It’s summer, and for people in the mid-Atlantic region (well, at least me) that means the Outer Banks in North Carolina. Most people will drive to get there and will, unfortunately, have to use their cars for every meal and excursion once they get there.
But not at Ocracoke Island, otherwise known as bike heaven.
Ocracoke Island is the southernmost island in the Outer Banks. It’s very small, 16 miles long, and can only be accessed by a system of car ferries. The village, in a small one-square-mile area on the southern edge of the island, only has roughly 800 year-round residents, but swells up into the thousands during the summer. It’s a place I love, and I’ve gone there every year for over a decade.
Unlike the other islands along the Outer Banks, it developed a massive bike culture in which there are just as many bikes as cars on the streets (see the island’s handsome bike and walk map), in part because of the lack of a bridge. In fact, the local newspaper said that Ocracoke may have the highest amount of bike racks per capita in the state in a recent editorial advocating for more bike parking.
Its isolated nature, requiring a ferry ride from the mainland, makes cars only useful for trips to the ferry or for visits to the northern beaches on the island. In 2011, CNN called biking on Ocracoke and neighboring Hatteras Island one of the best coastal bike rides in the U.S. A few years later, a trail was built (and bike lanes when entering the village) paralleling the main road Route 12 that now connects the village to the lifeguarded beach and National Park Service campground about 3.5 miles north.
While Ocracoke has cultivated a culture that makes it easy to forgo the car at the beach once you arrive, the rest of the Outer Banks is still very car-dependent – with much of its vehicle infrastructure in desperate need of repair. There is relief on the way as the Bonner Bridge connecting Hatteras Island (home to the tallest lighthouse in the U.S.) to the more populated areas like Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills and Nags Head is just now being replaced after it was deemed structurally unsound with the shifting coast.
Water transit may be an untapped resource for these islands – especially as a way to encourage less car-dependent development. Currently, ferry services in the northern Outer Banks and elsewhere are limited to emergencies and evacuations. Some to look forward to is the creation of a circulator “tram service” in Ocracoke and passenger ferry service running between Hatteras and Ocracoke, connecting village center to village center next year even as the large car ferries have a harder time being able to move through an increasingly shallow Pamlico Sound.
There are other things these islands can do to emulate Ocracoke’s bike culture. Lowering speed limits or installing sidewalks can make a large difference in many beach communities. In fact, some other stretches along Route 12 are getting sidewalks.
Beach communities can analyze what resources and situation they are in and, from there, make their villages more accessible to visitors and locals by cultivating bike friendly, pedestrian friendly, or transit friendly places for summers to come.
Photo by the Outer Banks Guide.