NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - In Newport News, there are limited options for cyclists, but the city says it's working to change that.
"The path here is off-street and safe; the Chesapeake Bay path is off-street and safe; the Warwick path is off-street and safe, but we’re not really to the point of having a network that you can go 20 miles on your bicycle and get to X-Y-Z," said senior planner Carolyn Poissant.
Poissant said right now the city is developing a master plan to make the city more bike-friendly.
“The city has been expanding the width of its sidewalks on our major corridors like Jefferson and Warwick and Oyster Point and City Center,” Poissant said.
She said anyone can ride on a sidewalk that's at least 6 ft. wide, and while there are some, they're few and far between.
“In certain areas you can see where improvements have been made, but for the most part if you were trying to ride any length of distance that’s greater than 3 or 4 miles, you’re going to run into issues where there’s no bike lanes, there’s no shared use paths and you’re just going to have to chance getting hit by a car or you’ll have to backtrack,” said cyclist Amanda Sexton.
The city says it's aware and is ready to make changes.
“The focus is on connecting neighborhoods to important key destinations like libraries and parks and schools,” Poissant said.
There is a survey for public input of the bicycle and pedestrian master plan. More information can be found here.
Related: Four Hampton Roads cities near bottom of list ranking best cities to bike
