EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — When a weekend storm coated the East Bay Bike Path with about 4 inches of wet, heavy snow, Geoff Williams knew he was going to have to rig up his plow.

It’s a homemade contraption Williams has been pulling on his electric bike for the past few years to help clear the path, which he uses on his daily commute from Barrington to Providence year-round.

After 2½ hours of riding extremely slowly through the snowy slop, he had cleared 4 miles of the East Bay Bike Path. He noticed a few other people had also cleared small sections of the pavement, but plenty of the path was still covered in snow two days after it had fallen.

Bundled up in winter gear and sitting on a bicycle with studded tires on a freezing February morning, Williams looked over the East Bay Bike Path at one of its entrances in East Providence and wondered what the rest of his commute might have in store.

Twisting his front wheel into the snow, he explained that even with studs, the tires can’t get a good grip on the slippery stuff. Where people bike or step on fresh snow, icy ruts form that can easily catch a tire.

In a few places he has to get off his bike and walk it, otherwise it’s a slower, more careful crawl than usual. He hasn’t fallen in the snow yet, but he did say he’s had a few close calls.

Williams is part of a community of cyclists who use bike paths and lanes to safely travel around the state year-round. They say bike infrastructure often goes unplowed and untreated for days after it snows.

To understand why an area hasn’t been plowed, it helps to figure out who is in charge of maintaining that section of infrastructure. And that can be confusing.

The East Bay Bike Path, for example, runs through several municipalities, but its maintenance is under the purview of the state Department of Environmental Management.

“DEM cannot clear and maintain the entire East Bay Bike Path to facilitate commuting in winter conditions,” agency spokesperson Evan LaCross wrote in an email to ecoRI News. “In general, DEM’s Division of Parks and Recreation does not plow state bike paths, which are also utilized for winter activities such as skiing, snowshoeing, and winter hiking.”

The state Department of Transportation has built much of the state’s bike infrastructure, but agency spokesperson Charles St. Martin said in a statement that it’s usually up to towns and cities or DEM to maintain them, including dealing with snow removal.

The city of Providence is responsible for a lot of its own bike lanes, and since the start of this year, it has received 44 complaints through its 311 service about uncleared infrastructure. Many of the complaints noted that bikers need to use the lanes to get to work and that conditions make those commutes dangerous.

Callers most often complained about lanes on South Water Street, Olney Street, Broad Street, and Empire Street.

“Really treacherous ice covering the curb cuts and the bike lane at Dollar Street and South Water Street,” one person complained to 311 on Jan. 23. “The roads are very well kept, please give as much effort for the sidewalks and bike paths too.”

“Please make sure to take care of the places people walk and bike, as well as the road and cars,” pleaded another, also complaining about South Water Street.

Providence “does not have an official policy for snow removal on bike infrastructure. In general, the City prioritizes the removal of snow in the most frequently used areas and infrastructure to ensure the safety and accessibility of all residents,” according to city spokesperson Josh Estrella.

Daria Brashear, a transit advocate and avid bike rider who travels between her home in Cranston and Providence frequently, said she has been making an effort to call into 311 when she sees problems.

“Every time it’s snowed, and to be fair it hasn’t happened a lot this year,” she said, “every time it takes a couple of days” to clear bike infrastructure.

Brashear said she’s had one fall this year, nothing too serious, but more often the ice and snow have forced her to walk, take the bus, or call a friend for a ride.

“I understand that there are less people on the road … but less isn’t the same as none,” Brashear said. When she goes out, she has to ask herself, “Am I going to be able to bike, or I am going to die?” and she wishes that wasn’t the case.

For Sam Archer, a commuter who bikes daily between East Providence and Providence, “response to snow on the bike paths is spotty.”

The snow and ice make the ride “much more treacherous and much slower,” Archer said.

At the top of the bike ramp at India Point Park earlier this month, he had what he described as a “zero speed slip and fall,” that he said wouldn’t have happened if it hadn’t been icy. He didn’t need to go to the hospital, he said, but he was definitely sore.

“I thought I got off easy,” he said, “and then three days later I was like, ‘Oh, my shoulder!’”

Still, he said he’s been happy to see bike lanes over the Henderson Bridge and the George Redman Linear Path over the Washington Bridge plowed recently — both have been cleared by RIDOT.

Williams was also pleasantly surprised to see the Washington Bridge lanes were cleared on a recent morning — that hadn’t been the case the night before when he was biking home.

RIDOT hasn’t always cleared snow from the bridge, but it will this winter, “understanding that it may be more utilized for commuting given the Washington Bridge closure,” according to St. Martin.

When meeting with Williams in India Point Park, it took an ecoRI News reporter traveling by car about the same amount of time as Williams on his bike to get from East Providence to Providence.

If the bridge hadn’t been cleared, it wouldn’t have been a tie, Williams said.

“This is awesome,” he said, “I know they have lots of other [stuff] to do.”

Although the plowing made that portion of William’s commute easier, because it had been cleared several days after the snowfall, the path was still icy and unsafe in certain spots.

“It’s not perfect,” he said, “but it’s rideable.”

As for the snow that was in the forecast for the rest of the week, “I don’t feel great about it,” Williams said. “Like do I get up at 3 o’clock in the morning and go do a plow run, and then ride to work?”

Williams sighed, got back on his bike and rode his final leg to work.