Be on the lookout for this “Get There By Bike” message on the back of RIPTA’s Newport Trolley. This free hop-on hop-off City loop – aka Route 67 – serves popular tourist destinations including the Newport Mansions, the Cliff Walk, and Salve Regina University.
The message, featuring people on bikes visiting The Elms mansion, is the Preservation Society’s contribution to Bike Newport’s island-wide campaign to “Get There By Bike” – encouraging people to have fun and reduce traffic by parking their cars and biking to local destinations.
“We are so happy to partner with Bike Newport to help make Newport increasingly bike friendly. Biking to historic properties makes the journey a part of the experience. Getting there by bike means our guests can experience the architecture and history before they ever step inside.” – Kevin O’Leary, Director of Marketing, Preservation Society of Newport County
“The bus ads are beautiful and engaging and seen all over town – Our partners at the Preservation Society are generously helping to build public awareness and participation. People see the ads and realize they can have this experience, too!” – Peter Coriander, Board Chair, Bike Newport
Bike parking welcomes cyclists on site at the Breakers, Marble House, Chateau-sur-Mer, and the Elms. Plus biking to the mansions reduces traffic, carbon, and parking stresses! When you bike to the mansions, you’re contributing to a healthier and sustainable quality of life.
“Get There By Bike” is Bike Newport’s campaign to help people bike more frequently – especially for short distances. With ¼ of all car trips on Aquidneck Island being under one mile, switching to walking and biking for short distances can really reduce traffic congestion and car emissions. Funded by 11th Hour Racing, the de Ramel Foundation, and numerous local donors, these supporters, and local partners like the Preservation Society, are the heart of the movement – to get there by bike!
Visit bikenewportri.org/get-there-by-bike to see featured destinations, connect to the recommended routes, download maps, and input your own ideas of where Aquidneck Island needs more bike racks. Get inspired by the trajectory that took Newport Folk Festival from 200 bikes/day to 1600 bikes/day over the last decade.
People want to get out of their cars and bike short (and longer) distances – it’s fun, it’s social, it’s cost-effective, it’s healthy, and it’s zero-carbon where we need that most – along our vulnerable coastline.
Bikes and Bellevue:
Did you know that bikes and Bellevue Avenue have a long history together?
In fact, the very first meeting of bike advocates took place in Newport! In May of 1880, while the Vanderbilts were busy at the Breakers, the nation’s first (and still largest) cycling advocacy organization had its first meeting right here in Newport! Conservationist Kirk Monroe and businessman Charles Pratt founded The League of American Wheelman – now the League of American Bicyclists. They gathered in the name of the “Good Roads Movement” – with thousands of signatures collected to petition Congress to pave roads – for bicycles! Over 100 bicyclists paraded down Kay Street and Bellevue before settling in to write and ratify the organization’s constitution. Its founding mission statement was “to promote the general interests of bicycling, to ascertain, defend and protect the rights of wheelmen, and encourage and facilitate touring.” By 1890, the League had over 100,000 members nationwide. Today, you can find a monument celebrating the centennial of the League’s founding on the Bellevue Avenue side of Touro Park.
In 2013, local artist Rafael Medina celebrated biking to the Bellevue Avenue mansions when he painted “This Way on Bellevue” for the cover of Bike Newport’s Bike Map.
Where do you bike on Bellevue? Where else do you get by bike?
We’d love to know! Take this survey and tell us about your Newport biking experience.
Bike Newport