Biking in Boston

I wonder how much that'll cost? That wheel ( I think it's kinetic? I'm not an engineer so forgive me if I'm wrong) that was announced a few months ago was pricey as hell.
 
The spokesman in the video talked about an electric bike costing around $2000 and then he said his unit would cost about half an electric bike. The article accompanying the video stated that electric bikes are a "fine-able offense in New York City".
 
Hubway stations are coming back to Boston today, but the Boston system will not be operational until the end of March.

From Hubway's Facebook:
Hubway
SYSTEM ALERT: Hubway continues to deploy stations in Boston today in preparation for the spring season, and Somerville and Brookline stations will follow shortly. But PLEASE NOTE that these newly deployed stations are not yet operational and they will not accept bicycle returns. The Hubway system remains open at Cambridge stations, and plans are to fully connect all deployed stations near the end of March. These stations are scheduled for deployment today, Tuesday, March 11, 2014:

∙ Landmark Centre
∙ Longwood Ave/Riverway
∙ Longwood Ave / Binney St
∙ HMS / HSPH - Ave. Louis Pasteur at Longwood Ave.
∙ Colleges of the Fenway
∙ Ruggles Station / Columbus Ave

If you have any question about whether a particular station is open or closed, please call to speak with a Member Service Representative at 1-855-4HUBWAY (448-2929). More info available at http://thehubway.com/news/2014/03/11/StationDeploymentAlert031114
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Boston Bike Update at Faneuil Hall this year.

https://www.facebook.com/events/399784390165142/

Monday March 31st, 5:45pm.

Biking has doubled in Boston in the last 6 years. Want to know how, why and who helped make this happen? Wondering how biking fits into larger transportation network?

Join us for this sixth annual event with Boston Bikes Director, Nicole Freedman. Register for this event to hear Nicole discuss the future of biking in Boston, including end of year surveys, Connect Historic Boston, the Network Plan, and the path forward under Mayor Walsh.

Boston Mayor Walsh has RSVP'd yes!
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Well that's annoying...

http://beaconhilltimes.com/2014/03/...ont-open-until-after-running-of-the-marathon/

Boylston St. Bike Kiosks Won’t Open until after Running of the Marathon
March 10, 2014
By Dan Murphy

Boston Bikes could launch its season by early next month, but for security reasons, four to six stations in the Back Bay won’t open until after the Boston Marathon, according to Nicole Freedman, director of bicycle programs for the city.

Four impacted stations on Boylston Street are located near City Sports, the Apple Store, the Boston Public Library and the New Balance store, respectively. Stations at Newbury and Hereford streets and Beacon and Charles streets could be installed temporarily prior to the Marathon on April 21, but would need to dismantled during the event, Freedman said.

Despite the delays, Freedman said the locations of bike kiosks throughout the Back Bay would remain the same as last season.

On Beacon Hill, a station at Charles Circle will need to be relocated due to the ongoing rehabilitation of the Longfellow Bridge.

“The station at Charles Circle needs to be adjusted a little bit because of construction on the Longfellow Bridge,” Freedman said. “We’re looking at a nearby alternative location.”

Freedman said the locations of the other stations on Beacon Hill would be the same as last season.

While Freedman said the city doesn’t currently intend to open any new stations in Back Bay or Beacon Hill, she didn’t entirely rule out the possibility.

“We have no definitive plans to add stations in either of those neighborhoods, but we do hope to add and expand throughout all of Boston,” Freedman said.
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Why are they calling it Boston Bikes and not Hubway? Is this just an error?
 
davem said:
I suspect traffic would flow better on Huntington with a single through lane and generous turn lanes than in its current configuration as well. In my experiance, a lot of the backups are due to someone making a left, with everyone behind cutting each other off to get around them.
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We need the traffic engineers to figure this out. There are many examples in Boston of streets that are essentially unusable for cyclists because they have squeezed in four lanes of traffic + parking. Centre Street in West Roxbury is terrible in this way, and the extra lanes help not one bit because of double parkers and people waiting to turn. Drop it to one lane in each direction, left turn lanes, and add bike lanes and that street will likely accommodate greater traffic flow than it does now.
 
I don't see why a station at Beacon and Charles would be affected by the Marathon. Reporting error?
 
Walsh is showing up at the boston bikes update? I don't think menino bothered to show up at any of them.

centre street is probably another candidate - they shut down lanes recently near the library and I didn't notice a big difference in traffic. It's all local traffic - you can pretty much bypass the whole area by taking vfw parkway.
 
The Indianapolis Cultural Trail, the gold standard of the urban bicycle trail.

Check out the eight minute vimeo clip.

http://blog.archpaper.com/wordpress/archives/81066

I'm hoping that landscaping was included in the Connect Historic Boston trail, it makes a difference. Of course, Indianapolis had over $60 million dollars to commit, most by way of private donations. By the way, how come I don't hear much about the Boston elite contributing to civic projects? I'm excluding art museums.
 
Boston Picked for National Program to Help Speed Up Bike Lane Installations
Just six cities across the country were chosen by the PeopleForBikes Green Lane Project.

By Steve Annear | Boston Daily | March 11, 2014 9:40 am

The country’s “leading bicycle movement” has selected Boston as one of just six cities in the country to get new bike lanes designed to help keep cyclists separated from vehicles on the roadways.

Nicole Freedman, director of the city’s Boston Bikes program, sent out an email Monday announcing that The PeopleForBikes Green Lane Project will work with officials to implement “its intensive two-year program to build protected bike lanes” on city streets.

Under the terms of the partnership program, Boston will get strategic, technical assistance from The Green Lane Project, an initiative run by the non-profit PeopleForBikes, to speed up the installation of protected bike lanes—also known as cycle tracks—already in the works. The lanes will keep cyclists and cars in two different sections of the roadways by using either raised curbs, planters, parked cars, or posts “to make riding a bike an appealing option for more people.”

Freedman said the projects vary. Some of the proposed tracks can be done by repainting roadways, while others are still in the design phase. The tracks are city-funded, but will most likely be paid for through grant money. The Green Lane Project helps push the projects forward in a timely manner. “We proposed a specific number of projects in our application all in various levels of design, from early concept to advanced design. Implementation is subject to the public process,” she said.

Boston was picked from a pool of 100 cities across the country and will join Atlanta, Denver, Indianapolis, Pittsburgh, and Seattle as the test cities for the program. The folks at PeopleForBikes said it was a tough decision sifting through the various cities that applied for the installation project, but because Boston has a reputation for getting certain things done in record time, it made the area an obvious choice for the grant.

“It was extremely difficult to narrow down our selection to just six cities; we are seeing an upsurge of interest in accommodating bikes on busy city streets,” said Martha Roskowski, PeopleForBikes’ vice president of local innovation. “Boston has ambitious goals and a strong vision supported by the elected officials and the community. They are poised to get projects on the ground quickly and will serve as an excellent example for other interested cities.”

Boston leaders will join the Green Lane Project at an official kickoff event in Indianapolis in late April, according to Freedman.

“This is just what Boston needs to jumpstart the expansion of protected bike lanes here,” said David Watson, executive director of the Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, or MassBike. “We sent a letter of support for the city’s application to the Green Lane Project, and we are looking forward to seeing more people of all ages and abilities biking safely in Boston.”

The announcement comes just days after the city hosted a meeting to outline the design plans for a new network of bike paths that will loop around the historic monuments Boston has to offer, as part of the “Connect Historic Boston” project.

According to project details, a four-mile track will circle the downtown area after modifications to busy streets are made to better connect cyclists with regional paths and T stations. The bike trail will include a two-way, elevated bicycle track along Staniford, Causeway, and Commercial Streets, as well as Atlantic Avenue. It will also require the reconstruction of Lowell Square and Keany Square.

“Over the next six years, I want to take Boston from one of the best bicycling cities in the country to one of the best in the world. Investing in protected bike lanes is a critical path to that success,” Mayor Marty Walsh said in a statement Monday.

Since 2007, Boston has added 82 miles of bike lanes to city streets and 1,500 bike racks. The city also launched one of the first bike share systems in the country, Hubway, which has grown to 130 stations and more than 1,100 available bicycles.

“With Connect Historic Boston planning underway, we are on track to see some incredible improvements over the next few years, not just for people on bikes, but for all road users, ” Freedman said.
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"...because Boston has a reputation for getting certain things done in record time, it made the area an obvious choice for the grant"

How did Boston possibly get this reputation?
 
Right? I read this and has two thoughts....

First, "wow, I'm glad they don't know the truth."

Second, "What if everywhere else is worse!?"
 
Obviously we are good at getting things done: we built the nation's first subway in just a few short years.
 
We've built expressways AND buried them, all in the same century!
 
Boston has a reputation for getting certain things done in record time
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It's not an incorrect statement, just as long as you stretch the definition of "certain" and "record time" to unrecognizable lengths.
 
I'd argue that the transformation of Boston from worst city in the country for bikes to one of the better cities was a relatively quick transition. Not overnight by any means, but when you consider where we were in 2006 and where we are now/poised to be in another year or two, that's pretty fast.
 
JeffDowntown said:
"...because Boston has a reputation for getting certain things done in record time, it made the area an obvious choice for the grant"

How did Boston possibly get this reputation?
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"Fast 14" bridge replacement and Callahan Tunnel Reconstruction both got a lot of national press for their quick turnarounds.
 
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