Bike Newport Executive Director Bari Freeman joins Bill Bartholomew to discuss some ongoing and upcoming initiatives that the organization is involved in, plus talks about the practicality of using bike’s as a primary mode of transportation in Rhode Island.
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thanks so much for making the time thanks for being here I mean thanks for having us Bill and um and yeah that was a great point that you made people talk about biking as a you know four month activity and it’s not it’s year round and we have to think about all the people who are doing it uh for fun and for transportation year round and uh that’s a big reason why we’re here well it’s major aspect of sort of reimagining urban planning there’s this concept of 15minute cities which is pretty pragmatic where just about everything you need is within a 15minute walk if you add a a bike into that conversation it takes it even further we’ve seen it here in Providence where there’s been Community push back on some of the bike lanes that have been created down in Newport it’s been it seems anyway it’s been a little bit more harmonious in terms terms of developing bike Lanes particularly on Broadway where yes it’s not a dedicated Lane but it’s marked pretty well so it just seems to be functioning that’s my perspective I guess from yours talk about just right out of the gate laying out a bik culture in Newport um yeah it is very much about about a b bik culture in fact you know we’re continuing to hold steadfast and pick up on the momentum from people and policies and funding that are all happening at the same time that are helping to build that bik culture it’s interesting your comparison between Providence and Newport uh from my perspective I would have flipped it and said you know we’re so you know amazed at what’s taking place in Providence because the effort is being made to separate bikes and cars which is the big differentiator when it comes to getting more people biking you know the 60% of the population that really would like to bike um they’re interested but concerned are not getting on the road with cars so the paint is there it helps to raise awareness it helps people who are already feeling confident uh to be on the road uh but we’re going to make the big change in culture change the distribution of the mode share when bikes are separated from cars and the problem is that that happens in in bites and and in disconnected bites so when we do get separation there’s no way to get to it and no way to get from it so it’s basically the same people who are already on the road are now are now moved out of Harm’s Way uh but we’re not getting new people on and people look at that infrastructure and say hey it’s in the middle of nowhere and nobody’s using it why is nobody using that new um separated bike path because there’s no way to get to it no way to get from it and we need like a really consistent connection from start to finish for people who are less confident or uh or kids or you know folks who really do want to do that half mile or one mile trip without having to get in a car um we’re only going to make that kind of progress uh when we’re connected um you know Citywide so I see Providence making those steps um in pieces but you know we can see what needs to be connected in Newport we’re getting really good with paint uh which raises awareness and helps people know where to be um but uh thanks to you know the surges in go government interest and funding that’s coming through the combination of infrastructure and climate act um you know we’re seeing funding to reduce carbon carbon outp put in small areas and that you know really defines Newport you know incredibly congested traffic that could uh very easily with intention you know be switched to biking and walking which is a far more pleasant experience anyway one one example of where this is sort of I don’t know if you would say beta tested but it it certainly shows the the potential alleviation of congestion is events at Fort Adams I think of the folk and jazz festivals where there’s a huge bike presence a lot of people smartly will ride a bike into the fort from downtown or wherever to avoid that sometimes hours wait to get out of the festival in particular and even now at the Ocean Race the that’s happening down at Ford Adams do those events sort of serve as maybe a glimpse into what’s possible for you in terms of bike parking in terms of the amount of people who are on bikes getting using it as a mode of transportation not not as a mode of exercise yeah really well said great point at the The Folk Festival we have gotten up to 1,800 bikes a day which is fully 18% of the people who are attending the festival and you know those folks sail in and out past the cars over the years we went from about 200 you know in the beginning up to the 1,00 per day because people see it and they say wow I don’t have to be in my car um you know I can get in and out easily we work really really closely with the police department constantly each year changing How We Do It um and great communication so that we can move these Seas of cyclist so the festivals is a trickle in all day long a steady flow um and then at the end of the day at the end of the concert it’s this massive departure of you know 1,00 bikes at once so there’s a lot of thinking that goes into how to manage that how to manage folks in the city how to sign it how to communicate you know it’s the first thing you see when you go to the Folk Festival site about how to get there is ride a bike and here’s how uh and we set up Park and bikes it’s just a lot of planning that goes into it and management it really shows what’s possible in general there’s a lot of naysayers that point out look Rhode Island’s cold really unfortunately a lot of the year maybe even much of the year there’s sometimes snow though we had less sow this year that we so spread out that the idea of undoing car culture is Impractical in fact even as a bike and walking Advocate myself I’ve you know I go back and forth between Providence and Newport multiple multiple times per week sometimes per day South County I go to East Providence the East East Bay every day to do a radio show there’s zero chance I could ride my bike as a primary mode of transportation and I don’t feel bad about driving my car at the same time I advocate for an expansion of bike Lanes what’s your message to people out there though that say no we’re a car state and we shouldn’t be putting any effort any dollars into not only advocating for for an advancement in bike culture but also for take as it’s framed anyway I think of the southw street bike lane in Providence taking away space for vehicles what’s your message to those folks about the practicality of B bikes in Rhode Island yeah as you can imagine it’s a very um complex uh question that you just asked and the complexity is really the answer it’s not you know bikes or cars it’s not you know give up your car you know that so we so we can do this it’s multimodal you know we’ve got faeries we’ve got Transit that needs attention we have bike lanes that need attention what we want to do is get away from you know just the default of everybody getting in a car and this is what we see in cities that you know really accomplish multimodal the economic benefits of getting people out of their cars is enor you take a city like Newport where people are you know in their car stressed out looking for parking you know not able to stop trying to figure it out before they get there you leave your car out of town and you have shuttles and Transit and bikes you’re doing all that driving you have your bike in the back of your car you park someplace easy pop on your bike and off you go you know I went into Philadelphia um just this weekend and the last couple of times I went I brought my bike on Amtrak you know little folding bike I get out in 30th Street Station and I’m off to my kids house I didn’t have it with me this time it was more complicated you know it was and I was seeing the people outside riding and thinking Tang I wish I brought my bike um and the same thing happens when any of us have to get somewhere quickly in Newport you know your brain goes to I got to get there fast I got to get my car forget it it takes you three times as long to get there with a car as it would if you popped on your bike and went there but we need to have the infrastructure to do that we need to respond to people who want to do this now there’s this really interesting project going on called ride Island uh it was funded by Van Beren vanb charitable foundation and brought together grow smart Rhode Island and bike Newport to sort of spearhead it and it’s taking a look at every plan every comment that’s ever been made about biking and walking on aqu quidnick island over the last couple of decades and pulled all that information together and mapped it all out to see you know kind of where the hotpots are for discussion and such um so that we’re looking at existing information but it also did something else it found three things that were missing so it didn’t go back and talk to the same people again but it went to three groups that had not been spoken with one is the Spanish dominant bicycle commuter who’s out there all the time and makes up the majority of the commuter bicyclists on the island and they’ve never been engaged in Spanish you know in their Community about what’s good what’s bad what’s ugly what they need what they’re happy with what they’re afraid of the second is kids we’re always yelling at them you can’t do that but like we need to talk to them about where they want to go how they want to get there you know and and get their perspective and the third is this group of people who uh either don’t have cars or don’t have like constant access to cars Transit is not delivering um and you know and they and they really would like to ride a bicycle they don’t have one they don’t have the education to go with it they don’t have the confidence for it so that non-car owning I would be interested in biking the the Spanish dominant and kids are the three groups that had never been spoken with that now we’ve had meetings with and have added that perspective so it’s very much about our planning being well informed by the people who are using it who need it who would like to um and framing uh this connected Network that we were talking about connectivity being so key um around all of that information that we’ve been collecting for so long yeah you just I I love the way you frame that and that’s like the buzz word that I’m going to have to deploy every time I get into these these conversations which is multimodal it’s not apples and oranges you know you can only have one you can only get one fruit and check out it’s like that that concept is so strong and you’re right Transit is weak in Rhode Island let’s be honest about it you know somebody who lived in New York for 10 years and still is there many many weekends you know if you compare that to riding Ripta and that’s kind of why I said earlier in the interview yeah I don’t really feel bad about driving to Newport or driving back to Providence because what am I going to do the transit is very impractical if you’re in a in a professional or any type of environment where you’re on a clock um but that multimodal concept of park somewhere outside of for lack of a better term the city limits in Newport and ride your bike that’s very practical that’s something that a lot of people like to do I wonder sometimes about bike storage I’m fortunate that I have enough friends in town where I can actually leave a bike at at a couple of different friends house throughout the course of the warm season so that I can do just what you said there park on the outskirts and then bike throughout the city I I’ve always wondered about that is there you know we see it at golf courses where people store their clubs or whatever it is now there’s some conversation around this even with guns like leave it at the range maybe that’s a compromise of some sort on some of these these these gun questions what about that is that something that ever comes up the idea of like a I don’t know how you do it other than having a pile of bikes on Broadway but would anybody ever buy a um you know a a garage type facility for people to store their bikes in the heart of a city is that an idea yeah absolutely I’m I’m I’m struggling between just going quickly back to transit for one second rul around bike parking because bike parking is a really interesting and very important conversation uh but just going back to the transit thing for a minute I sit on the transportation advisory committee for the state so I’m really you know in on the studies and the reports coming in from all of the different uh Departments of the State uh for consideration for transportation and you know we talk about bikes we talk about Transit um the the sort of um umbrella around transit or the the wrapping around transit in Rhode Island is that it’s supposed to pay for itself you know and that’s just not what Transit does and we just keep not putting enough money into it to have more stops to have more roots to have uh more availability to have a better schedule um that gets more people using it and you know we blame Transit you know in all kinds of crazy ways when we’re not investing in it the same thing is with bike and ped there’s like checking it off yes we’re going to do bike ped check check check it’s even at the top of the of the list or the top of the narrative very often but how we’re addressing it is not with the commitment to it working to the commitment to getting more people to use these modes we have to talk to and find out what’s keeping them from doing that you know which is some of the things that we were talking about so the car centricity in Rhode Island is very budget based we talk a lot about these things but the budget is really focused on on on car accommodation especially on convenience so we talk about a lot of money being invested to shorten a commute by 10 minutes that’s really important to workers right we don’t talk about shortening the two-hour bus route the bus experience to do that same commute can be two hours we don’t talk about reducing that we talk about 10 minutes in cars but not you know really hours in a bus that would make it possible for more people to choose to use the bus we have to shift the conversations to understand what convenience means you know what a dollar here versus a dollar there is because it can be up to 10 to one you know for what it costs for mileage of Highway uh improvements compared to mileage of of bike or Transit improvements and we have to have those conversations you know we can’t just check the boxes every time that we say bike pet and it’s and it’s a painted line so you know that’s one the car centricity is mostly in budget and culture follows that um is that okay oh that was I think that’s that’s spectacular there’s no rules of uh of Engagement here we can go anywhere we want okay great so parking bike parking bike storage we have a lot of people with bikes um our Northern Community we talk about a lot um we’ve distributed you know more than 800 bicycles during covid that we restored and distributed in the community getting more people to have bicycles and we talk about the densely populated part of Newport North of Admiral CPUs um all of our neighborhoods of Newport Heights and park home and and Festival fields and and Rolling Green you know they’re all in a concentrated area densely populated bikes are a great way to manage that you know the the not not great Transit um and the low car ownership double the rest of the city or the state but the houses themselves don’t have a way to get a bike inside so you know we’re trying to figure out how to help people manage their bikes maintain them store them and one of the things that we’re talking about there is community uh shared garages shared shared culture is great we know it with cars We Know It with Bike Share We Know It with You Know telephones we know with everything share culture is great you know share your lawn mower not everybody has to own one so we’re trying to think about how to have shared storage for bikes but the other part is the bike parking we’re like bringing people in but we’re not greeting them when they get where they’re going so you know we can talk about zoning instead of having a certain number of car spaces you know for a business one car space is 14 bikes you know so we need to work bike parking into the zoning regulations we need to have more bike parking available we need to you know incentivize businesses to have bike parking so that there’s a place to put it other than you know lamp post parking things and trees you know which is really what bike parking is for the most part in Newport all all extremely well said and wa well laid out there’s also another aspect to this which is pretty critical um the whole physical fitness side of things and look not everyone’s differently abled some folks cannot C certainly ride a traditional bike uh for for any number of reasons but those that do will reap the reward of enhanced physical fitness I think of my dad who is now 82 years old and still he moved to Florida basically to do this you know no offense to actually yeah offense to Florida it’s probably the best thing he’s got down there but he rides 15 20 25 30 40 50 miles a day at 85 he’s in supremely good health and has done so for my entire life and I’ve grown up around bike culture as partially a mode of Transit but more than anything just a key way to stay healthy and that bit of advocacy especially after going through covid I feel like we should be doing everything we can to merge Health well-being on a mental health side and a physical health side on an emotional health side all things that you can gain from being on a bike into our daily lives and make it less of like all right make sure you take your 30 minutes a day to go you know do jumping jacks but instead let’s merge as much as we can talk about that the the unintended but well I guess not unintended but the the extremely uh helpful and healthy benefits of that that go along with everything else that we’ve just discussed yeah absolutely by the way I’m just back a couple of weeks ago from Broward County in Florida and I you know I have my issues with Florida but biking is not one of them every road I went on there was a bike path separated like everywhere every single Road um yeah so there’s physical health and there’s mental health I mean your dad is probably a pretty happy dude you get off of your bike and you’re smiling and people say why you smiling and you say because I just got off my bike and there’s a really amazing connection between mental health and physical activity you know as well as the physical health I’ve had the privilege to bike in a lot of places a lot of countries when I hit those cities that have a lot of people biking you don’t see obesity like you really got to look for it um and so we have physical health and mental health there are lots of adaptive bikes now we partner with this company in in Warwick called bike on which coincidentally is the Adaptive bike um company for the whole country uh building bikes that are you know standard designs as well as um as well as Unique Designs for people with uh either Mobility or cognitive challenges to keep them on bikes uh we’re seeing a lot of good happening with ebikes that keep people on bikes the pedal assist keep people pedaling it doesn’t let a hill get in the way and we’re seeing a lot of people over a certain age staying on bikes by having uh by having pedal assist um there’s no question about the physical and mental health benefits of biking um it just can’t be it can’t be overstated and you know to be able to pop on a bike uh to get where you’re going or or to have a mind clearing you know endorphin fed um experience you know uh to to clear your head you know in the middle of the day or you know on the weekend recreationally just get get where you’re going on a bike it’s just a more pleasant and healthier experience there’s just no question about it all right um last thing here I see Friday May 19th is Bike to Work Day the logo has a seagull wearing a bike helmet can’t go wrong with that uh talk about initiative um yeah we love that seagull he’s been around uh he’s been around for a while um so yeah we love people to to ditch the car for a day and give it a try uh we’ll welcome anyone uh who’s riding their bike to a breakfast outside of City Hall in the morning uh and coming back in the afternoon to make some uh bike friendly announcements and to award the bike friendly business of the year uh to a to a local business and take a little ride around town um it’s also uh the last Friday of the Ocean Race um so we’ll probably bring the group down there as well at the end a little group Down group ride down that way um so yeah ditch your bike give it a try gather your friends from work do that thing we were talking about if you’re over a bridge or too far away you know get a little closer park your car and pop on your bike for the last part of it you know you don’t have to bike the whole way if you live too far or there’s a bridge in your way um so uh yeah and we’ll be outside of of City Hall greeting folks um so we do have we have Bike To Work Day this Friday we have two other really big events coming up uh one is this celebration of the big blue Bike Barn which I encourage everybody to find out about it’s this incredible precedent setting transformation of vacant lot into one of the most vibrant Lush public spaces in Newport there’s a canopy designed by Roger Williams University student Architects and a pump track uh that’s built by you know pump track enthusiasts from all over the state that connects with trails it’s a very exciting place um and that’s on on June 3D uh from 2 to 5: and then the following week is the annual open road along the ocean Loop and that is no cars only people rolling and strolling for almost the full length of Ocean Avenue as well as Hazard Road um no cars WorryFree carf free access to one of the most iconic um routs uh on a quinic island maybe in New England um and that uh is from to 12 on June 10th and we would love to see people there all really spectacular stuff multimodal it’s the way to think about the future it’s the way to think about the present let’s do it let’s let’s knock it off with this nonsense I’m tired of hearing you know um like you said it framed Transit framed purely in an economic context there’s some conversations that are happening now about uh rot taking over Ripta it’ll be interesting to see how that plays out whether I’m not sure if Scott avidian has the experience necessary to to manage Ripa a nice enough guy uh but uh there’s a lot of questions that swirl in political circles and it’ll be interesting to see where that plays out if a new whether it’s it’s do or ideally somebody with fresh perspective can kind of be that link in that multimodal uh Transit aspect of things I’m not asking you to comment on anybody I’m going to make a quick comment that’s just that I think that we should fund Transit before we judge it and then we’ll and then we can have that conversation very well said and I think that’s that’s something that needs to be accounted for in all those conversations is let’s look at the the the the dollars before the the Personnel because the Personnel can’t do much without the the right dollars so well said actually one bonus question here so there’s interesting dialogue that’s taking place on Smith Hill around ebike ebike legislation um your thoughts on that I don’t have the bill in front of me some often times I’ll have it in front of me to sort of read it and and at least give um you know a summary of of what’s happening but if you could sort of frame your position on ebikes and the legislation that’s being heard right now sure thanks for asking because there really needs to be more more discussion we’re concerned about you know like a frenzy of um of concern about ebikes um that doesn’t seem to be uh you know well informed by both the use of bikes the categories of these bikes and you know where this legislation is coming from the regulation is coming from what’s being proposed in Rhode Island is the same regulation and legislation that’s been passed in 40 States so we haven’t made this up and what it does is it defines the bikes by the uh by the technology and the power so that um you know we’re the bikes that so many people are are embracing and uh able to get back on or stay on bikes because of the pedal assist that helps people to um not be deterred by uh by a distance or by a hill for example they’re extremely popular with people who are aging they’re extremely popular with people who are shifting out of their cars to get to work um you know we we need to talk with people about how to use them we need to regulate um the speed that they’re used at but they are a very very important part of that multimodal Transportation um mode distribution that we were talking about earlier as well so I encourage everyone to um to uh listen and think about um why uh why uh electric assist bikes are so important you know as um as as modes in this discussion and to recognize that uh in Rhode Island we’re talking about adopting uh policies and practices that have been adopted in 40 other states you know we we need need to all get uh together to be able to reduce traffic uh congestion and introduce more people onto uh healthy physically healthy and mentally healthy um options for short distances yeah it’s it’s really important to educate folks about it I did see that some legislators were riding around the parking lot of the State House on ebikes but they really are an important tool for like you said for for even for folks that are um of of what I I don’t know of an age that you would not expect to need an ebike I guess based on that standard or you know otherwise don’t have any disability or anything like that there’s still a good entry point for a lot of people to get on bikes and especially in Newport you know riding up the hill by Hotel Viking one time can discourage somebody from saying hey I don’t want to I don’t want to do this anymore ebikes can help in those moments and transition someone to a multimodal type of of form we have a fantastic New Town counselor in Middletown Emily Tessier uh who uh she ran based on bicycle and pedestrian issues but she sold her car and bought a pedal assist bike and that’s how she gets around you know 12 months out of the year um and she’s you know I I I don’t know if she’s 30 yet you know she’s um and that’s that’s her mode of transportation and I grab an ebike if I have to get to a meeting quickly and you know and I just I don’t want to Pedal up the Hill and you know I just want to be able to get there looking a little fresher um not that you don’t look fresh when you ride a bike you can still look fresh riding a bike uh but yeah all of these things all these things contribute we really need to think about all of the different modes how to manage them you know how to make them accessible how to encourage them how to give people the chance to get out of their cars you know and enjoy some fresh air and and be able to stop and go you know where they want to people who ride bikes are contributing significantly to our economy in different ways the economic benefits of biking are you know really really uh consistent and well documented um and are very much um a part of the success of touristic destinations like Rhode Island so yeah let’s let’s let’s think uh positively and creatively and and like 21st century people at Health Source RI for employers we provide access to health insurance to more than 1,00 local businesses and nonprofits and 96% of them renew through US every year maybe it’s our choice of 19 different Health Plans our 10 years of customizing Solutions or our one local team of dedicated experts helping employers find Quality Health 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