estate for summer rental and purchase opportunities for people who enjoy biking,” said Lisa Morrison, an agent at Coldwell Banker Real Estate in Newport. “The fact that the island is pretty much flat and it is cooler by the ocean will attract families to bike here.”
Morrison added that her husband is an avid Aquidneck Island cyclist and she fears for his safety crossing Route 138 on long trips.
The bike route will run from Easton’s Beach in Newport through downtown and then swing along the west shore of the island to the Sakonnet Bridge, where it will cross over to Tiverton.
According to the preliminary plans, the route will feature a mixture of striped bicycle lanes, sharrows (symbols asking cars and bicycles to share the road) and one 1.2-mile stretch of new, dedicated path along the Newport Secondary Rail Line past Melville Marina in Portsmouth. It’s that stretch of dedicated path that will require most of the feasibility-study work, including environmental assessments of any impact on nearby Narragansett Bay.
The nonshared striped lanes involve a “road diet” narrowing the automobile lanes to help slow down traffic.
From Easton’s Beach, the current interim plan will follow new striped bike lanes up Memorial Boulevard and America’s Cup Boulevard to Washington Street, Third Street and JT Connell Highway, where it will use sharrows. From there, the route follows new lanes on Coddington Highway and sharrows on Lexington Street and Chase Lane before connecting with Burma Road at Naval Station Newport.
Burma Road is the longest stretch of the route and will be maintained by the Navy. After that is the 1.2-mile trail, and then back to sharrows and on-road lanes at Corys Lane, Old West Main Road and Bristol Ferry Road to the Sakonnet Bridge.
The bridge has been built with a sequestered bike lane and, unlike cars, bikes will not be tolled.
Dolen said the R.I. Department of Transportation has placed the route on the list for federal transportation funds and the project is expected to cost $3.5 million.
A volunteer group in Tiverton hopes to construct a Tiverton bike path to Little Compton that connects with the Aquidneck path.
Like Morrison at Coldwell Banker, Paul Leys, broker-owner of Gustave White Sotheby’s International Realty, also thinks a completed Aquidneck Bikeway would become a selling point for properties near it, as it is in the East Bay.
“I would see Realtors using it as a positive,” Leys said. “In the grand scheme of things, I see the bike path as a great addition to Aquidneck Island and its property values.” •

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