Biking in Boston

It's the eternal war between pedestrians, cyclists, and automobiles. Bikes are always caught in the middle.
 
I went to the Beacon Street reconstruction project meeting last night, where they presented 75% design. Despite a series of contention meetings last year, the cycle track remains in the project. Most of the feedback last night centered around the Beacon / Somerville Ave intersection (which is outside project scope) and requests for elevated sidewalks + cycle tracks across intersections to slow traffic.

It looks like they've done a good job of putting landscaped garden patches (the technical term is escaping me) on each side of side streets, which should increase visibility. They probably have to do this for ADA compliance anyway.

Only a small handful of the NIMBY group showed up, so they either didn't get the memo about the meeting or have largely given up. Somerville is putting out an RFP for a residents-only off-street parking somewhere in the northern half of Beacon, where the parking situation will be the most strained. Alderwoman Heuston advocated for localized parking pass for Beacon St & side street residents only, but she'll have to get the city bureaucracy on board for that.

Utility work has already begun and hopefully the surface construction will begin next year. Given the current state of the road, it can't happen soon enough.

It's just one cycle track, but it will be the most prominent cycle track constructed in the Boston/Cambridge/Somerville to date. (We've got Vassar, Concord, now Western, a few projects in Boston that haven't yet moved forward - what else?) Hopefully it helps move the cycle track concept away from interesting-but-untested-and-scary to a tangible idea that can be replicated.
 
The question about Somerville Ave/Beacon St was a little misleading. It's a two part issue. The very western part of the Beacon St project has a westbound cycle track transitioning to a sharrow with an extra travel lane for the last ~50 feet. The big ask here is to continue the cycle track or at least a bike lane and not add that extra travel lane (there is a bike lane designed going eastbound). That would at least line up with the shoulder that currently exists next to the two travel lanes approaching Somerville Ave which is outside this project.

The other ask is to reconfigure that area just before Somerville Ave to facilitate bicycles turning left better, separately from this project.
 
I just went to the Connect Historic Boston meeting on Thursday, the design for the cycle tracks (and the rest of the CHB project) on Staniford, Causeway, Commercial and Atlantic are nearly fully permitted, and the project will be going out to bid this summer. While the contract is expected to be awarded around the end of September, the city thinks that most construction will happen during the spring/summer of 2015.

A PDF of the presentation is available here: http://connecthistoric-boston.org/ideas/connect-historic-boston-bike-trail/
 
Well that's... disappointing.

9' for a downtown cycle track? 8 feet in some places!?! Seriously? That's like proposing an 18' wide street as a major thoroughfare for cars. 8' is the recommended width for a bike LANE. Meanwhile the cars never get their lanes reduced below 10'6, despite 10' being prevalent all over the city.

Whatever, at least it's happening. It can always be fixed in the future I suppose.
 
BussesAin'tTrains said:
Where are there 8 foot bike lanes in Boston?
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Beacon Street near Mass Ave and the Charlesgate. Which cars use all the time despite ten gazillion signs and painted markings.

The issue is that if you have a 5' bike lane next to a 7' or 8' parking stall, at least 4' of that bike lane is in the door zone. Hence the 8' recommendation (and also why most cyclists ride basically ON the line of a bike lane). A bicycle needs about 3'6" to comfortably ride in, more for safe passing. On the street you can pass in the car lanes, on a cycle track you need more room. 9' for two way traffic is not enough.
 
Bike use in Charlestown will likely go up when the North Washington St bridge is rebuilt opening up what should be a safe way to bike into Charlestown. In the meeting they said is was in preliminary design and I think that they said it would have cycle tracks on it. I believe that Boston DPW is designing it.

DCR also stated that they were wrapping up prelim design for the ped/bike bridge over the North Station RR tracks and that they were expecting a 20% cost estimate this summer. Apparently, MassDOT gave them a duffel bag full of cash to spend on the project.
 
Randomgear said:
Bike use in Charlestown will likely go up when the North Washington St bridge is rebuilt opening up what should be a safe way to bike into Charlestown.
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Boston really needs to prioritize a bike route into the city from north of the Charles

The North Bank pedestrian bridge to Charlestown (and then across the dam) allows for a nice alternative to fighting across Leverett Circle. Even if the flyover routes are designed around Leverett Circle, you still have to negotiate Martha Street and that imposing intersection outside the federal building.Washington Street, between the bridge and Haymarket, is like a quarter-mile highway, the cars are given so much room.
 
kjdonovan said:
Boston really needs to prioritize a bike route into the city from north of the Charles

The North Bank pedestrian bridge to Charlestown (and then across the dam) allows for a nice alternative to fighting across Leverett Circle. Even if the flyover routes are designed around Leverett Circle, you still have to negotiate Martha Street and that imposing intersection outside the federal building.Washington Street, between the bridge and Haymarket, is like a quarter-mile highway, the cars are given so much room.
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The Somerville Community Path to Lechmere will get most of it. From there you can ride through North Point Park over into Charlestown. The hard part is from Lechmere through Leverett. Once you get through Leverett you have the obvious hookup to the Esplanade, but for anyone going downtown there's not a lot of options besides the ones you mentioned. Cycle tracks to the Greenway from either Leverett Circle or City Square would really help ridership grow and keep the SCP from dead-ending at Lechmere/Leverett/City Square.
 
Hubway recorded its busiest day in history yesterday. 6,039 trips!

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https://twitter.com/Hubway/status/474202325473431553
 
Any idea how many bikes are in the network? Wikipedia says 1,110 but I have no idea if that's accurate. Anyway, if it is accurate, 5-6 trips per bike in the network seems pretty good.
 
Anyone care to report on how the MassDOT Beacon Street meeting June 3 went?
 
Sorry if this was already posted. In addition to this missing link in Revere mentioned below, I saw that DCR crews have resumed work on the wooden underpass that connects the Mystic paths to Assembly Square. After both of those are done there are just two bits missing between the Mystic paths and the beach: The area between Wellington T stop and the start of the Northern Strand path in Everett (tentatively planned for as early as 2015!)... and then Lynn (datsa big one).

From the Bike to the Sea website: http://biketothesea.com/wordpressbiketothesea/trail-update/

Revere Section of Trail To Be Open Soon
(June 4, 2014) Work is being done on a one-mile stretch of trail in Revere that will link the four miles of paved trail in Malden and Everett with the 2.5 miles of trail in Saugus. This “missing link” will create a continuous 7.5 mile stretch of trail and should be complete by August.

This section of the trail runs along the edge of the Rumney Marsh and features some great views of natural landscape.

The Iron Horse Preservation Society removed railroad ties from the old rail bed there. The trail will be graded, then topped with a layer of recycled asphalt, followed by a smoother layer of stone dust. There are no immediate plans to pave this section or the section of the trail in Saugus.

The city of Revere will remove the train tracks from where the trail crosses Salem Street in Revere. Removing the tracks from the roadway will improve safety for both bikes on the trail and motorists on Salem Street. The Salem street trail intersection will be further improved with attractive fencing and a map kiosk. These new amenities will provide a park like appearance to this important trail access point transforming a former industrial site into a greenway and helping control misuse of the trail by motorized dirt bikes and ATVs.

The city of Malden is working to connect the trail from its current end at Beach Street near Linden Square to the Revere city line. The improvements will also address safety and accessibility concerns at the intersection of Wesley and Lynn Street. These improvements are expected to be completed by Fall 2014.

Keep an eye out for announcements regarding a grand opening later this summer. For your own safety, please be patient and stay off the Revere section of trail until the city officially opens it.
 
I took my usual route to work today and was surprised to find that a new bike lane had appeared on the Surface Rd heading SE from New Sudbury St to North St.
 
http://bostinno.streetwise.co/2014/06/16/cambridge-bike-paths-grand-junction-bike-path-developments/

The Key to Cambridge's Grand Junction Bike Path is Cohesion

Last week, the Cambridge City Council convened a meeting of the Transportation and Public Utilities Committee to discuss the construction of the Grand Junction Bike Path, a mixed use path that runs parallel to the old Grand Junction Railroad from Allston through Kendall Square and up to the Green Line Extension Project. The path is poised to generally improve Greater Boston transportation, if all facets can be undertaken simultaneously, that is.

Here's the situation: The prospective route runs through five different plots of land, each owned by either the City of Cambridge, Cambridge Redevelopment Authority, Massachusetts Department of Transportation or MIT. Each section differs from the last in size and scope, meaning each owner is charged with evaluating and constructing the path on their land.

One of the overriding issues, therefore, is cohesion – How do they get each clock to strike at the same second?

Representatives from each organization, as well as the public, testified before the committee about where thet currently stand in the project, what their respective needs are and a semblance of a timeline. But despite the fact that construction will differ from spot to spot, the overall agreement is that, assuming seamless synchronization, the Grand Junction Bike Path is a must.

"It's a weak link bicycle-wise, North to South along this corridor," remarked Councilor Dennis Carlone, chairman of the committee. "[The project] excited me be because of its logic and because of its need."

In 2012 the Boston Globe put together this map of metro area bike and mixed-use paths. The Grand Junction Path, labeled in red as no. 9, will cut through a heavy-traffic area with noticeably lacking transit options – save for the traditional – and will bridge multiple transportation terminuses in a high-volume, high-density part of Cambridge.

In fact, one representative from the Community Development Department noted that a quarter of all Cambridge residents live within a quarter mile of the path, with 10 percent of MIT graduate students commuting to campus from Somerville and 75 percent of all MIT students living on or close to the school grounds.

So now, the question remains as to how to connect the dots.

Early design renderings suggest a 40-foot path, 24-feet of which will be designated for rail use possibly by DMU cars and the remaining 16-feet for biking, walking, running and more.

The only problem is, it's unclear if each section can support a passage of this width, or even the inclusion of a second rail for two-way DMU traffic, the idea of which was mentioned during the meeting. MIT, for example, has only commissioned a feasibility study of its own section of the corridor and isn't expected to have a report ready until as late as September.

"We're just starting to develop evaluation criteria so that we're all talking about the same thing," said Kelley Brown. And you can't really blame MIT for its exhaustive analysis. They arguably make the most use of the rail, transporting equipment, substances and even hauling trash along the track.

On the flip side, the CRA said they could have designs for their own slice of the path as early as July and "hopefully construct this section of the trail by Fall of this year," according to CRA Executive Director Tom Evans. That's assuming, however, each party involved agrees on a singe rail as opposed to possibly two.

Now you see where things are starting to get a bit convoluted.

MassDOT hasn't put much focus on examining the mixed-use utilization for its land. In fact Ned Codd, Assistant Secretary for GreenDOT, and Scott Hamwey, of the Office of Transportation Planning, mentioned on behalf of MassDOT, "We're actually not studying the corridor at this point." Rather, they're more interested in the prospect of DMU cars moving along the rail instead.

However, he also offered rather vaguely, "The transit potential is important enough that they don't want to close transit opportunities."

The Council concluded that there was little else they could do to forge ahead until each property owner conducted their own analysis and published their own report, and agreed to reconvene in October. Until that time, it's unclear what exactly will unite these groups into creating a single fluid bike path for all to enjoy.

Perhaps it will be Councilor and Cambridge Vice Mayor Dennis Benzan, who is so passionate and so vigilant about the project that he said in closing, "If I were in a position to finance this and fast track this myself, I would do it."

Bikers may be in need of your generosity yet, Mr. Vice Mayor.
 
^ I would infinitely prefer to see transit over that ROW than a bike path. Obviously both simultaneously is ideal, but bikes can be put on residential roadways. Trains cannot. If they do pave a path in some way that precludes double tracking, it is as good as guaranteeing single track for another generation or 2. That is sad - the MBTA's weaksauce DMU dreams lack connections to the existing network, but it at least creates SOME kind of crosstown service. DMUs are a hamstrung mode right out of the box. DMU over non-grade separated single track is borderline useless and is very very unlikely to be implemented at all.
 
fattony said:
^ I would infinitely prefer to see transit over that ROW than a bike path. Obviously both simultaneously is ideal, but bikes can be put on residential roadways. Trains cannot. If they do pave a path in some way that precludes double tracking, it is as good as guaranteeing single track for another generation or 2. That is sad - the MBTA's weaksauce DMU dreams lack connections to the existing network, but it at least creates SOME kind of crosstown service. DMUs are a hamstrung mode right out of the box. DMU over non-grade separated single track is borderline useless and is very very unlikely to be implemented at all.
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The grand junction was 3-4 tracks wide to Main street, so fitting in full blown transit with a path shouldn't be too difficult. There are a few pinch points where MIT built over the ROW, but it's still not too bad. At the bridge itself, if they ever need to use both bays a bike path could be cantilevered off either side, again not too too difficult.

Where it's tough is north of main street, where theres not room for much more than two tracks.


Honestly though, other than the Charles River crossing, I think it's a waste of money. I think a better use of funds would be improving/installing a real eastbound cycle track on Albany St, Portland St, and Medeiros Ave; along with a westbound one on Vassar St, Galilei Way and Fulkerson St, and tying them in to a crossing on the Grand Junction bridge. Other than Galilei Way they are basically back streets already, and have better connections to the cross streets (aka where people are actually going) then a segregated path facing the backsides of MITs labs. Not to mention, just like the SWC, Minuteman and Charles River BIKE paths, it will likely be mobbed with pedestrians walking five across on the wrong side, dogs on retractable leashes stretched all the way out, unsupervised children darting out from behind trees, and everything else people bitch about on Uhub.
 
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