Biking in Boston

cburns said:
This article was dated from June 7. So being eight weeks in, I was hoping a section might already be done, and thus took this route home from Back Bay yesterday. So far they've only spray painted the outline of a couple of bus islands and curb extensions exclusively between Magazine and Shirley Streets.

Pretty disappointing, but look forward to this finally getting done.
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I wonder how much will be delayed because of the OL and GL shutdowns.
 
storymaps.arcgis.com

Everyone Deserves Safe Streets

Our plan to transform Boston's streets for biking and walking in the next three years
storymaps.arcgis.com storymaps.arcgis.com

Mayor Wu announced this forward-looking plan for citywide biking infrastructure which includes 9 miles of new protected lanes by end of 2023.

Reddit is already blowing up about these - but some glaring omissions are charles st and cambridge street in Beacon Hill which is notorious for its NIMBY businesses. Those may be the most politically difficult to push through but also the most helpful to creating a connected network.

Also neglected are Southie, Dorchester, and other poorer areas.
 
sneijder said:
storymaps.arcgis.com

Everyone Deserves Safe Streets

Our plan to transform Boston's streets for biking and walking in the next three years
storymaps.arcgis.com storymaps.arcgis.com

Mayor Wu announced this forward-looking plan for citywide biking infrastructure which includes 9 miles of new protected lanes by end of 2023.

Reddit is already blowing up about these - but some glaring omissions are charles st and cambridge street in Beacon Hill which is notorious for its NIMBY businesses. Those may be the most politically difficult to push through but also the most helpful to creating a connected network.

Also neglected are Southie, Dorchester, and other poorer areas.
Click to expand...
Charles St. is allegedly part of a “separate, ongoing planning process” which sounds fishy to me.
 
The Boylston St (JP) contraflow lane is a great, but only halfway there. It should continue on the other side of the SW Corridor Park, between Lamartine and Washington. As a local resident and cyclist I could go on and on about that omission.
 
sneijder said:
Mayor Wu announced this forward-looking plan for citywide biking infrastructure which includes 9 miles of new protected lanes by end of 2023.

Reddit is already blowing up about these - but some glaring omissions are charles st and cambridge street in Beacon Hill which is notorious for its NIMBY businesses. Those may be the most politically difficult to push through but also the most helpful to creating a connected network.
Click to expand...

I wish there'd be more thought and attention given to bike storage.

I'm not particularly confident that if I (for example) bike Downtown for a night out, that my bike is still going to be there, intact and undamaged when I come out 6 hours later, even with good locks. And certainly not if I wanted to leave it overnight.

I'd be pretty happy to pay a couple bucks for something more secure, but that's not really an option that typically exists at the moment. I'm aware of the MBTA "Pedal and Park" at a few stops, but I can't think of anything else actually in the core parts of the city.
 
bigeman312 said:
The Boylston St (JP) contraflow lane is a great, but only halfway there. It should continue on the other side of the SW Corridor Park, between Lamartine and Washington. As a local resident and cyclist I could go on and on about that omission.
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Good one! This whole area is chaos. Last time I was biking down there I was particularly looking at how the Jackson Square - Ritchie - Marcella - Washington route is a high use car cut-through with obscured corners and very few bike alternatives nearby. Nothing safe about it.
 
millerm277 said:
I wish there'd be more thought and attention given to bike storage.

I'm not particularly confident that if I (for example) bike Downtown for a night out, that my bike is still going to be there, intact and undamaged when I come out 6 hours later, even with good locks. And certainly not if I wanted to leave it overnight.

I'd be pretty happy to pay a couple bucks for something more secure, but that's not really an option that typically exists at the moment. I'm aware of the MBTA "Pedal and Park" at a few stops, but I can't think of anything else actually in the core parts of the city.
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I totally agree. Even the pedal and parks aren’t very well weather protected. If a business existed that had bike lockers throughout the city available for a monthly subscription, I feel like it would be very successful. I’m sure permitting or NIMBYs would interfere somehow. Half the reason I’ll choose not to ride a bike some days is the inconvenience of taking it up and down the stairs of my apartment.

Besides clearing the way for permitting, the city could encourage the downtown garages to convert some spaces into secure storage. This is in addition to just building more regular bike racks.
 
Badusername said:
I totally agree. Even the pedal and parks aren’t very well weather protected. If a business existed that had bike lockers throughout the city available for a monthly subscription, I feel like it would be very successful. I’m sure permitting or NIMBYs would interfere somehow. Half the reason I’ll choose not to ride a bike some days is the inconvenience of taking it up and down the stairs of my apartment.

Besides clearing the way for permitting, the city could encourage the downtown garages to convert some spaces into secure storage. This is in addition to just building more regular bike racks.
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Come on! We can go MUCH bigger....

WÖHR BIKESAFE - WÖHR Autoparksysteme GmbH

Bikesafe - bicycle-friendly parking: The automatic bike house stores up to 192 common bikes uncomplicatedly and safely. Test the Bikesafe!
woehr.de woehr.de
 
bigeman312 said:
The Boylston St (JP) contraflow lane is a great, but only halfway there. It should continue on the other side of the SW Corridor Park, between Lamartine and Washington. As a local resident and cyclist I could go on and on about that omission.
Click to expand...
BTD has a separate project looking at contraflow lanes/traffic calming on Boylston, Atherton, and School Streets to connect the SW Corridor to Franklin Park:
 
Badusername said:
Charles St. is allegedly part of a “separate, ongoing planning process” which sounds fishy to me.
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Bikers should form an all day protest where they occupy an entire lane of Charles Street, from the red line to the public garden. It’s beyond insane that that road has two lanes for parking and three lanes for cars, is such an incredibly vital link between key nodes all over the city, and still has no fucking bike lane.
 
FK4 said:
Bikers should form an all day protest where they occupy an entire lane of Charles Street, from the red line to the public garden. It’s beyond insane that that road has two lanes for parking and three lanes for cars, is such an incredibly vital link between key nodes all over the city, and still has no fucking bike lane.
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Not to mention the tiny sidewalks when the street carries more people on foot than in a car..

With the recent protests from business I'm hopeful that the city recognizes that some improvement is necessary. They could start with just doing temp cones/barrels on one side of the street (similar to boylston st/mass ave bridge). This can be achieved by either removing parking on one side, or shifting the parking lane out by 10 feet away from the curb). The northbound contraflow bike lane is just as important as southbound, and this temp cone setup is hopefully wide enough that it can be a 2-way bikeway.
 
Badusername said:
Charles St. is allegedly part of a “separate, ongoing planning process” which sounds fishy to me.
Click to expand...
That mostly means it's further along in the process than the newly announced areas. They've been working on them for 1-2 years already. I'd expect installation early next year while the others haven't really started outreach and design yet.
 
Planning Underway for Mass. Central Rail Trail Link Over I-95 in Waltham, Weston
MCRT_TrussBridgeRendering.jpg

MCRT_StowStTrailhead.jpg

https://mass.streetsblog.org/2022/0...-rail-trail-link-over-i-95-in-waltham-weston/
 
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