Call him resident dad. Phil Hughes, owner of Wheel Happy, is standing behind the counter of his Edgartown bike shop on recent afternoon, repairing an XC Cannondale mountain bike, spinning its wheels.
The bill authorizing the Department of Public Works to construct a bicycle path between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown has received approval in both the house and the senate, Rep. Gregory Mayhew announced Wednesday. But, the authorization carries little weight because no money has been provided for the project.
The blitz of bike sales on the Vineyard described in this week’s edition portends a busy season for cyclists on Island roads, so extra caution is critical.
The state has doled out some $7.2 million in federal and state aid for pedestrian and bicycle paths between Oak Bluffs and Vineyard Haven, as part of a transportation grant package announced last month.
Clint Slone and Nick Slone are the founders of Spurcycle, a high-end bicycle accessory company in San Francisco. An Edgartown School and regional high school graduate, Clint began working at Edgartown Bicycles, owned by his stepfather, at the age of seven.
A proposal to rent electric bicycles at an Edgartown rental car shop met a cool reception Monday from the town selectmen, who voiced concerns about the safety of the two-wheeled vehicles.
Bryan Nelson, who operates A-A Island Auto Rental, already rents his low-speed electric bikes to customers in Vineyard Haven.
As a cyclist, I am sadly accustomed to abuse, including ignorant and aggressive drivers (thankfully rare on the Vineyard), so-called bike paths that are substandard in design and upkeep, and the overall attitude (despite law to the contrary) that I’m a second-class road user. Even here in Edgartown, the town has put up illegal stop signs on the bike paths (and ignored pleas to remove them), and illegally tries to exclude cyclists from a section of Pease’s Point Way (a ham-fisted response to a fatality some years back).
