Relatively flat and ridiculously puny Rhode Island may well be the nation’s epicenter of bicycling culture. In decent weather within a work shift you can ride a bike from Watch Hill to Woonsocket Hill, which represents state’s longest cross. Besides genesis of Labann’s
Bike&Chain: The Ultimate Guide to Bicycling Culture, denizens of Providence’s art and music scene routinely haunt its West End by bike.
League of American Bicyclists (originally Wheelmen) was founded in Newport, nowadays tourism central;
some of The 400 began Good Road Movement to advocate road improvement, long before cars were common, and denied membership to non-whites. The City by the Sea was once a prefect venue for public bicycling on neatly paved streets before distracted gawkers in busses and cars invaded. It still hosts local shop and reliable purveyor Ten Speed Spokes should you opt to spin out to Brenton Point.
Population density increases death statistics. After monitoring carefully for over a decade, must caution that one bicyclist dies on average every 2 years among Rhode Island’s 5 counties, particularly within a new season and these 2 cities. Despite national trends, all but two [ed.] were adults, not teens.
In September of 2007, 41 year old real estate developer
Frank Cabral of Oakland Beach, while recreational cycling in the wide breakdown lane alongside US-1 in Charlestown, was struck dead instantly by a Mercedes SUV. Driver excused herself with sun in her eye after politely swerving onto road edge to answer a cell phone while continuing at speed. “Couldn’t be helped,” so no charges were filed. Since incident occurred in an obscure spot where few would notice, a ghost bike was deployed for a year in Frank’s hometown honor at Hoxie 4 Corners [shown], a persistent impediment to bicyclists defying Federal Code of Regulations, then displayed with reverence at Procycle 2009, a curated art show in which bicycling was depicted by 75 works in every medium, first of its kind in New England attended by thousands.
This senseless example of privileged contempt for mankind did inspire unprecedented legislation aimed at protecting vulnerable road users. Frank’s Law, largely unknown but named after Cabral, demands that motorists only pass bicyclists and pedestrians when they can maintain a distance of more than 3 feet, or pay a $75 fine. However, no arrests or tickets have been reported in the decade since bill was passed. Motorists rather pay insurance companies to assume liability for any fatality. Frank’s was one of only demises [ed.] to occur in Washington County, popular with cyclists given reduced traffic count, served by NBX and Stedman’s shops.
Rhode Island's unenforceable Hand's Free Cell Phone Provision takes effect next month. Hard to stay safe bicycling or walking while motorists, bored by driving, can't resist talking, texting, and worse behaviors when they're supposed to be obeying laws to continue slinging around tons of legal steel. By taking a license motorists agree to put other road users above own convenience. Drivers are obliged to let pass, stop for, and watch out for bicyclists and pedestrians, not pass them unless they can do so without coming within a meter, a yardstick. Self driving vehicles represent a worrisome development; in March of 2018
a prototype Uber taxi killed a Tempe bicyclist after failing to recognize her as a human.
In January of 2008, 21 year old
Amanda Lynn Benge lost her promising vivacity near the Providence Art Club on Thomas Street between Benefit and North Main. A winter ride down a steep hill could explain it, but cause was never disclosed. Imagine she was a college hill student, but whoever knows didn’t have anything to say on incident’s 10th anniversary. People rather forget and seldom discuss such tragedies. Makes it hard for public to celebrate vibrant lives of victims slain, mostly commemorated by local Dash and Legend shops, Providence Bicycle, and RI Bicycling Coalition.
In May of 2009, 66 year old
Victor Rodrigues Porter of Providence’s West End was found near intersection of Cranston Street and Niantic Avenue by police, who heard his anguished cries after being struck by a hit-and-run driver. He did not survive his injuries. This cold case crime, within blocks of Cranston Police HQ and Washington Secondary Bike Path, remains under investigation, though will probably stay so forever. Nearby Olneyville’s Red Shed educates youngsters to bike safe, repair own, and steer clear of mortal despair.
Nevertheless, in November of 2010, 13 year old North Smithfield Middle School student
Scott Wright, while in crosswalk at the intersection of RI-5 and RI-102, was mowed down by a minivan. Those who commented in driver’s defense speciously say damage to side of her vehicle and lack of police arrest prove she was blameless. Might made her right. First juvenile to join Providence County’s list of sacrificed cyclists in this century, Wright must’ve been wrong. With a sigh, Blackstone and Circuit bike shops serve cities north of Providence.
In Bristol, state’s smallest county, six-year-old kindergarten graduate
Mason Sterne will never enter 1st grade at Chace Street School in Somerset, Massachusetts after being mowed down by a Canton, Connecticut motorist while crossing Poppasquash Road on the East Bay Bicycle Path during a family outing. According to a retired Bristol Police captain, Mason was the third child killed in the same location after 4 years of complaints about near misses and overgrown bushes there. State and town officials pledged to investigate all crossings for similar safety issues, and since trimmed branches and foliage at this spot. The purpose of having a bike path was to minimize chances of such bike-driver collisions along East Bay and provide a safe venue for family recreation, which thousands enjoy daily with few other incidents from its 30 years of use. A ghost bike and impromptu memorial warn that safety isn't guaranteed.
Focus shifts to Aquidneck Island. In March of 2012, 42 year old submariner systems engineer
Michael Strickland went down on Purgatory Road near Tuckerman, in Middletown. He planned to return home to Perth, Australia, after completing his defense industry contract. Details again were sketchy: assumption of bicyclist’s error, blinded by setting sun, and so on, stupid excuses heard all too often.
Later, in October, 64 year old retired naval officer then capitol city dentist
Elliot Kaminitz was struck on Memorial Drive near Old Beach Road in Newport. He’ll be missed by his bereaved family and entire community in which he was very active. Family established a ghost bike as a further memorial, which still can be seen; most don’t survive long. Residents typically resent such reminders to be kind and share public thoroughfares responsibly.
Update: Somehow overlooked sad story of able seaman, Middletown grandfather, and Naval electronic technician
Art Weekley, who died of injuries sustained after colliding with a deer charging across Ocean Drive near Goose Neck Cove at 7:15 AM on June 9th, 2014. Art had been an avid cyclist since 1990. A ghost bike has been installed in his honor and for service to his country. Figures that Newport would account for more than its share, with distracted tourists, heavy traffic, and narrow streets.
Kent Country account for last two. In July of 2015, political aide to both governor and senator Chafee, 64 year old
Charles Hawkins of North Providence, was vetoed down on Bald Hill Road (RI-2) just North of College Street by a 4 decade old Datsun. Ironically, avid cyclist Hawkins advised on energy and transportation approaches, which probably included peddling pedaling. “Charlie was unique and special," Lincoln Chafee emailed to NBC 10 News. Reports suggest he was returning from beach in late afternoon, walking his bike in gore area to cross 4 lanes of incessant high speed traffic, wanting to reach bike path just blocks away in direction he was headed. Have personally witnessed pedestrians and wheelchair users struggling without crosswalks and sent letters in protest to state officials prior to accident. Who’s really to blame?
In June of 2017, 36 year old
Christopher Ziobrowski of Chepacet, while attempting to switch lanes, collided with a white Nissan SUV at
Coventry’s 2400 Block of Nooseneck Hill Road (RI-3), then succumbed to injuries days later. Can’t find much more to relay about this eager light snuffed out way too soon. Trek Bicycles in Apponaug serves area.
All appear to have been wearing helmets; so much for protection they allegedly afford. Feel-good laws that both affected folks and law enforcers forget negligibly increase safety. The fastest way would be if more drivers licenses were denied, revoked or suspended, and traffic laws were enforced, which even police admit aren't 90% of the time. Had officials heeded activists and reacted accordingly, would some of these deaths have been avoided? Actually, eight bicyclist fatalities in 2 decades represents relatively few versus hundreds of motorists who die every year on Rhode Island roads. Bordering Massachusetts, denigrated for its dangerous drivers, buried thirty-three bicyclists since 2015.
Fear and inconvenience are why so few adults ride bikes. There's far more to fear from motoring, unsafe in countless ways and horribly inconvenient. You must annually work on average 4.5 months to clear $9,000 needed to drive. You're rewarded by abusive traffic, big deficits, crumbling bridges, no parking, poor health, and stress. Motor collisions are the nation’s 3rd leading cause of death, more than gun violence and infectious diseases combined. Nationwide,
NHTSA notes as many motoring fatalities (~40,000) each year as bicycling has seen in total since The Civil War when bicycles first appeared.
As America’s smallest state, why isn’t RI leading in road design? Why are we only 29th in bike friendliness? Why steal shoulders for cramped lanes that cause more accidents? Why install controls that don’t work for cyclists? Highways and railroads cut off routes and don’t post signs to guide cyclists around, although they’re supposed to. Bad intersections, bridge bans, and brutal traffic create detours and intimidate riders. RI's cyclonet has been an unsafe afterthought since automotive expansion during 1970's. Motorists wouldn't stand for this. Bicyclists shouldn’t either!
Your sense of safety will never compel official decisions; distance, hazards, hills and ice persist for which cyclists must prepare. Nonprofits will capitalize on your feeling exposed to criminal behaviors and crushing vehicles. Yet you’ll always be safer cycling than driving.
When states make it difficult or impossible to bike or walk, they illegally restrict those who’d choose to. State Chapter 31-19 grants bicyclists access to all bridges and roads, and, where impractical, mandates parallel accommodations. Illegally, 25% of RI’s roadnet is either bike unfriendly or clearly dangerous. Every road 24’ or wider must either facilitate cycling or factor in a nearby bikeway or bikeable road. They can’t just construct bridges and highways restricted only to motoring. This also implies zoning codes that deny malls and stores permission to locate on busy roads if they neglect bike access from adjacent neighborhoods. Planners need to reconsider; complete compliance involves less than 5% of roadnet and usually only after repaving segments and repainting stripes, which must be done anyway. Costs little, yet cures many problems.
USDOT spends $250,000 on automotive transportation for every $1 on bikes. RIDOT diverts dollars so visitors can zoom though state at the expense of resident safety. State is suffering a billion dollar deficit with unsustainable road construction a main drain. Better bike infrastructure would address this waste. Bikeways return their investment 20:1. Separate street lanes make a statement: Bicycles belong. Make it safer, as FHWA demands, and more might bike than drive, since an average trip either way is only 3.5 miles.
Once the worst place to ride a bike in a hundred mile radius, Providence has made numerous updates over the last decade. Public embarrassment and relentless advocacy played a part, plus electing a mayor who rides. Striped lanes were added during each road redevelopment. But they don’t make up for bikenet losses in Newport and Warwick. New $100 million Apponaug Circulators (5) scheme exemplifies federal code neglect by further limiting both bicycle and pedestrian access.
Traffic code is for regulating deadly momentum of cars, not bikes, originated specifically to protect those on bike and foot. Driving is a privilege to be earned and kept. A license obligates driver to obey laws and share roads. Impatience is the main reason air conditioned, comfortably seated motorists can’t wait and deprive others. Under numerous restrictions, motorists sought road dominance. In 1920
they coined fake term jaywalking to counter real complaints of joyriding. The following year Providence Boy Scouts, deluded by automotive lobbies, summoned jaywalkers to a
school for careless pedestrians for reeducation. Be angry with traffic planners for negligence, not cyclists, other motorists, and pedestrians, who consequently happen to be in your way.
Bicycling or walking is an inalienable right, one of basic mobility. You’re entitled to: Go outside, improve health, reduce carbon footprint, ride anywhere public roads go, and skip motoring altogether. Bicyclists are not obliged to stay in gutters or on sidewalks, may legally assume lane and cross anywhere, and supposed to ride in travel lanes. Shoulders are what allow them to ease over and let cars pass. Despite slower pace, they do not have to give up lane, rather proceed unimpeded.
But freedoms aren’t free. You have to act responsibly and fight to keep them. Open your eyes! Don't be marginalized! Speak up; otherwise, officials sworn to serve you have no idea things stink. A Statewide Bicycling System will only happen if you demand it. Attend Transportation Advisory Committee and town meetings. Tell them, "Adapt roadsides, build bikeways, paint bike lanes... NOW." With cost of driving higher than minimum wages can afford, why have politicians forsaken the poor? Next election, vote velorution! Until then, bike and be seen.
Updates:
In July, 2016
Mary Wilk, 22 years old, died after overtaken on Rt. 1 near Jerry Brown Farm Road in South Kingstown. In August of 2017
Ethan Simpson, 21 years old, was mowed down by an SUV at Arrowhead and Willet Avenues in East Providence. Assailants were both women. No charges were filed.
State statistics then show no bicycling fatalities in 2018 and 2019, a lull that perhaps suspended situational surveillance. But in May of 2020, 40-year-old bicycle commuter
Elias “Joel” Velasquez Chavez, who migrated to Newport to flee political violence in Guatemala, died on the scene when mowed down by a speeding hit-and-run Honda on West Main Road in Middletown. East and West Main Roads are the two major throroughfares on Aquidneck Island; the've never met minimum FHWA access regulations in place since 1999, resulting in some of state’s highest accident rates for over a half century. Detectives tracked down driver 2 years later, who is now serving a 3.5 year prison sentence.
In July of, 2021 28-year-old
Francisco Sosa collided with a motor vehicle at the intersection of Plainfield Street and Webster Avenue in Providence’s Silver Lake neighborhood. While hospitalized he succumbed the next day to injuries sustained. The motorist, who was neither impaired nor proceeding illegally, was not charged.
In January of 2023 popular Brown graduate student
Jeffrey Schlyer crashed into badly cordoned construction site at Massasoit Avenue, East Providence. After he was reported missing by friends, a friend discovered and firefighters recovered his body lifeless in a pit with a fractured spine. Henderson Bridge circulator project was intended to save lives, just not those of bicyclists, who were further restricted and treated illegally by designers. Upper East Bay is served by NBX.
In October of 2023 34-year-old commuter
Kayla Watson of Middletown was riding an e-bike to work westbound on Admiral Kalbfus Road in Newport when an oncoming Ford F800 commercial bucket truck defying red light at intersection of Hillside Avenue turned directly into her path, running her over. She was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. Immediate outrage prompted safety enhancements, including installing "No Right Turn on Red" signs and speed cameras and updating GPS mapping to reroute heavy trucks. Tragedies ought to incite positive reactions. Instead, on June of 2026 East Providence mayor set an ordinance to keep e-bikes from parks and off sidewalks, which should be observed as long as streets have open shoulders or real bike accommodations. Entire bike path also excludes Types 2 and 3 e-bikes.
In June of 2024 North Kingstown resident
Linda Sherman riding in town on Boston Neck Road near Earl Drive was hit by a Jeep operated by a former Providence police officer. He was arrested at the scene on suspicion of driving under the influence. After Linda died from her injuries, he was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison, along with revoking his driver's license upon release. A real deterrent would be life in prison should he resume driving once paroled, which occurs more often than most would tolerate.
On a summer evening ride in July of 2024, 25-year-old
Aliana Ciacciarelli fell off her bicycle at the 100 block of Pleasant View Avenue in Smithfield and was subsequently run over by a commercial tractor-trailer truck traveling southbound, whose driver left the scene. This instigated a police search which later identified culprit. Every bicyclist's nightmare is entering a linear crack or pothole and falling into an irrecoverable position.
In June of 2025
Jason Marietti, a 39-year-old cyclist, electrician and resident of West Warwick was riding his bicycle on Hill Street in Coventry when he collided with a motor vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene.
In July of 2025
Robert A. Lamothe of Warwick, a beloved, retired, special education teacher of 30 years, died while riding. He was a 71-year-old accomplished triathlete who participated in 6 Ironman competitions. First responders found him unresponsive at the intersection of Essex and Potter Roads in North Kingstown, a popular suburban route to Quonset Bike Path. Police assume that he was riding alone and incident didn’t involve a motor vehicle, though statistics suggest otherwise.
Late at night in March of 2026 while walking his mountain bike
Michael Ouellet was overtaken by a hit-and-run Chevy Silverado pickup near Well and Wellington Avenues in Cranston. Ouellet died later of head injuries. Well Avenue wraps around a short steep incline, possibly explaining a dismount and walk. Driver, who returned to scene, was arrested and arraigned.
What strikes as ludicrous are Rhode Island’s penalties for impaired driving. A DUI conviction, 2nd violation with Death Resulting, earns a top prison sentence of 20 years, but only a 5 year license “revocation”. Technically, this means felon/killer could be out on parole and operating again after 5 years. “Revocation” is supposed to mean lifelong permanent; this is just an extended “suspension”. Driver’s Manual also neglects to mention Frank’s Law, which specifies a $75 fine for motorists crowding bicyclists by passing within 3 feet. Though enforceable, police never notice, stop, or warn violators.
