2026 Candidates Respond with their Bike/Walk Visions

On September 4th, the following message was sent from Bike Newport to all candidates for Municipal Councils and School Committees, RI Senate, and RI House of Representatives for Aquidneck Island – Newport, Middletown, and Portsmouth. Thanks to all of the candidates who replied for taking the time to share their vision. Their responses appear below the question. All responses are presented as received, unedited.

CANDIDATE RESPONSES

Newport City Council Newport School Committee Middletown Town Council Middletown School Committee Portsmouth Town Council Portsmouth School Committee
RI House RI Senate

NEWPORT CITY COUNCIL

Ellon M. Pinnock, 1st Ward

John Michael, 1st Ward

Emily Conklin, 2nd Ward

John M. Walker, 2nd Ward

David R. Carlin III, 3rd Ward

Jane LeBeouf, At-Large

Kevin Michaud, At-Large

Christine Hope Sullivan, At-Large (9/4/2026)

What is your vision for biking and walking in our community? As someone who used to bike from one end of Newport to the other as well as commute to and from work in NYC by bicycle; I am passionate about safe, protected bike lanes. I witnessed the tragic death of Kayla Watson on admiral Kalbfus road. My neighbors and I fought tirelessly to bring traffic calming measure to that dangerous school intersection and we are not finished advocating for bike friendly and safe road conditions throughout Newport. If elected, I plan to partner with other council members, bike Newport and residents to promote safe pedestrian and cyclist friendly streets. Dangerous speeding and congestion makes walking and biking very dangerous in Newport. I would also explore a city bike municipal program to increase access and visibility of bikes. I would push for regulation and education of e bikes and electric scooters as we have a problem with motorized riders disregarding rules of the road.

What steps will you take to achieve your vision? Partner with local and state officials as well as bike Newport and local residents. I will also draw from the transportation master plan and vision zero for zero pedestrian and cyclist fatalities.

Stephanie Smyth, At-Large

James Dring, At-Large

Taryn Mazza, At-Large

Meagan Elizabeth Landry, At-Large

Elizabeth E. Cullen, At-Large

Charles M. Holder, At-Large

NEWPORT SCHOOL COMMITTEE

Amy Yozura

Penelope B. Hunt (9/4/2026)

What is your vision for biking and walking in our community? The size of the Aquidneck Island community and particularly the narrow, uncrowded side streets of Newport make it an ideal walking and biking community. As a kid I regularly walked to school, to friends’ houses and to stores. The convenience of driving clearly drove planning efforts for many decades (no pun intended) and unfortunately has diminished the safety of choosing more healthy and acceptable options such as walking and biking. Although I am very pro-bike and ride my own bike around town for errands (and previously rode 6 miles to work a few times a week while living in Boston), as a parent I have sadly been nervous about launching my own children onto our city streets on bikes. My vision for our community would be that residents would regularly choose walking or biking for everyday activities such as riding to school or work or running errands. This requires the up front efforts of education and access to bikes, with which Bike Newport has been doing a great job. It also requires certain infrastructure changes to be made particularly to major roads that were designed with driving and parking as a priority. Finally, it requires leaders in the community who are willing to serve as examples and advocates for regularly choosing biking or walking over the use of a vehicle.

What steps will you take to achieve your vision? First of all I want to thank Bike Newport for their educational work on biking for students in Newport Public Schools. The biking module for 3rd graders is a big hit and has inspired both my own kids and other kids and also parents that I know to be more open to biking. True behavior change to walk/bike to everyday activities takes time and another level of investment. The first question that I have been pondering is Bike/Walk to School. During COVID local community members organized a Walk to School Bus and it’s my understanding that Bike Newport has preliminarily proposed a Bike Bus to Pell, which I fully support. I intend to work on a review this fall of the schools’ bus routes and would like to make sure that that review is done in alignment with any opportunities to encourage walking and biking. In addition to the potential for a regular walking or biking ‘bus,’ I would like to see an expansion of the Bike to School Days for a broader group of kids, or perhaps having it structured as a competition for the most days or furthest mileage biked or walked (maybe not just to school) or something like that. I’ve heard that it takes 3 weeks of regular repetition to develop a new habit, so it’s important to find an incentive structure that encourages long-term adoption of walking and biking as alternatives to driving. We would need to structure the programming differently at each school level but I do think that a core element of competition, in addition to education, would be important to add to the mix so that young participants get recognition and positive feedback from choosing biking and walking. As a School Committee member, I would support the schools’ coordination and dissemination of any information to families and kids that would inform families as to the benefits of walking/biking. I would also happily participate in any planned activities or PR opportunities such as School Committee members bike to all three schools in a day or something. On the fun side, the 10-spot ride geared toward adults is amazing and perhaps could be adapted into a kid/family-friendly event. I would recommend that the event be geared toward a specific age range, such as 4th-8th grade or separately 9th-12th grade. My final thought on what we can all do to encourage walking and biking to everyday activities is to advocate for zoning and infrastructure projects that facilitate the location of everyday amenities such as grocery stores, drug stores, post offices etc in locations that are accessible for walking and biking.

Brian Rochelle

Elizabeth Barron

Carrie Cassady

Connor J. Hourihan

Nicole Shevory (9/4/2026)

What is your vision for biking and walking in our community? My vision is for Newport to be a community where walking and biking are safe, practical, and accessible ways to get around—not just recreational activities. We are a compact city, and if we can make it easier for students, families, residents, and visitors to safely walk or bike when they are able, we can improve mobility, reduce the number of short trips made by car, ease pressure on our roads, and reduce carbon emissions at the same time. This is personal for me. When I worked in Washington, D.C., I biked to work every day. I loved having the flexibility to bike because dedicated lanes and infrastructure made it a realistic transportation option. Growing up on Cape Cod, my family also regularly used the Cape’s extensive bike trail system, and I saw firsthand how good infrastructure can connect communities. Bike and pedestrian safety were also part of my upbringing. My father was a local police officer and served as a school resource officer, and he would go into the schools to provide fun, informative bike-safety programs for students. I saw how programs like that can build safe habits at an early age and strengthen the connection between schools and the broader community. Here in Newport, I love programs like the Bike Bus and would like to see them expanded. But we also need to think beyond individual programs or individual bike lanes. Over the last several years, we have seen increasing pressure on an infrastructure network that simply was not designed to accommodate all of today’s vehicle traffic. Too often, we are robbing Peter to pay Paul—addressing one intersection, development, parking issue, or zoning decision at a time without looking strategically at how all of those decisions affect mobility across the city. I want Newport to take a more comprehensive approach that recognizes biking, walking, public transportation, automobiles, parking, development, and pedestrian safety as parts of the same transportation system.

What steps will you take to achieve your vision? I am already working on these issues through my service to the City. As a member of Newport’s Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee, bike and pedestrian accessibility is an area where I am championing more robust improvements. The Comprehensive Plan is an important opportunity to stop looking at mobility project by project and instead establish a long-term vision for how people move throughout Newport. Similarly, during my time on the Zoning Board, we have consistently questioned applicants about pedestrian access, bike accommodations, traffic, parking, and other mobility considerations. Development decisions may happen one property at a time, but collectively they have a significant impact on how our transportation network functions. On the School Committee, I would bring that same perspective while recognizing the limits of the Committee’s authority. I would support expanding programs like the Bike Bus, strengthening bike and pedestrian safety education, and improving safe walking and biking connections to our schools. I also want the School Department to be an active partner with the City when transportation, sidewalks, crossings, bike infrastructure, and school facilities are being planned. Most importantly, we need to give people realistic choices. Every family cannot walk or bike every trip, and cars will continue to be an important part of transportation in Newport. But every safe trip that can reasonably be made on foot or by bike is one less vehicle contributing to congestion and emissions. Creating those choices requires us to think strategically about Newport as a whole rather than continuing to solve transportation problems one project at a time.

Kendra Wilson Muenter

Robert J. Leary

MIDDLETOWN TOWN COUNCIL

Antone C. Viveiros

Henry F. Lombardi Jr

Christopher Logan

Christopher Rowe

Terri Flynn

Charles R. Roberts

Dennis B. Turano

Leonidas Amarant

Barbara A. VonVillas

Paul M. Rodriguez

MIDDLETOWN SCHOOL COMMITTEE

Wendy E. Heaney

Theresa M. Silveira Spengler

Gregory M. Huet

PORTSMOUTH TOWN COUNCIL

John G. McDaid

John Mark Ryan

M. Conley Wake Zani

David P Fiorillo

Juan Carlos Payero

Leonard B. Katzman

Alexander Roberts

David G. Reise

David M. Gleason

Keith Hamilton

Sharlene M. Patton

Mary A. McDowell

PORTSMOUTH SCHOOL COMMITTEE

Isabelle Kelly

Tasha MacGibbon

Valerie A. Seveney

Brett W. Fox

RI HOUSE

John Edwards, District 70

Michelle McGaw, District 71

Terri-Denise Cortvriend, District 72

Marvin Abney, District 73

Alex Finkelman, District 74

Lauren Carson, District 75

RI SENATE

Linda Ujifusa, District 11

Louis DiPalma, District 12

Dawn Euer, District 13 (9/4/2026)

What is your vision for biking and walking in our community? I want biking and walking to be safe, convenient, and realistic choices for everyone, not just people who are comfortable riding in traffic. As a former chair of Bike Newport, I’ve seen firsthand how much this community cares about making our streets more bike and pedestrian friendly. I also know there is more work to do to ensure that people understand that these changes will be broadly beneficial and makes everyone safer. My vision is a connected network of safe bike lanes, sidewalks, and shared paths that makes it easier to get to work, school, the beach, downtown, or just around the neighborhood without getting in a car that is connected to a robust public transportation network. That means investing in infrastructure, connecting the pieces we already have, and making sure biking and walking are considered from the start when we plan and build our roads. It’s about giving people more choices, reducing traffic and emissions, and making Newport and Jamestown safer, healthier, and more connected communities.

What steps will you take to achieve? I’ll keep fighting to make bike and pedestrian infrastructure a priority, not something that gets lost inside a larger road project. I’ve pushed back when dedicated bike/ped funding has been consolidated into road-project budgets. When it’s treated as an afterthought, the attention and design work needed to create truly safe alternatives often disappear which we’ve unfortunately seen in recent projects. I’ll also keep following up on the RIDOT efficiency audit that we recently passed to ensure we’re getting more out of every transportation dollar. And we need to think beyond individual bike lanes and sidewalks. I want to build a connected transportation network where biking and walking work together with public transit, so people have real alternatives to driving. That means connecting our existing infrastructure, filling the gaps, and making multimodal transportation part of every major transportation project from the beginning.

Angela Lima, District 13