Biking in Boston

Boston hopes to launch European-style bike-sharing program

By Associated Press
Tuesday, March 3, 2009 - Updated 2d 1h ago

BOSTON ? Boston, long known as a walking city, is hoping to become as friendly for bicyclists.

The city has put out a request for proposals to create a bike share program. The proposal envisions a network of 150 stations scattered across the city with 1,500 bicycles available to students, commuters and visitors with the swipe of a card.

Officials eventually hope to expand the network to 600 stations in the greater metropolitan area with 6,000 bikes.

Washington, D.C. launched the nation?s first bike share program last year. Other cities, including San Francisco, are considering similar initiatives, while European cities such as Paris already have successful programs.

Boston hopes to have its bike share program up and running by spring 2010.
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This is great news. If Menino pulls this off I will have to have a lot more respect for him. San Fran has a similar plan that is getting blasted because it only has 50 bikes. Yes, 50 bikes for the entire city. Epic Fail.
 
vanshnookenraggen said:
Link

This is great news. If Menino pulls this off I will have to have a lot more respect for him. San Fran has a similar plan that is getting blasted because it only has 50 bikes. Yes, 50 bikes for the entire city. Epic Fail.
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Menino has nothing to do with it.

The companies (14 or so) will submit their RFP. Some will propose 50 bikes. Some will propose 1,000. Boston will chose the one that makes them the most amount of money.
 
Also its important to note that "the city" means everything inside the I-95 area. The headquarters for the regional agency in charge just happen to be in Boston.
 
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What kind of bikes will they use? How do they ensure they don't get trashed?
 
kennedy said:
What kind of bikes will they use? How do they ensure they don't get trashed?
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Each company will propose their own bike, although all will be pretty heavy duty, at a cost of 400-800$ per bike. They will get trashed, they will get stolen. The companies just need to design their business plan around that. One deterrent is a high fee ($500) for not returning a bike.
 
jass said:
Also its important to note that "the city" means everything inside the I-95 area. The headquarters for the regional agency in charge just happen to be in Boston.
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Are you sure? As far as I've heard, this is a Menino initiative. Cambridge and Somerville and Brookline will probably want to join it at some point, but Boston's going to drive the process since they're the biggest city. (It would make no sense for Cambridge to pick a different bidder than Boston, since people will want to ride between the two cities.)
 
Ron Newman said:
Are you sure? As far as I've heard, this is a Menino initiative. Cambridge and Somerville and Brookline will probably want to join it at some point, but Boston's going to drive the process since they're the biggest city. (It would make no sense for Cambridge to pick a different bidder than Boston, since people will want to ride between the two cities.)
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Im 100% sure Ron.

Any proposal should include Cambridge, Sommerville and Brookline and can include medford and such. Its a unified bidding process, which is why a regional agency is in charge
 
This appears to be a joint initiative of the City of Boston and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. I think that the Mayor deserves at least some of the credit. From http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/default.aspx?id=4122

Mayor Menino, Boston Bikes Announce Request for Proposals for Bike Share Program

3/3/2009 - Released by Mayor's Office
For more information contact Press Office

Program will introduce ?green? mass transportation system to metro-Boston

Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Nicole Freedman, Director of Boston Bikes, today announced the release of a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a bike share program. The RFP, spearheaded by the City of Boston in partnership with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), represents a major step towards establishing a bike share program. Bike share is pat of Mayor Menino?s vision to create a more vibrant, healthy, and green-friendly Boston. Working with MAPC, the RFP solicits proposals for a green mass transportation system for the metro-Boston area, understanding that the impact of this new transit system increases exponentially by incorporating surrounding municipalities. The RFP calls for the creation of a dense network of over 150 stations, making over 1,500 bicycles readily available through the swipe of a card to students, commuters, and visitors in Boston. The RFP is available today, and submissions are due by May 15th, 2009.

?Our collective vision for bike share aims to create much more than a network to serve the City of Boston,? Mayor Menino said. ?By extending the system?s reach to neighboring municipalities, bike share has the potential to make metro-Boston a world-class bicycling destination by creating safe and inviting conditions for all residents and visitors. Successful bike sharing programs in Europe have not only established biking as a significant means of transportation; they have transformed the entire culture and mindset around transportation.?

Environmental, health, and economic benefits to Boston include the elimination of up to 315,000 car trips annually, an estimated reduction of 750 tons of greenhouse gases, a 300% increase in bike trips, and the creation of over 50 new green jobs.

Bike share will use hubs and computer systems to provide a simple, robust, and reliable network for customers. The overall system will be efficiently managed, carefully maintained, and will ensure that bikes are evenly and regularly distributed throughout the system. The City of Boston hopes to launch the program in spring 2010 with up to 1,500 bikes and 150 stations within the City, eventually incorporating up to 6,000 bikes and 600 stations in the metro-Boston area. Bike share will create a new transportation system that provides users of all backgrounds a seamless, positive experience that complements and enhances the current transportation options.

The program will target the following users and trip types:
Short bicycle trips used in conjunction with and complementing public transit usage, replacing motor vehicle and/or pedestrian trips and accessing areas not well served by public transport;
Regular trips for work, school, shopping, etc. taken by subscribers;
One time trips taken by tourists looking for one day or one-week passes;
Spur of the moment trips taken by irregular users and subscribers.

From Paris to Barcelona, more than 25 European cities have bike share programs, with the number of new programs increasing over the last several years. Paris? Velib program is the largest of these initiatives, with 198,000 subscribers and 91 million bike trips annually. The web and terminal-based self-service model has proven transformative in Europe by dramatically increasing bicycling and inspiring many new participants to the activity. Launching in June, Washington D.C. is the first North American city to have a bike share program, and a number of other American cities are planning programs.

RFP Packets may be obtained by contacting Heidi Anderson at MAPC by email at handerson@mapc.org or by phone at 617-451-2770 x2065. Proposals are due at MAPC, 60 Temple Place, 6th Floor, Boston, MA 02111 no later than 12:00PM Noon, Friday, May 15, 2009.​
 
sidewalks said:
IMO the bike advocates are getting undue influence...I would point to the example above and the fight over the Mass Ave reconstruction in the south end as exhibits A and B. The Mass Ave stretch is no place for bikers. It is a major artery for traffic. Bikers with a lick of common sense should take adjoining side roads. And while I would like to see a bike lane accommodated over the BU bridge it should not come at the expense of a major vehicular bottleneck.
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I counter point -- Mass Ave is no place for cars -- it is a major URBAN artery that should be bike, transit and pedestrian oriented. Keep the cars in the burbs!
 
Jeff Mass Ave is a major link between City Hospital/BU Medical Center, Cambridge, the South Bay Industrial District, and I-93. Unless East Berkley (Please rename it Dover..) and Dartmouth Streets are better connected to Albany Street sometime soon, all that traffic isn't going anywhere.
 
Boston Globe - April 14, 2009
$80m in US funds for bike projects unspent in Mass.
State ranks last, tapping 37% of grants since 1991

By Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent | April 14, 2009

WASHINGTON - Despite a recent declaration by Governor Deval Patrick that encouraging bicycling is a priority for his administration, Massachusetts ranks last in the nation among all states in requesting federal funds for bike lanes, rail-trails, and similar improvements and has failed to use more than $80 million set aside for the state.

Since 1991, the state has only spent about 37 percent of its share of the funding designated by Congress for such projects, a far lower rate than in any other state, according to federal statistics. By comparison, Connecticut and Rhode Island have spent 99 percent of their federal funding.

Massachusetts has been allocated $135 million for bike and pedestrian funding since 1991, and has used $51.1 million. Critics blame the gap on a cumbersome application process that requires cities and towns to pay for planning and engineering studies, submit applications to two state agencies, and then wait, sometimes for years.

"It's an embarrassment," said Steven E. Miller, a board member of Livable Streets, a Cambridge-based group that advocates for transportation alternatives.

Transportation advocates said that the state's application process is so slow and intricate that some municipalities do not bother to apply. A typical rail-trail project in Massachusetts takes about 10 years to complete.

Because cities and towns must initiate projects, they are more likely to run into local opposition.

As a result, numerous plans for bikeways, rail-trails, and pedestrian projects have been delayed or the organizers have been forced to seek other funding sources.

"Things that could be getting built are not getting built," said David Watson, executive director of MassBike, a coalition of Bay State bicyclists.

In a transportation plan released in February, the governor pledged to increase support for biking and pedestrian facilities.

Colin Durrant, a spokesman for the Executive Office of Transportation, said the state has hired consultants to overhaul its procedure for handling federal grants.

The federal government began subsidizing bicycle and pedestrian projects in 1991, when Congress sought to encourage biking, walking, and increase use of mass transit. Since then, the program's grants have been credited with sparking a nationwide expansion of rail-trails and bicycle facilities.

The majority of states, including the other five New England states, spent more than 85 percent of their share of federal funding through 2007, according to statistics compiled by the National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse, a group sponsored by the Federal Highway Administration, and the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy that tracks annual state-by-state spending.

In Massachusetts, however, much less of the money has reached local projects.

The federal funding has "basically been off the table," said Wendy Landman, executive director of WalkBoston, a nonprofit that encourages pedestrian improvements.

Colleen Abrams - president of Wachusett Greenways, a partially completed network of bike trails in central Massachusetts - said the group met with state officials in the 1990s to discuss applying for federal funding, but was warned off.

"It sounded pretty much like a long road," she said. "We haven't even tried to access it."

Instead, the project is being funded by private donations, state tourism grants, and a separate, smaller federal program that supports recreation projects.

A few projects have successfully earned federal grants, including bikeways in Bedford, Greenfield, and Boston.

The fact that Massachusetts, unlike many other states, requires towns and cities to pay for initial studies deters many communities from applying, said Michelle Ciccolo, vice president of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, one of the agencies that reviews applications for bike and pedestrian projects in the Boston area.

"The design of something like a bike path is often a lower priority at a time when we need every penny we can to fix potholes," she said of the reaction of cities and towns.

The $80 million in federal funding left unused by Massachusetts theoretically remains available. Finding a way to use the balance is "definitely a concern" for the state, Durrant said.

However, budget analysts said the money would become increasingly difficult to tap because unused funds are periodically recalled by the federal government.

"Certainly, everyone would agree that it's not good to let the money just sit there," said Tracy Loh, program coordinator at the National Transportation Enhancements Clearinghouse. "Rescissions can happen at any time."

Durrant said the historically low rate of spending on bike and pedestrian projects in Massachusetts reflects decisions by past administrations to channel every available dollar to highways, especially the Big Dig, the $15 billion Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel project.

The federal government sets spending levels for each state that are slightly higher than a state is actually allowed to spend each year and then gives the states wide latitude to choose how to make cuts to reach the lower level.

"Given the limited amount of funding that was left over for all statewide needs" after accounting for the Big Dig, "worthy enhancement project were forced to compete with critical bridge and highway repairs that were required for safety and maintenance," Durrant said.

The federal transportation bill is up for renewal this year, and some environmental groups have called on Congress to crack down on states like Massachusetts that have taken money out of programs like bicycle and pedestrian spending while preserving highway funds.

In the meantime, advocates said they hope the Patrick administration's review would free up a much needed source of money.

Landman, for one, said that if the state could "shake loose" federal grants, it would open new possibilities for projects across the state.

"I don't know how we ended up like this, at the bottom of the barrel," she said. "There is absolutely a pent-up demand."
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Goeebels said it doesn't matter what lie you put out there; if you're in authority, at least a big minority of people will believe it. Deval Patrick seems to know this:

Despite a recent declaration by Governor Deval Patrick that encouraging bicycling is a priority for his administration, Massachusetts ranks last in the nation among all states in requesting federal funds for bike lanes, rail-trails, and similar improvements and has failed to use more than $80 million set aside for the state.
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That is such a political truism that I'm not sure you really needed to name-drop Goeebels to give it weight, even if he was the first to admit it. And I doubt Patrick is the first (or worst) politician to employ it. In fact you might have a hard time naming one who hasn't.
 
Boston Globe - July 29, 2009
Hub?s bike routes beckon, white knuckles and all
City details plans for cycle sharing

By David Filipov, Globe Staff | July 29, 2009

A bicyclist on his first ride in Boston pedals tentatively into the furious rush-hour snarl of Charles Circle on a stormy morning. He signals that he needs to go left. The BMW behind him wants to go straight. Guess who wins. The biker brakes hard to avoid a collision, earning an angry honk from the Honda Civic behind him.

This is biking in Boston, city of clogged streets, minimal bike lanes, and drivers who often act as though two-wheeled vehicles have no right to the road. City planners want to change all that - by putting more bikers in the streets. They intend to roll out what would be the nation?s first citywide bike-sharing system next spring, making hundreds of bicycles at dozens of stations across Boston available to anyone who can swipe a credit card.

If all goes as planned, Bostonians and visitors will ride these bikes to run errands, reach their workplaces, travel from tourist site to tourist site and from meeting to meeting. All of this, officials say, will make drivers and bikers more respectful of each other, and possibly take some cars off the city?s road ways.

Over the next few weeks, officials expect to name the company with which they would negotiate a contract on how to run the system. They hope the program will lead to tens of thousands of people saddling up in Boston daily.

Now the question becomes whether enough people will put their lives on the line riding on bicycles along city streets that even Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who has led the push to make Boston bike-friendly, describes as ?old cow paths turned into roads.??

Nicole Freedman, the city?s ?bike czar,?? says yes.

?Bike share will transform Boston into a world-class biking city,?? she said. ?All I see is this incredible upside.??

The former Olympic cyclist, who estimates she has ridden enough miles to travel to the moon, is convinced that Boston bikers can cycle with the cars, even in a city thrice named by Bicycling magazine one of the nation?s worst for bicyclists. To prove her point, one recent morning Freedman led an inexperienced cyclist on several typical bike-sharing routes, each less than 2 miles and 30 minutes long.

The hair-raising negotiation of Charles Circle was not the only fright. As the newbie pedaled tentatively through windblown rain down Beacon Street, a teal Chevy Cobalt, its driver clearly impatient with the cyclist?s pace, accelerated and blew past, then made a sharp right, forcing the rookie?s second screeching halt of the morning.

Bike enthusiasts call this a ?right hook,?? explained David Watson, executive director of the advocacy group MassBike. So pugilistic are encounters with motorists that cyclists borrow terminology from boxing: a ?left cross?? is when a motorist turns left across the path of a biker going straight.

The bike ride was not all bad. Freedman?s routes - from City Hall Plaza to Kenmore Square, then to the South End, then to South Station, then back to City Hall - demonstrated the efficiency of biking instead of walking or taking public transportation. The city-owned bicycle was comfortable and stable. A biker?s-eye view of Boston is quite pleasant, when the biker is not terrified.

Appointed by Menino in 2007, Freedman is spearheading the effort to make Boston better for bikers; she has overseen such developments as citywide bicycling events, an annotated bike map, miles of new bike lanes and paths, and dozens of new bike racks. Bicycling magazine has changed its tune: In June 2008, it named Boston ?a future best city?? for biking.

Bike sharing is the next step. The city envisions making available between 1,000 and 3,000 bikes at stations 300 or 400 yards apart, located at subway and bus stops, main squares, tourist sites, and across city neighborhoods.

Riders would probably have the option of subscribing to the program for an annual fee, which would allow for discounts, or day passes. BikeNow, one of three companies the city is considering to run the program, would charge $2.50 for a day pass or $40 for an annual subscription. Each would allow cyclists unlimited rides of less than 30 minutes, but longer rides would be charged at an hourly rate, said Amy Trus, one of the Boston University School of Management graduates - class of 2009 - who formed the company. Cheap but functional helmets, Trus said, would be sold for $6 at nearby stores.

The bikes would have locks sharers could use during stops, but they would have very little value to thieves, said David Boyce, who runs the bike-sharing program for another company Boston is considering, Veloway.

A subsidiary of the France-based company Veolia Transportation, which operates the MBTA?s commuter rail system, Veloway would use bicycles that would be relatively heavy compared with bikes sold in shops, and their components would be hard to remove, Boyce said. He said the bike-sharing program Veloway runs in London has seen very little theft or vandalism of the bikes. (A third company Boston officials are considering is Public Bike System, which runs BIXI, Montreal?s bike-sharing program.)

Freedman said bike sharing in Boston would be as popular as it has become in Paris, where the city had to double its fleet of 10,000 bikes and 750 stations several weeks after its program opened in 2007. Today, on average, the 20,000 shared bikes in Paris are ridden some 200,000 times.

Watson says Boston is lagging behind in cycle-friendly infrastructure. The city added five miles of bike lanes last year and is planning five more for this year, while New York has added 200 miles in the past three years. Watson believes a bike-sharing program will force Boston to become bike-friendlier faster.

Safety is a bigger problem. The new bicycle law in Massachusetts addresses some dangers - for example, ?dooring,?? when a car occupant opens a door and hits a biker, is now a ticketable offense. Supporters cite studies that suggest biker fatalities and injuries decrease the more cyclists are on the road.

?As people see more cyclists in the streets of our city they?ll be more aware of the issues of safety,?? Menino said in an interview. ?It works in other places, it will work in Boston.??

Menino, who has become an avid biker, is planning campaigns to educate drivers on how to coexist with bikers. But cyclists are also part of the problem: They ride on sidewalks, run red lights, and stop in right turn-only lanes, all of which infuriate drivers. Freedman pointed out a couple of riders who rode, helmetless, the wrong way on East Berkeley Street in the South End. With more bikes on the street, the city will have to ?make sure bikers bike safely,?? Freedman said.

Nearby, Rich Coombs, whose family owns Community Bicycle, a bike sales and service shop in the South End, expressed doubt that bike sharing would work in Boston.

?There are tight roads to begin with - roads dating back hundreds of years, little cow paths,?? he said. ?There?s barely enough room to squeeze by with narrow handlebars.??

Still, those little cow paths give Freedman hope.

?People could live here before there were cars,?? she said, ?and they can do it again.??

David Filipov can be reached at filipov@globe.com.
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Allston's about to get some bike lanes:

Allston-Brighton TAB - July 10, 2009

Get ready for street paving in Allston
By Kathleen Moore
Fri Jul 10, 2009, 06:28 AM EDT

Allston, Mass. -

City officials told Allston residents on Monday that traffic on North Harvard Street will be slower, but not stopped, from July 13 to 25 when public work crews begin resurfacing the roadway between Soldiers Field Road and Western Avenue.

Around 30 residents turned out for a public meeting on the project, sponsored by the Mayor?s Office of Neighborhood Services, at the Honan-Allston Branch Library.

Department of Public Works Project Manager Kevin Linsky said his crews will minimize disruption to area residents by doing the bulk of their work during the evening hours, between 7 p.m. and 5 a.m. All jackhammers and other loud machinery will be turned off by 11 p.m., Linsky said, and motorists will have continual access throughout the two-week project. Weather permitting, the resurfacing will be finished July 25.

?Will there be some inconvenience? I will not look you in the eye and say there will not be inconvenience,? said Linsky. ?But I will tell you that I will do everything possible to minimize the inconvenience.?

Linsky invited residents to call him directly ? 617-438-8507 ? if they have any problems.

In addition to smoother driving, the refurbished roadway will feature two bike lanes, each five feet wide, on either side of the street, said Joseph Beggan of the Harvard University-Allston Development Group.

To make room for the lanes, 115 of the 140 parking spaces along this stretch of North Harvard Street will be eliminated, he said. As a result, there will be no parking on the Harvard Stadium side of the street, and there will be about 25 spaces on the other side. Five of the remaining parking spots will be reserved for handicapped plates, located in front of the Harvard Business School, and 15 will be located in front of the Charlesview Apartments.

Beggan said that he does not anticipate the parking changes to cause a major upheaval for area residents, whose parking privileges are protected through a residential parking sticker program and, in the case of Charlesview Apartments, an off-street lot.

He pointed out that, on any given day, about 20 percent of the cars that currently park along North Harvard Street bear out-of-state plates. Others, he said, belong to people who either work in the area or unload their bikes there to continue their daily commute. Those people will have to find other options, he said.

?I think some of them will stop parking in the area,? he said. ?They?ll have to find other free spaces in the city or make other arrangements.?

A Boston Transportation Department official, Vineet Gupta, offered to step up enforcement of existing ?residents only? parking restrictions in response to a Kingsley Street resident who said she feared the new arrangement would cause an upsurge in illegal parking in her neighborhood. She said her street already fills up with nonresident vehicles on weekdays.

Gupta also said he would look into designating some of the spots in front of the Charleview Apartments as ?residents only? spaces and would investigate the possibility of installing speed limit signs.

Linsky said there may be interim parking bans on the street as his crews work on various sections of the road, but he promised to distribute fliers to all residents and businesses before instituting any towing. He also said he would look into using a local lot to store any towed cars, making it easier for residents to retrieve them.

Beggan said the institution of bike lanes along the North Harvard Street corridor makes sense, given the growing popularity of two-wheeled transportation. He estimates that, during peak commuting periods, there are already between 50 and 60 cyclists per hour using North Harvard Street. He said the new design falls well within the accepted guidelines for vehicular traffic, giving motorists an 11-foot passage in each direction. The road?s width will not be increased, he said.
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Allston-Brighton TAB - July 24, 2009

A lane for bikes coming to A-B
By Pat B. Tarantino
Fri Jul 24, 2009, 06:48 AM EDT

Allston, Mass. -
This summer will see the construction of a new bicycle lane along Harvard Avenue in Allston.
The proposed half-mile addition will run from Cambridge Street to a pre-existing bicycle lane ending at the Brookline border between Verndale Street and Brainerd Road, and is part of an effort to encourage safe cycling in Boston communities.

?These lanes are important because they give riders a safe place on the road and allow cars to pass safely,? said Nicole Freedman, director of bike programs for the city of Boston and head planner for the bike lane initiative.

Freedman and her team are currently reviewing the second set of engineer drawings to ensure the addition will not impede commercial traffic or local parking, and will submit its findings before the plan is finalized.

Although there is no price tag attached to the project, Freedman said bicycle lanes typically cost between $25,000 and $40,000 per mile and suggested this project would fall within those prices, which include design, materials and labor involved in installing the new lane. To minimize costs, Freedman and her office are targeting roads currently under construction that already need their lines repainted.

?The process is more complicated than one would think,? said Freedman, who outlined a multistage process that involves three sets of design drawings, street and traffic analysis and internal reviews.

By the end of the summer, Freedman expects several miles of bicycle lanes to be added to Boston streets.

Citing a 200-cyclist survey conducted last year in Boston, Freedman said that the addition of new bike lanes is the biggest concern for the city?s growing cyclist community. She also referred to a 1998-2008 survey conducted in New York City that indicated that dedicated bicycle paths increase urban ridership while reducing accidents.

According to Freedman, the Harvard Avenue route was targeted due to heavy traffic and Allston?s rapidly growing cyclist community.

?We know Harvard Avenue has a great need, and we?re happy to do it,? Freedman said.
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There are tight roads to begin with - roads dating back hundreds of years, little cow paths,?? he said. ?There?s barely enough room to squeeze by with narrow handlebars.??
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It's strange that these articles harp so much on the "old little cowpath" roads. In my experience, it's the slow narrow streets of the financial district, North End or Beacon Hill that create the greatest impression of shared space among vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians. By contrast, the "new" urban renewal roads of the West End, for example, are cyclist hell.
 
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