Biking in Boston

Well, eventually is probably starting in August. The Town of Brookline has sent the Emerald Necklace Crossing project out to bid with bids due June 29th.
I plan to swing by Town Hall, 4th floor, in the next few days and hopefully take a few pics of what the plan is.
 
The real time bike counter on Broadway in Kendall Square got flipped on yesterday or today, 1,800 bikes around 7 tonight.
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I watched a Camberville-bound cyclist tick it over from 1,799 to 1,800 so seems like it is working!
 
I'm waiting for Bike Party to ride on over and give Cambridge a nice outlier.
 
Every town in MBTA Zone 1A should have at least one such bike counter.
 
Groundbreaking for the Connect Historic Boston project has just been announced: 1pm Friday July 10 at Union St in the Blackstone Block.
 
I'm waiting for Bike Party to ride on over and give Cambridge a nice outlier.

Flat Top Johnny's is a popular spot for that but -- I just did some snooping around the bike counter and realized that it only counts bikes that are in the bike lane. If you look closely at the street surface you can see the outline of the digging that they did to install the sensor.

Bike Party can't even begin to fit within the bike lane, unless they take extra special care to line everyone up and take 30 minutes doing it.
 
Groundbreaking for the Connect Historic Boston project has just been announced: 1pm Friday July 10 at Union St in the Blackstone Block.

?? Causeway St has been under construction for a few weeks now ??
 
Got clipped on Cambridge St, Cambridge this morning. Guy in a sedan ahead of me pulled over into the bike lane; no signal. I pulled out to go around him. He swung into a u-turn without a signal and without warning from a full stop. I clipped his back quarter and the bike went down. No harm done except to my handlebar tape.

Just another reminder to be careful out there...
 
Got clipped on Cambridge St, Cambridge this morning. Guy in a sedan ahead of me pulled over into the bike lane; no signal. I pulled out to go around him. He swung into a u-turn without a signal and without warning from a full stop. I clipped his back quarter and the bike went down. No harm done except to my handlebar tape.

Ugh, sorry to hear. Cambridge Street (Cambridge) is always a little chaotic with double parkers, parking-seekers, truck deliveries, cab alightings and more.

In my continuing quest to avoid Beacon Street I biked through Harvard Square northbound for the very first time last night. I have always avoided that route due to the convoluted intersection of Cambridge St/Mass Ave/the bus tunnel. To my surprise there was a left-side bike lane leading to brand new multiuse path through the grassy median above the bus tunnel. It ends in a bike signal that gets you back onto Mass Ave northbound between car phases. It's slower than biking in the road but it feels fairly safe until you get dumped back onto Mass Ave. It looks new but I can't find anything on it online.
 
Yes, it's new. Part of the whole Cambridge Common revamp.

I tend to avoid Harvard Square either way not only because of the tunnel but because it's typically crazy in the square itself with narrow bike lanes, double parked cars, out-of-town buses, and tourist drivers.

I was once nearly clipped by a gigantic touring bus that edged over the line on that narrow stretch. About 1 inch away. Took all of my experience not to fall.
 
Got clipped on Cambridge St, Cambridge this morning. Guy in a sedan ahead of me pulled over into the bike lane; no signal. I pulled out to go around him. He swung into a u-turn without a signal and without warning from a full stop. I clipped his back quarter and the bike went down. No harm done except to my handlebar tape.

Just another reminder to be careful out there...

i hope he stopped and apologized..
 
i hope he stopped and apologized..

Fortunately he did. Lots of other people around as well. Right in front of the fire station, so I would have had help quickly had I needed it.
 
Cambridge posted pictures of the new multiuse path at Harvard Square: https://www.facebook.com/CDDat344/posts/1123793744304683

Entrance at south end, sharing a signal with the peds:
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Path itself
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Bike signal at north end:
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Some yellow lane striping on the path and reminders to keep right would be nice, but the path itself is pretty nice from my one ride on it.
 
^ Thanks for re-posting them (and presenting them in a logical south-to-north / Square-to-Common order)! It definitely needs a dotted yellow centerline, even if it were purely a walk-jog path (so few people get even walk and escalator etiquette).
 
Cambridge posted pictures of the new multiuse path at Harvard Square: https://www.facebook.com/CDDat344/posts/1123793744304683



Some yellow lane striping on the path and reminders to keep right would be nice, but the path itself is pretty nice from my one ride on it.

Nice, but Im so sick of this inclusionary shit... "multi use"... how about two paths, one for peds, one for bikers? In Harvard Sq, this is inevitably going to be clogged with peds...
 
Nice, but Im so sick of this inclusionary shit... "multi use"... how about two paths, one for peds, one for bikers? In Harvard Sq, this is inevitably going to be clogged with peds...

Not like that works so well on the SWC anyway...

Looks like they could have made this wider. Seems to be bare minimum.
 

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