Bike-To-Brown

Henderson Bridge – Update from the State House

Today Mark D. and I attended a second meeting of the State Traffic Commission (STC) to represent cyclists as RIDOT plans to restrict parts of the Henderson Bridge for maintenance construction starting this Spring.

RIDOT had asked the STC last month to allow them to close travel lanes on the Henderson to bicycles, with the intention of detouring bikes onto the bridge sidewalks. At the last STC meeting, we voiced a number of our concerns about the suitability of the sidewalks, which are lacking in many ways that make them unsatisfactory as transportation facilities. The STC tabled their bike prohibition vote until this month, so that RIDOT could prepare a more detailed plan to accommodate bicycles on the bridge through construction.

The outcome of our meeting today was about as favorable as we could have hoped.
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Two Wheels are Cleaner (and Greener) than Four

This evening I spoke about bicycle transportation at a ‘rapid-fire symposium’ here at Brown. The program was a variety of research and community action in the fields of climate change and the environment. My speaking constraints were 5 minutes, 2 slides, and an audience of students and faculty from the engineering, science, and policy fields.

My talk was a short environment-focused pitch for bike transportation, why and how to better utilize it, and Bike to Brown’s role in supporting it. Here’s what I said …

You can do more with your bike than you may think!

Intuitively, it’s easy to guess that riding bicycles is better for the environment than driving motor vehicles. But how much better?

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