The East Bay Bike Path — a route that runs along the Narragansett Bay through four towns — is one of Providence’s popular outdoor attractions. But some Rhode Island residents and bike mobility advocates told The Herald there is still room for improvement in the state’s bike infrastructure.
On Tuesday, the Rhode Island House Finance Committee heard a proposal for a $25 million bond referendum supporting the state’s Bicycle Mobility Plan.
The legislation was originally developed in 2020 and aimed to expand existing bike lanes across Rhode Island. But the plan is far from complete, said John Flaherty, chair of the Rhode Island State Transportation Advisory Committee and Senior Advisor and Special Projects at Grow Smart R.I., in his testimony. According to Rhode Island’s long-term transportation plan, 1.7% of the bicycle network has been completed in the initiative’s first five years of the 20-year plan.
“Many people want to ride bicycles,” Executive Director and Founder of Bike Newport Bari Freeman wrote in an email to The Herald. But safer off-road biking infrastructure is necessary to make biking a “safe and comfortable primary choice for transportation and recreation.”
Flaherty noted that Rhode Island has many “well-used” bike paths, including the East Bay Bike Path, Blackstone River Bikeway and South County Bike Path. But these paths “lack the connectivity to make them a reliable and safe option for many people.”
There is still no direct connection between the East Bay Bike Path and the Blackstone River Bikeway, said Alice Cannon ’26, a volunteer for Bikes at Brown. Currently, bikers must primarily use on-road bike routes to travel between the end of the Blackstone River Bikeway in Cumberland and the beginning of the East Bay Bike Path in Providence.
Funding changes have also left previously proposed future developments up in the air.
A 2024 $25 million federal grant — funded through the Rebuilding American Infrastructure with Sustainability and Equity program — aimed to address this issue. The funds were intended to be used for improvements to the Henderson Bridge and Expressway to “enhance connectivity” between the East Bay Bike Path and the Blackstone River Bikeway, according to the city press release.
But last winter, bike improvements were removed from the scope of the second phase of the project following discussions with the Federal Highway Administration, wrote RIDOT spokesperson Charles St. Martin.
Instead, the project will include the addition of State-of-Good-Repair paving elements, such as “much-needed paving” in East Providence, he added.
“This was a decision made working with FHWA to allow us to access the federal grant funds to build the entire project,” which includes redesigning and adding sidewalks to the Henderson Expressway, St. Martin wrote.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the (U.S.) The Department (of Transportation) is getting back to basics — building essential infrastructure to safely move people and commerce,” wrote a spokesperson from the FHWA. “As part of this initiative, Secretary (Sean) Duffy removed costly social and climate mandates that deprioritized American drivers’ needs and increased congestion risks.”
The multimodal Henderson Bridge project was “the culmination of years of study and community input,” Chip Unruh, a press secretary for U.S. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) wrote in an email to The Herald.
“The Trump Administration made a short-sighted mistake” by changing the plans for the project.
The Henderson Bridge Bike Path “promised to be a major step in improving the connectivity” required to bike to work and other locations, wrote Freeman.
The RIDOT did not alert the public or the Transportation Advisory Committee, of which Freeman is a member. Instead, she found out about the loss of the bike path from a Target 12 report, she wrote.
While the change was updated in RIDOT’s December 2025 Quarterly Report, the details have not yet been published on RIDOT’s website. According to St. Martin, the grant agreement that notes these changes is still pending with the FWHA.
The reversal in funding for the second phase of the Henderson Bridge Project “doesn’t mean the state should stop prioritizing smart, efficient, accessible and integrated, multi-modal transportation projects in the future,” Unruh wrote.
Ava Rahman is a senior staff writer covering housing, infrastructure and transportation.
