Biking in Boston

Boston apparently already has $6 mil on hand to redo Summer Street. The city council expects work to start in September, which seems really fast considering that there haven't been any meetings or public plans yet.

Summer Street Improvement Project: We voted to authorize the Public Works Department to accept and expend a $6M MassDOT grant for pedestrian, bicycle, and traffic improvements on Summer Street in the Seaport. Construction is scheduled to begin this September and end in November 2019 that would include reconstruction of sidewalks, addition of protected bike lanes on both sides, as well as trees, benches and light fixtures for a better pedestrian experience.
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this goes back many years. the project has taken on a few different lifes but its been there.
This project will be through Fort Point from Melcher to just short of West Service Rd.
Eventual connection all the way to reserve channel. As of now, the bike lanes will continue to be parking protected but I dont think they will grade separated (due to the viaduct and other issues).
Plans as of March of this year include parking protected, grade separated bike lane on each side.
8’ sidewalk, 4’ furniture, 6’ bike, 3‘ buffer, parking and 2 travel lanes in each direction.
I do not know if this is the final design or not, but I dont expect it changed too much.
 
Arlington said:
Answer: not done on Causeway or the southern arc of Commercial St in the North End

Still a fabulous aimless bike ride from Northpoint over Miller's River to City Square to Spaulding Rehab to Old Wash St bridge (sidewalk) to Haymarket to Aquarium around North End to North Station and Lechmere. A fabulous way to be a tourist on a glorious day.
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After not doing anything there for a while (the entrance to the Causeway section by Merrimack and Staniford was blocked all winter)- presumably for the construction of Hub on Causeway - it seems like they're making a little progress. It's still blocked off (you can see in the image below), but they did install this nifty little bike counter:

bike%20counter_zpse6r8ixwf.jpg


It also seems like people are starting to get the hint about how the lanes work on Staniford (Bikers are using them, pedestrians aren't, and fewer vehicles are stopping in them).

*edit* The digital display doesn't show well in the photo but it is working. About 48 bikes today when I checked, and 225 for the month so far (I'm assuming this has only been running since the beginning of this week or so).
 
Lrfox said:
*edit* The digital display doesn't show well in the photo but it is working. About 48 bikes today when I checked, and 225 for the month so far (I'm assuming this has only been running since the beginning of this week or so).
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The picture you posted is down, but I hope they got a counter with the right scale. The one on Broadway in Cambridge is so frustrating. It looks like few bikes go by a day, but the scale is really for monthly? ridership!
 
Lrfox said:
3rd party hosting crap with photobucket... that's the last straw for me. I'll see if I can post from Imagur:
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That's awesome, and way better than Cambridge's IF it actually keeps a running tally. I ride by this corner every day to and from work and can't wait to add to the count.
 
Boston Globe 7/28/17
For cyclists, BU Bridge closure is like ‘heaven’

The roadwork taking place along Commonwealth Avenue has forced the temporary closure of the Boston University Bridge to motorists, causing major headaches for commuters who rely on the span when traveling between Cambridge and Boston.

But for some cyclists going across the bridge this week, it felt like a little slice of “heaven.”
{...}
“It’s how I feel sometimes when it snows a lot, and the cars can’t go anywhere, and all the pedestrians are walking in the middle of the street,” she said, adding that she doesn’t own a car. “It’s like you’re getting away with something. It’s kind of neat, as someone who never has the power of the car.”
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There's now a bike traffic light and green paint where the Cambridge Linear Park crosses Mass Ave in North Cambridge. You can now go from one end of the path to the other crossing Mass Ave directly without having to cross Mass Ave and then Cedar St.

I believe they have added an extra phase to the light cycle to facilitate this, but I'm not 100% sure.
 
Balerion said:
There's now a bike traffic light and green paint where the Cambridge Linear Park crosses Mass Ave in North Cambridge. You can now go from one end of the path to the other crossing Mass Ave directly without having to cross Mass Ave and then Cedar St.

I believe they have added an extra phase to the light cycle to facilitate this, but I'm not 100% sure.
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It runs during the outbound lead from Mass onto Harvey (since Cedar is still red during that phase). They were able to add this in with literally no change to vehicular delay, just using some spare time in the existing cycle.
 
Oh, that's excellent. That and closing the stub end of Harvey St to vehicular traffic make that path so much better.
 
This morning a cyclist was mowed down by a trash truck at the corner of Beacon and Carlton Sts in Brookline. Right hook by truck turning onto Carlton. He was conscious but his leg looked to be in rough shape.
 
sm89 said:
This morning a cyclist was mowed down by a trash truck at the corner of Beacon and Carlton Sts in Brookline. Right hook by truck turning onto Carlton. He was conscious but his leg looked to be in rough shape.
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Yikes! I ride that stretch a lot. Usually trucks are pretty cautious because of the narrow lanes anyway, bikes riding in the right lane also helps slow down cars. Hope his leg mends up quick!

In other news, in Arlington:

I don't care how angry you are about cycling law, if you get stopped by a cop don't be an asshole, and certainly don't FLEE!
 
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This looks relatively new(?) At the corner of Causeway and Merrimac St. Haven't been in this part of the city in a while and haven't seen it posted here before. Apologies if it has. I like the idea though.
Looks like they're finally finishing up construction here.

EDIT: I missed Lrfox post about it earlier last month.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
What exactly is that?
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A machine to count bikes, because why not? Honestly though, its rather interesting to walk by and see a live count of the number of bikes per day, month and year. They city gets good publicity in saying they had x-thousand bikes travel on their new bike lanes. Not to mention this live data could be used to help argue for more bike lanes.

Quick Google search brings up a similar (almost identical) counter in Oregon costing around $20,000.
 
A lot of updates in Cambridge:

Thanks to participatory budgeting funds, separated bike lanes have been added to a couple blocks of Mass Ave between Trowbridge and Quincy streets (entering Harvard Square).

Also thanks to PB, a 2-way cycle track was installed on Brattle Street. This provides much-needed protected east-west connectivity into the square. The Harvard Square Business Association hates the cycle track because it's harder to double park on the lightly used street. They got the mayor to propose an order slowing new bike facility construction, but due to vague language and opposition from hundreds of bike lane supporters, the resolution got watered down to "let's communicate better."

Just last week, the city installed parking-separated bike lanes going both ways on Cambridge Street, between Quincy Street (Harvard Sq) and Antrim St (Inman Sq).

At the kick-off event, city councillor Marc McGovern said:
In the last 4 yrs Cambridge has allocated $4m to bike infrastructure and over next several years were allocating $30m
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Up next: North Mass Ave, which will mainly be getting standard bike lanes (but that's still a huge improvement for the many people who bike in from Arlington etc.). Some reddit comments from the public meeting yesterday.
 
sm89 said:
Also, Broadway between Hampshire and Galilei got MULTI LANE buffered bike lanes. I don't think I've seen separate queuing spaces for different bike directions anywhere else in the region. This is probably the busiest section for biking in the entire city.

https://twitter.com/johnhawkinson/status/901957017677557764
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As of this morning, the eastbound bike lane is now flexpost-separated for the entire block--it had been repainted with a buffer after recent street work but was missing physical separation.
 
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