WOONSOCKET, R.I. — Transportation took center stage at City Hall on July 13. But the conversation wasn’t about the way nearly 82% of households get around by car. Instead, officials turned their attention to bicycles and the infrastructure needed to make cycling and walking safer.

Sean Clark shaped the discussion after spending years urging elected officials to make Woonsocket a destination instead of a drive-thru city by investing in infrastructure that supports people who walk, bicycle, and use public transit.

Clark is part of a nationwide movement of cyclists who carry their helmets into public meetings to press local officials to rethink their streets. When municipal budgets fall short, they take their ideas to state officials to seek funding for projects that local leaders say the barrier is the cost.

City Council meeting minutes show Clark has been making that case since 2024. He told council members that someone had confided that the city wanted to support bicycle infrastructure, but because no one publicly asked for it, the issue never gained momentum.

“Here I am,” Clark said.

He came back with fatality data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. He returned with police records showing the number of pedestrian and cyclist crashes in Woonsocket. Then came a proposal addressed to the city that landed on the council’s agenda.

“In short: We are planning a bicycle race in our city,” one document read.

The Tri-State Cycling Club wanted to transform downtown Woonsocket into a racecourse for a day. To make the USA Cycling-sanctioned event dubbed Woonie Crit happen, Clark needed officials to temporarily close portions of the city.

The council approved the request, 7-0. The bicycle race was held July 12.

Clark came back again to another meeting to challenge the city’s e-bike ordinance, which prohibits riders from using them on sidewalks and within Woonsocket parks and recreational areas.

He told the council that, in his view, it was unfair to restrict where people could ride without first building infrastructure that would keep them safe.

Woonsocket has no protected bike lanes, a gap Clark wants to change. His wish list extends beyond painted lines, though.

At meeting after meeting, he’s used his 5 minutes at the podium to push for narrower streets, one-way roads, speed bumps, expanded public transit, bike paths, and partnerships with neighboring municipalities to address the needs of pedestrians and cyclists.

Still, Mayor Christopher Beauchamp told the council that he would do his best to enforce the e-bike ordinance during the summer.

Then Woonie Crit happened, and downtown bicycling racing returned to Woonsocket as 176 people took over the city’s streets.

“I couldn’t drive up and down Main Street on a bike, but they went all over,” Beauchamp said during the July 13 meeting. He added that riders traveled from Boston after hearing about an event in a city they’d never visited before.

“That’s how we make things better in Woonsocket,” he said.

The meeting offered another sign of Clark’s influence.

Public works director Steven D’Agostino told council members he recently rode the Blackstone River Bikeway on his e-bike.

“I don’t have the courage to be out on the street yet with it,” he said. “But the bike path is gorgeous.”

While Beauchamp didn’t mention e-bikes during the recent meeting, he told residents that connecting bike paths is under consideration.

The goal has always been personal for Clark. 

“This is my home,” he once told council members. “This is how I get around.”