Bike trails now connect Bristol and Woonsocket (33.5 miles)
Tom Connors
Providence Journal photo / Tom Meade
Robert Billington, executive director of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council, waves to an automobile driver in Providence this morning on the open-road route connecting the Blackstone River Bikeway with the East Bay Bike Path.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- An 8.5-mile stretch of specially marked roads now connects the East Bay Bike Path with the Blackstone River Bikeway. The connecting route opened officially this morning. It runs between East Providence and Cumberland, passing through Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls.
With the new connection, a cyclist can ride 33.5 miles from Woonsocket in the north to Bristol in the south, said Robert Billington, executive director of the Blackstone Valley Tourism Council. An avid cyclist and bicycle-tour guide, Billington assembled a coalition of federal and state government officials, cycling groups, and business leaders to contribute to an effort to make the connection.
Many of those people gathered in East Providence this morning to ride the connection.
Journal photo / Mary Murphy
It is marked by street signs and "sharrows" painted on the road. A sharrow depicts a bicycle with two arrows pointing the direction of the route.
Eric Weis, trail program coordinator for the East Coast Greenway Alliance, an open-space advocacy group, said similar open-road bike paths are popular in Manhattan. New Haven and other cities in the U.S., Australia, and Europe also use sharrows advising cyclists and drivers to share the road.
More information and a map are available by clickinghere.