It's a funny thing about bike paths that when someone suggests creating one, just about everyone says it's a bad, dangerous idea, likely to attract unsavory people to places in the state that they wouldn't otherwise go.

Journal photos

Your turn: Which bike paths do you ride? Why?

Then, once the bike path is up and running, just about everyone thinks it's great -- an asset, a feather in a neighborhood's cap, something that makes nearby houses more valuable.

Next thing you know, everyone wants to know why the bike path isn't longer -- size mattering, at least when it comes to bike paths.

That's the way things went some 20 years ago, with an idea for the first Rhode Island bike path -- the East Bay, which now runs about 14.5 miles connecting Providence to Bristol through East Providence and Barrington.

At first, it was thought radical -- the idea of turning a long-disused rail bed into a smooth, paved bicycle path. There were political obstacles, neighborhood concerns, physical obstructions, rights-of-way issues.

What a crazy idea!

The state's first bike path was a crazy idea that came from several great minds at about the same time, beginning with that of then-state Rep. Thomas Byrnes, Democrat of Bristol, who in 1980 introduced a bill to promote "bicycle riding as an alternate, energy-saving method of transportation . . . by conversion of abandoned railroad and canal rights of way into recreational trails."

In particular, he thought, the old Penn Central railroad tracks ran from East Providence to Bristol, much of the way along the bay, making the route ideal for the state's first bike path -- Rhode Island having acquired the railroad right of way in 1976 after the railroad went bust.

Two years later, W. Edward Wood, then director of the state Department of Transportation, and a few legislators began actively pushing the idea of an East Bay Bike Path. But instead of applause, they met boos, the loudest from Rep. Arthur Read, Republican of Barrington, who said the proposed bike path would become a "criminal's highway" allowing inner-city folk into Barrington's backyards.

"(The bike path) is an ill-conceived and ill-thought-out plan that must inevitably lead to ruin," he said. "Everybody seems to be avoiding the two principal issues: Patrolling the path and maintenance."

But a little band of bike path supporters refused to give up on the idea. Among them were two Georges: Sisson of Bristol and Redman of East Providence.

In 1985, they formed "Friends of the Bike Path," later enlarged to Friends of Bike Paths. Through their perseverance, along with continued support by Byrnes and Wood, the first work on the future East Bay Bike Path began in Riverside Square on May 22, 1986.

The path was completed in four stages, opening full length in May, 1992 -- and the rest is history. Thousands of people bike, walk, jog, in-line skate, exercise their dogs and stroll their babies on the East Bay Bike Path every day, very few of them criminals.

When it snows, they cross-country ski on it.

Kids use the path to ride safely out of traffic, and senior citizens walk it to keep fit. Among them is Joan M. Batchelder, 81, of Riverside, who takes a daily constitutional on the bike path and makes a ritual of feeding treats to a feline path-lover, a cat named Ozzy, who waits for Batchelder at a green bench recently installed near the Haines State Park entrance from the bike path.

The two concerns raised by Read and others -- patrolling and maintenance of the bike path -- are carried out by the state's Department of Environmental Management, Parks Division -- the same men and women in green trucks who patrol and maintain all of Rhode Island's state beaches and parks, including the two that are connected to Providence by the East Bay Bike Path: Haines and Colt State Parks.

The East Bay Bike Path is in effect a nearly 15-mile-long state park. (The new Blackstone Bike Path is open for about half that distance now and is part of the state park system. Rhode Island's other two bike paths -- the Washington Secondary in Cranston-West Warwick, and the William O'Neill in South County -- are not part of the state park system. See separate stories for information on them.)

So, a quarter century after Byrnes had his "crazy" bike path idea, the state's original bike path -- the East Bay -- has proved to be an asset: an alternate, energy-friendly way for people to reach the public parks and greenspaces along upper Narragansett Bay.

kimbrie@projo.com / (401) 277-7630

SEE dozens of photos of Rhode Island's bike paths:

projo.com/lifebeat