Another Bike Path for South Kingstown?

Healthy Places by Design Group Eyes Potential South County Commons Trail.

Some members of the community think there could be another bike bath in South Kingstown.

A few participants in the Healthy Places by Design group in South Kingstown (Jenn Judge, Kathi Crowe and Karen and Bob Votava) walked the rough dirt trail that links the Senior Center off Broad Rock Road with the South County Commons last week to size up the option of upgrading it as a bike-ped path. It could also serve wheelchair users.

This path was created many years ago above a sewer easement for the Commons. Town officials and the community, enticed by this opportunity to create a hiking trail or even a bike path, have already secured DEM permits for upgrading the town-owned portion of this path into a bike path. The Commons owner had initially offered to build the 1,400-foot section that crossed his property. While the DEM permits have not yet expired, the town’s grant for the project has disappeared from the budget, and the Commons owner has not moved ahead on his portion.

Tracks through the snow and the encountering of four different dog walkers during the half-hour walk showed the trail to be already in use. It clearly is an important connection between town center, Indian Run Village and the Commons, as well as an appealing short trail on its own.

There are questions such as how to connect this trail with the bike path or other destinations, and what type of trail would be affordable and environmentally sound if interest could be resuscitated in its construction.

How shall these advocates of Healthy Places by Design proceed? Bob Votava suggested that the R.I. Greenway Council be re-instituted to allow a statewide system connecting existing trails and bike paths with new links (such as this one) to be developed.

What do you think? Tell us how you think Healthy Places by Design nd the town should proceed with the Commons trail in the comments section below. 

Here are two other, related past and future matters that may interest you:

• URI professor of landscape architecture, Will Green, ran a senior studio last semester that explored ways to bring the Dale Carlia intersection into the Healthy Places vision. You may have seen in the Providence Journal of on Dec. 31 that a URI landscape architecture senior studio used the Dale Carlia intersection for its final project. Explorations underway to display some of these visuals in public places like libraries.
• A contract to reconstruct High Street needs our input to ensure pedestrian and bicycle users are considered. A walk to develop recommendations will be conducted shortly. Check here for date and time if you want to join us.
• Old Tower Hill Road’s sidewalks are on RIDOT’s list for ADA compliance enhancements. If you’re interested in walkability issues in town, maybe you’d like to join the next Complete Streets meeting on Feb. 7, at 3:30 p.m., at Phil’s on Main Street. Refer questions to kvotava@mac.com.