Newcastle Bike Signage on Academy Hill points the way to the East Coast Greenway. (Photo courtesy Derek Webber)
Let’s ask ourselves an honest question requiring an honest answer: Are we a bike-friendly community? It does not matter whether we are talking about Damariscotta or Newcastle, the answer must be an emphatic “No!”
But do we want to be bike-friendly? Then various surveys over the years have come back declaring that this time the answer is an unqualified “Yes!”
The reasons for wanting this to be the case include the many benefits, including lowering pollution, fostering health, having fun, encouraging tourists, etc.
By becoming bike-friendly, that means that our communities will be able to join all the others on the way down to Florida via the East Coast Greenway. But first we must look after our own neighborhood, where for sure, as things stand, it can be quite dangerous to be a cyclist trying to negotiate his/her way through town and down our beautiful Pemaquid peninsula.
So, how do we bridge between where we are and where we want to be? What does it take to be a truly bike-friendly community? We need to know, because it has already been written into the town-approved Damariscotta comprehensive plan as part of the objectives to be pursued over the next decade in the transportation section. We have said that we are going to do it.
There is some good news to report, however. One part of the good news is that we do know what needs to be done (and this will be summarized below). The other part of the good news is that we are not starting from ground zero.
In the last two years, for instance, the town of Damariscotta approved a Bicycle Safety and Accessibility Resolution (October 2023), then created a bicycle infrastructure reserve fund (June 2024).
The needs for a bicycle-friendly community have been formalized by The League of American Bicyclists, which makes it at least clear what we must do. They administer and judge a process to advise when progress is being made in this direction, and they do so using something they call “The 5 Es” to evaluate each case (while acknowledging that each community has its own special unique challenges).
At present there are 460 such communities in America, and to join them, we shall have to work on:
Equity and accessibility – a society where everyone can participate
Engineering – creating safe and convenient places to ride and park (e.g., bike lanes, road shoulders, bike racks, signage)
Education – giving people of all ages and abilities the skills and confidence to ride (e.g., bike rodeo)
Encouragement – creating a strong bike culture that welcomes and celebrates bicycling (e.g., bicycling maps for the region)
Evaluation and planning – planning to make bicycling an integrated safe and viable transportation option
So, we need to get to work on these five factors, and thereby make it possible, and safe, for our community members, of all ages and skills, to hop onto their bikes and, who knows, even cycle all the way down to Key West!
(“Sole and Tread” is a contribution from the Public Safety and Accessibility Collaborative, which as a group of volunteers aims at making life safer for pedestrians and cyclists. For more information or to join, email info@mainepsac.org.)
