Making URI bike-friendlier

By the URI Quad.

By the URI Quad.

From Robert Whitcomb's "Digital Diary,'' at GoLocal24.com:


Kudos to the University of Rhode Island for working to make the Kingston campus better for bicyclists with, for example, plans to rebuild Flagg Road and Upper College Road into what a URI master plan calls “complete streets’’ that would include bike lanes on both sides. There’s also the idea of connecting URI to the William C. O’Neill Bike Path, reported the Independent newspaper. The program is officially called URI’s Transportation and Parking Master Plan.

The URI campus is mostly lovely, a good reason in itself to lay out more bike paths. And many students can’t afford cars.

The master plan, overseen by Christopher McMahan,  the university’s much admired architect and director of capital planning and design, also envisions further increases in bus service provided by the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority.

These moves will make the campus more attractive, improve its natural environment, reduce the pressure to add more parking and make it easier for students and others to avoid driving. URI has made much progress in recent years in raising its academic and aesthetic stature. The transportation improvements are an important part of that.