Greater City Providence

Coming to a thoroughfare near you; bike lanes

Photo by Jef Nickerson for gcpvd.org

In a press release about National Bike to Work Day (May 16th) we learn from Bike Providence that the city is planning to stripe bike lanes on several streets in the city.

The City of Providence Department of Planning and Development has completed plans for the striping and signing of bicycle routes along many of Providence’s thoroughfares. It is expected that this project will be completed this fall. Among the streets included in this project are Elmwood Ave, Broadway, Smith Street, Charles Street, and Hope Street.

As gas approaches $4 a gallon, Providence must capitalize on it’s diminutive size and become a bike city. We should be looking overseas to cities such as Amsterdam, Paris, and Barcelona and closer to home to cities such as Portland and Berkeley that are pushing hard to make their streets bike friendly.

Providence must also embark on an education campaign, reminding drivers that they must share the road and reminding bicyclists that they are bound by traffic rules.

Bike to Work Day takes place May 16th starting at 7:00am at the Bank of America City Center in Kennedy Plaza, details on the Bike Providence Blog.

Jef Nickerson

Jef is Greater City Providence's co-founder, editor, and publisher. He grew up on Cape Cod and lived in Boston; Portland, Maine; and New York before settling in Providence. In addition to urbanism, Jef is interested in art, design, and ice cream. Please feel free to contact Jef if you have any question or comments about Greater City Providence.

2 comments

  • so, two-and-a-half years later, none of these streets has bike lanes on it yet, right? I know for certain that Broadway and Elmwood do not …

    why not? is anyone in the city responsible for these promised changes?

  • RIBike has an update on this. Short answer is, problems with the low bidder forced the project to go out to bid again, then weather closed in. Work will hopefully begin early spring 2011.

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