Biking in Boston

Baker-Polito Administration Announces Construction Will Begin to Complete Northern Strand Community Trail
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
2/07/2020
www.mass.gov

Baker-Polito Administration Announces Construction Will Begin to Complete Northern Strand Community Trail

www.mass.gov www.mass.gov

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Vagabond said:
Baker-Polito Administration Announces Construction Will Begin to Complete Northern Strand Community Trail
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
2/07/2020
www.mass.gov

Baker-Polito Administration Announces Construction Will Begin to Complete Northern Strand Community Trail

www.mass.gov www.mass.gov

View attachment 3420
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This is great news. Is that map accurate, though? Or is it just a stock photo? I am unable to find anything believable as to what the route of the extension is, and whether or not it is going to go across the commuter rail tracks or not.
 
With these last three posts, this may have just become the most efficient thread on this board.
 
kjdonovan said:
With these last three posts, this may have just become the most efficient thread on this board.
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Is it derailing the thread to comment on the lack of derailing of the thread in a prior exchange? ;)


The EGE said:
See the Lynn bike plan here: http://www.cityoflynnoecd.net/documents/community/2019_Lynn Network Plan Report.pdf#page=8

From Western Avenue, there will be two spurs. Main spur follows South Common, Market, and Lynnway to the Lynn Shore Drive circle, where you connect to existing paths. Local spur follows the ROW to Summer and Neptune, possibly Bennett.
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Great stuff. Cant wait for this one to be finished. Now, it just needs a really good bike connection from Boston to Everett.
 
In the image what is the difference between solid lines and dotted lines?

My experience of the trail has been from Wellington Rumney Marsh where the trail changed from blacktop to stone dust (roughly at the end in the word "strand")

Does completion mean being fully paved? Or just that the former railroad right-of-way will be continuously improved ?
 
FK4 said:
Great stuff. Cant wait for this one to be finished. Now, it just needs a really good bike connection from Boston to Everett.
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There's a pretty good route from downtown to Everett via Charlestown. I rode it two weekends back and found it very easy to navigate Sullivan Square over to the bridge and through to the casino area.
 
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Arlington said:
Does completion mean being fully paved? Or just that the former railroad right-of-way will be continuously improved ?
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Solid line is the off-street path. Dotted is the on-street and mostly separated cycletrack extension.

Funds would cover paving the crushed stone sections in Revere/Saugus and continuing the path from the Lynn line to basically the Lynn Common. Also bring it from the southern terminus in Everett to the Mystic path system by Gateway Center.

My dream of biking my family to the beach without my wife asking "Are you sure this is right?" grows closer by the day.

Big question is... bridge or gondola to get over to Assembly?
 
sm89 said:
Looks like Boston is starting to add concrete barriers to some of its separated bike lanes.
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1264271717574287360
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I have the sinking feeling that a bunch of those are going to get deposited broken along the curb just like the flexi-posts (a.k.a. target practice) they're supposed to augment. At least these will leave a nice-sized mark on somebody's passenger door when they get run over.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
I have the sinking feeling that a bunch of those are going to get deposited broken along the curb just like the flexi-posts (a.k.a. target practice) they're supposed to augment. At least these will leave a nice-sized mark on somebody's passenger door when they get run over.
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Are they concrete or plastic?
 
jass said:
Are they concrete or plastic?
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Pressed concrete...forklift-compatible so they can be removed and stacked in storage for snow plowing season. But they're extremely small compared to the average parking spot concrete bumper...maybe 1/3 as long. Decent-speed sideswipe will send them moving out-of-position (albeit with a mighty scratch to show for asshole's effort), and a garbage truck would make mincemeat out of them. And when that happens the hazard gets inverted onto the cyclists who have to watch out for these things being out-of-position sticking into their lane, or start seeing gaps open up in the barrier when busted ones had to be removed.


Right idea...just seems a tad underweight at that very short length for standing up to the rigors. Probably will also have higher-than-average attrition rate because partial breakage won't leave any remaining chunks large enough to keep temp-using. Protection gaps will inevitably start opening up by late in the season on particularly strike-prone sections of street (such as where the bike lane abuts a lot of truck activity), and they're going to have to order more fresh replacements each offseason. If they had the same exact thing with same exact forklifting notch but at 2x the length they'd be on much more solid footing. Heavier enough to not need nearly as much resetting after a rigorous strike...and if they break any fragments half-or-greater long are heavy enough to retain for the rest of the season and could be sanded down at the ends during the offseason for repurposement as new corner-turning blocks rather than needing outright replacement. Would be safer, less maint-intensive, and cost less year-to-year from lower attrition to get the weight up to something maybe 75% of what one of those generic parking bumpers is. Still a 'consumable' item, but with much more attractive attrition rates and much more set-it-and-forget-it seasonal maintenance when it takes at least double the force to shift it out of position into a cyclist hazard.
 
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F-Line to Dudley said:
Pressed concrete...forklift-compatible so they can be removed and stored for snow plowing season. But they're extremely small compared to the average parking spot concrete bumper...maybe 1/3 as long. Decent-speed sideswipe will send them moving out-of-position (albeit with a mighty scratch to show for asshole's effort), and a garbage truck would make mincemeat out of them. And when that happens the hazard gets inverted onto the cyclists who have to watch out for these things being out-of-position sticking into their lane, or start seeing gaps open up in the barrier when busted ones had to be removed.


Right idea...just seems a tad underweight at that very short length for standing up to the rigors. Probably will also have higher-than-average attrition rate because partial breakage won't leave any remaining chunks large enough to keep temp-using. Protection gaps will inevitably start opening up by late in the season on particularly strike-prone sections of street (such as where the bike lane abuts a lot of truck activity), and they're going to have to order more fresh replacements each offseason. If they had the same exact thing with same exact forklifting notch but at 2x the length they'd be on much more solid footing. Heavier enough to not need nearly as much resetting after a rigorous strike...and if they break any fragments half-or-greater long are heavy enough to retain for the rest of the season and could be sanded down at the ends during the offseason for repurposement as new corner-turning blocks rather than needing outright replacement. Would be safer, less maint-intensive, and cost less year-to-year from lower attrition to get the weight up to something maybe 75% of what one of those generic parking bumpers is. Still a 'consumable' item, but with much more attractive attrition rates and much more set-it-and-forget-it seasonal maintenance when it takes at least double the force to shift it out of position into a cyclist hazard.
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It may be hard to tell from the Twitter photos, but these are actually much more significant than a parking stop. The barriers are about 10' long, 6" high and 12" wide. At 150lb/cuft, you're looking at about 700lb per unit (By comparison most parking stops are about 6' long , 6" high, and 6-9" wide and less than half that weight). You're right - trucks can still drive over them without too much effort, except for the end pieces which are well over a foot tall. But these are definitely pretty significant and will likely act as a strong deterrent for most drivers while also being able to take a few knocks from the average size vehicle. They're also staked in with rebar, hopefully keeping them in place even better. I am curious about winter maintenance, because with the lack of continuous edge these will be susceptible to frequent plow strikes.

For a better reference of size, check out this photo:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1265084076618383364
. The arrow next to it is 6' tall (per MUTCD) and much shorter than the barrier.
 
Both of those are shown on the Boston Healthy Streets map, released today. At least a portion of Charles Street is on there as well, though it looks like most of the facilities will be constructed with much more rapid/tactical materials:
We will use traffic barrels and signs to immediately add the following bike lanes:
  • Arlington Street between Beacon Street and Stuart Street
  • Beacon Street between Charles Street and Berkeley Street
  • Boylston Street between Arlington Street and Washington Street
  • Charles Street between Boylston Street and Beacon Street
  • Columbus Avenue between Clarendon Street and Stuart Street
  • Court Street between Congress Street and Tremont Street
  • State Street between Atlantic Avenue and Congress Street
  • Tremont Street between Court Street and Shawmut Avenue
  • Shawmut Avenue between Tremont Street and Marginal Road
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https://www.boston.gov/departments/transportation/healthy-streets
 
Codman89 said:
Both of those are shown on the Boston Healthy Streets map, released today. At least a portion of Charles Street is on there as well, though it looks like most of the facilities will be constructed with much more rapid/tactical materials:

https://www.boston.gov/departments/transportation/healthy-streets
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The game plan is to first construct them with rapid techniques, and then certain ones that were already in the Connect Downtown bike network expansion for this year will get redone properly over the next few months.
 
I am surprised no one has commented. Both of the twitter posts show vehicles in the bike lane. That's going to work well, right?
 
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