Portsmouth Herald (N.H.) June 30, 1996

Pedal Power - Group working to make cycling safe on Seacoast

By Kate Munro
Herald Staff

SEACOAST - Studying glaciers takes researchers to faroff spots across the world, to the Yukon, Alaska or Nepal, looking for the secrets of climate change. But it was when Cameron Wake, a University of New Hampshire assistant professor, traveled to China - and watched a wave of cyclists traveling to and from work - that he became more firmly committed to bringing the culture of bicycles to the Seacoast.

One of the founding members of a small, grass-roots group of cyclists, Wake is a young man in his early 30s who is more comfortable climbing mountains to gather glacial ice cores and biking from his Portsmouth home to Durham, than driving in a car.

He and other founding members of the Seacoast Area Bicycle Routes group, or SABR, have embarked on a five- to 10-year plan to make the Seacoast a safer place to ride. It is a project that will eventually connect Seacoast towns and cities, from Dover,, Durham, Newmarket and Rye, up to Portsmouth, Kittery and across the Spaulding Turnpike to Newington.

When the project's done, cyclists will be able to travel along the ocean for recreation, and commute to work along paved bike paths that avoid the dangerous, narrow streets in Portsmouth and roads to the south of the city. It will provide a transportation avenue that may, in thousands of years to come, protect the ozone, keeping future climate researchers from finding aberrations in glacial ice cores from this century.

"There is an air-quality problem in the Seacoast, especially with respect to the ozone, in the summer- months," said Wake. "It's easily feasible that 10 to 15 percent of motorist trips can be replaced with bicycles."

Pedaling a steep hill

But there is much yet to do. The project, which could end up costing a million dollars when complete, needs about $600,000 to get under way.

The six founding SABR members successfully won $440,000 in grants when they applied for federal Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act funds after those monies become available for more than just road improvements for motorists. The city of Portsmouth agreed to pitch in some $30,000 and the Pease Development Authority agreed to pay $60,000.

The remaining $30,000, however, was left to SABR to raise by next year, when construction is to begin on a bridge over the Spaulding Turnpike, at Rockingham Avenue in Portsmouth, to allow cyclists and pedestrians to walk and ride to the Pease Internationa1 Tradeport.

"These guys are great," said Karen Jacoby, Portsmouth city planner, as she pulled out thick files of SABR bike route studies and grant applications. "The city said, 'You've got to raise $30,000,' and they said OK."

Portsmouth's planning bureau, which does much more than work on bike paths, gave moral support for SABR's projects, Jacoby said, but asked the group to write the grant applications and studies to prove Why the bike paths are needed in the Seacoast.

Pease is the key

The centerpiece of the whole Project is the elaborate bridge over the Spaulding Turnpike, which will be called the Rockinghain Bikeway Bridge. Tradeport land, much of which is open with little traffic, is considered ideal for cyclists, walkers, joggers and even roller bladers. But there are no safe ways to get there now.

"The keystone is the overpass to Pease. It connects the entire Seacoast with Pease, which will be a transportation hub for business someday," explained Wake.

After some cajoling, the PDA offered to fund 10 percent of the project's cost - $60,000. At the time, the PDA was in the middle of a lawsuit filed by an environ. mental law foundation that sought cleaner air in New Hampshire.

Connecting efforts

Plans for bike routes in the Seacoast overlap, under the SABR umbrella. The city of Portsmouth has its own bikeway committee that applied for funds for bike racks and a safer bike route within city limits. Durham, Newington, Newmarket, Somersworth, Dover and Madbury also have their own, smaller advocates working with the towns -for bike racks, wider roads and clearly defined bike paths. And SABR has worked with the Seacoast Metropolitan Planning Organization, the Strafford Regional Planning Commission, and others.

One of the newest pieces of the cycling plans has become how to connect Portsmouth, and neighboring towns, to the coast. Both Route 1A and Route 1B have narrow, treacherous roadways bikers and walkers must pass before they can reach the ocean. The state Scenic Byways Advisory Committee and a smaller committee for the Seacoast are. studying how that area can be opened up without upsetting the landowners, many of whom don't want the roads widened, and the environmentalists, who don't want to disturb nearby wetlands.

Of the recent byways study, state Rep. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, said, "In every one of the seven towns, bicycle routes came up as a major concern of the communities.

"People here in the summertime feel it's very, very difficult to get around. We worry about our kids. We want them to be safe."

And that is also one of the reasons Wake is trying to raise the money to build safer roadways for cyclists and pedestrians.

"I ask myself, would I let my kids ride bikes around here? Maybe in some places, but not most."

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