PORTSMOUTH — Heidi and Rick Lang have lived in Portsmouth for only six months, but on Saturday morning, Island Park gave them a pretty good introduction to the neighborhood.

The couple and their children, Ava, 5, and Otto, 3, were riding their bikes along Park Avenue during the fourth annual Sakonnet Coastal Bike & Stroll when they encountered something difficult to pedal past: free snacks.

Cheryl DeMello, Tanya DeMello and Arianna DeMello had bought snacks and drinks and set up a table along the curb, offering them to anyone who happened by.

“We just wanted to do something for the kids and give back to the community,” Cheryl DeMello said.

They weren’t alone. Another group was handing out free lemonade, while businesses including Localz and Graziano’s 501 Cafe set up tables with treats outside their restaurants.

The Bike & Stroll was organized by the Island Park Coastal Community, along with the Portsmouth Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee and Bike Newport. Now in its fourth year, the event is designed to give residents a chance to experience the waterfront neighborhood at a slower pace, with a stretch of Park Avenue largely turned over to bicyclists, walkers and families for the morning.

The Island Park Coastal Community, which is in the process of incorporating as a nonprofit, has said money raised through the event will stay in the neighborhood.

For a few hours Saturday morning, Park Avenue belonged largely to bicycles, pedestrians, strollers and families enjoying a nearly traffic-free trip along the Sakonnet River.

There were, however, a few complications.

The Bike & Stroll happened to fall on the same morning that hundreds of riders in the 101-mile Bike to the Beach for Autism came through Portsmouth on their way from the Boston area to Newport.

And then the fire trucks showed up.

Shortly before 11 a.m., firefighters responded to a gas leak at a home behind Flo’s Drive-In and Schultzy’s Snack Shack. As a precaution, authorities further restricted traffic on Park Avenue, preventing vehicles that normally could travel north to Flo’s from proceeding beyond the Boyds Lane intersection.

The incident did not disrupt the Bike & Stroll, but it added another layer of activity to an already busy morning.

Nobody had a better vantage point than Bari Freeman, founder and executive director of Bike Newport, which was helping manage both cycling events.

Freeman stood at Park Avenue and Boyds Lane, where Bike to the Beach riders came off the Mt. Hope Bridge, traveled down Boyds Lane and turned onto Park Avenue before heading toward Aquidneck Avenue.

“Yay — Bike to the Beach!” Freeman called as riders streamed past. “Welcome to Aquidneck Island, and we’ll see you in Newport!”

Compared with the leisurely Bike & Stroll crowd, the Boston-to-Newport contingent was unmistakable. There were more bicycles, more miles behind them — and considerably more spandex.

Then came the emergency vehicles.

“We’ve got two things going on here today. Well, actually three things,” Freeman quipped.

Turnout for the Bike & Stroll was on the “lighter side,” she acknowledged, “but there were a lot of families and a lot of happy people.”

For Freeman, that enthusiasm is about more than getting people onto bicycles for one Saturday morning. She sees events like the Bike & Stroll as evidence of growing support for streets that are safer and more accommodating for cyclists.

Bike-friendly infrastructure

She pointed to action taken Sept. 16 by the Newport City Council, which unanimously gave first approval to a comprehensive overhaul of the city’s bicycle ordinances.

“For several years we’ve been working on a package of every bicycle ordinance in the city,” Freeman said. “They passed the whole package.”

The revisions include rules on traffic signals, bike lanes, passing cyclists and opening car doors into traffic. They also make bicycle registration a recommendation rather than a requirement and establish a 15 mph speed limit on bicycle paths and trails.

Newport officials also authorized pursuing roughly $6 million in additional federal Safe Streets for All funding that became available after Portsmouth reduced the scope and budget of its own projects.

Freeman hopes Newport’s ordinance work can be replicated elsewhere.

“It really should be a model,” she said. “Other municipalities can have confidence in it. It’s not everything, but it’s a great start.”