Biking in Boston

[KCasiglio]

Reading into "to support bikeshare operations" I suspect that some of the MAPC awarded money is going to fund the electrification of some of the stations rather than just being a straight expansion project.

So the station electrification is planned to be funded by MAPC's federal congestion relief grant. The focus is going to be on the busiest stations. The "support bikeshare operations" in here is going to go towards subsidizing the cost of ebikes for the end user. TBD on the details of that.

 

[sm89]

The new bluebikes operating contract is now in effect. The old one dated to I think around 2017? Either way, I anticipate some price hikes coming soon, though hopefully paired with user improvements and expansion.

 

[KCasiglio]

Can't speak to pricing aside from the above but there will be A LOT of expansion. Removing the per-station operating costs for munis outside of Bos/Camb/Somerville is massive.

 

[Stlin]

View attachment 72107
Somerville recently (last week) published it's final plan for the "Elm-Beacon Connector." Generally looks quite good, cleans up the messy that is the Willow-Beech movement, removes through vehiclular traffic from Mossland via providing a bike filter. That second one I expect will get pushback from drivers, especially since Cedar-Beacon is fairly common for magoun and winter hill.

City of Somerville Publishes Final Design for Elm-Beacon Connector

Rendering of Elm Street at Cherry Street Final Design Update After a year of engaging community members, analyzing traffic patterns, developing traffic signal options, testing emergency and public transit operations, collaborating with City of Cambridge, and developing a full design, the City...

voice.somervillema.gov

 

[RandomWalk]

Given the use of flex posts, I expect gig workers to YOLO the Mossland barrier.

 

[ceo]

Huh. That's a hugely popular driving route they're closing down, despite it being a huge PITA due to the ~5-second green interval for Mossland. I hope they've done traffic analyses to determine where the people currently going from Cedar to Beacon are going to go instead. Probably through the parking lot of the Starbucks at Elm St & Somerville Ave, unless they close that cut-through.

 

[DAVE]

View attachment 72107
Somerville recently (last week) published it's final plan for the "Elm-Beacon Connector." Generally looks quite good, cleans up the messy that is the Willow-Beech movement, removes through vehiclular traffic from Mossland via providing a bike filter. That second one I expect will get pushback from drivers, especially since Cedar-Beacon is fairly common for magoun and winter hill.

City of Somerville Publishes Final Design for Elm-Beacon Connector

Rendering of Elm Street at Cherry Street Final Design Update After a year of engaging community members, analyzing traffic patterns, developing traffic signal options, testing emergency and public transit operations, collaborating with City of Cambridge, and developing a full design, the City...

voice.somervillema.gov

The mossland design seems great, feels like a lot of streets I've seen in Montreal.

 

[bigeman312]

View attachment 72107
Somerville recently (last week) published it's final plan for the "Elm-Beacon Connector." Generally looks quite good, cleans up the messy that is the Willow-Beech movement, removes through vehiclular traffic from Mossland via providing a bike filter. That second one I expect will get pushback from drivers, especially since Cedar-Beacon is fairly common for magoun and winter hill.

City of Somerville Publishes Final Design for Elm-Beacon Connector

Rendering of Elm Street at Cherry Street Final Design Update After a year of engaging community members, analyzing traffic patterns, developing traffic signal options, testing emergency and public transit operations, collaborating with City of Cambridge, and developing a full design, the City...

voice.somervillema.gov

I love the addition of protected bike lanes on Elm, especially between Beech and Cutter. That is a major bike corridor between Davis/Tufts/Teele/West_Somerville/Medford_Hillside and Mass Ave and points south (Cambridge, Back Bay, Fenway, Allston, Brighton, etc).

I love the redesigned Beech/Elm intersection. That intersection is in desperate need of a redesign. The added pedestrian space there is a big value-add, as well.

 

[pfd12]

Huh. That's a hugely popular driving route they're closing down, despite it being a huge PITA due to the ~5-second green interval for Mossland. I hope they've done traffic analyses to determine where the people currently going from Cedar to Beacon are going to go instead. Probably through the parking lot of the Starbucks at Elm St & Somerville Ave, unless they close that cut-through.

Yes, they did a detailed traffic analysis once dead-ending Mossland became a serious option: https://voice.somervillema.gov/25883/widgets/87454/documents/65510

They will be making signal timing changes at the Somerville Ave intersections at the end of Elm St as well as at Beacon St to accommodate where they think Cedar > Mossland traffic will divert. They said they can't do anything about the Starbucks/laundromat cut through since it's private property, but the property owner is aware of the planned changes and will probably put in speed bumps or something to discourage that behavior.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

This could go in several threads, unfortunately. . .

Mayor Wu's Latest Budget Plan Eliminates Funding for Over a Dozen Street Safety Projects: See the List - Streetsblog Massachusetts

Mayor Wu's recently-published budget proposal appears to eliminate dozens of capital projects from the city's five-year capital plan, according to a comparison of this year's fiscal year 2027 proposal with the current fiscal year 2026 enacted budget.

mass.streetsblog.org

 

[Stlin]

This could go in several threads, unfortunately. . .

Mayor Wu's Latest Budget Plan Eliminates Funding for Over a Dozen Street Safety Projects: See the List - Streetsblog Massachusetts

Mayor Wu's recently-published budget proposal appears to eliminate dozens of capital projects from the city's five-year capital plan, according to a comparison of this year's fiscal year 2027 proposal with the current fiscal year 2026 enacted budget.

mass.streetsblog.org

So I generally like Streetsblog, but this while this one has merit on the whole it suffers from a couple of issues... Namely, it conflates total project budgets with what was actually programmed for spending in FY27 and beyond. JP South/Centre is described as having a $1M budget being cut to zero... Most of that is already spent with 840k/$1M expended. Bus lanes should have already spent ~8.9/13.45M this and prior fiscal years.

Comm Ave 3&4 spent 1/2.5, and the 11M from the 3B part unlike most projects didn't even have a funding authorization, havin listed it as "future" for years... There's some nuance that's been missed here, especially since Comm Ave seems to have been picked up a new 2M transit improvements project.

 

[ball_square]

So I generally like Streetsblog, but this while this one has merit on the whole it suffers from a couple of issues... Namely, it conflates total project budgets with what was actually programmed for spending in FY27 and beyond. JP South/Centre is described as having a $1M budget being cut to zero... Most of that is already spent with 840k/$1M expended. Bus lanes should have already spent ~8.9/13.45M this and prior fiscal years.

Comm Ave 3&4 spent 1/2.5, and the 11M from the 3B part unlike most projects didn't even have a funding authorization, havin listed it as "future" for years... There's some nuance that's been missed here, especially since Comm Ave seems to have been picked up a new 2M transit improvements project.

Thanks. I enjoy what Streetsblog does but sometimes I wish they'd cool it with the sensationalism. Like, I'm already mad about bike lanes and transit, the facts are strong enough on their own.

 

[Longfellow]

IDK, I think it might be time for transit people to play dirty. I personally don't care if Streetsblog lies about this stuff if it puts pressure on the right people. MassDOT plays with our lives every day, why give them an inch?

 

[millerm277]

IDK, I think it might be time for transit people to play dirty. I personally don't care if Streetsblog lies about this stuff if it puts pressure on the right people. MassDOT plays with our lives every day, why give them an inch?

Because making large mistakes or intentionally lying/misleading torpedoes their credibility and greatly reduces how seriously anything they have to say will be taken in the future, perhaps?

You can find plenty of outlets that have taken that path and gone from being taken seriously to ignored by most.

 

[Codman89]

A lot of folks on this forum (myself included) argue for improved transit, walking, and biking infrastructure because we believe the merits of that infrastructure is self-evident. It can be demonstrated, tested, and proved without need for exaggeration or slight of hand. That is the power of the argument. Letting that go for potential short-term gain undermines the strength of every academic article, case study, or successful example of a healthy transportation systems. If those become conflated with disingenuous arguments, we're left with a shouting match where only the loudest wins. I think anyone that's been to a community meeting recently can agree - that would be a terrible outcome.

As for the Streetsblog article itself, I actually don't find that to be disingenuous. Stlin raises some good points, but I also think the article appropriately notes instances where federal funding may have impacted the decision (Roxbury Resilient Transportation Corridors) or where the project had already been stalled for 6+ years (Commonwealth Avenue Phase 3, 3B, and 4). And while a significant part of some project budgets has been spent (JP Centre/South) - what is the community left with as a result? The goal of that project, per the website, was a safe, balanced, community-centered design for Centre and South Streets. If funding is pulled before the community engagement and street redesign vision even begins, does it matter whether budget was previously spent? I'd argue the more salient point for any reporting is that the project is being cut before it achieves (any of its?) goals.

As a separate note, thank you to anyone in these forums who may have attended the council hearing this week. I did not, but I will be following up with councilors who's line of questioning I thought was beneficial. I would encourage other Boston residents to do the same. Support people when they represent the things you believe in.

 

[StreetsblogMASS]

Because making large mistakes or intentionally lying/misleading torpedoes their credibility and greatly reduces how seriously anything they have to say will be taken in the future, perhaps?

I'm going to chime in here, because we categorically are not "intentionally lying" and I strongly disagree with the characterization that our reporting is "sensationalist." @Stlin is correct, there is quite a bit of nuance in the budget (maybe too much nuance for an internet forum), and we focused on the total top-line budget authorization numbers for each project.

We could have gotten more into the weeds with expenditures vs. remaining unspent funding, but when we're writing, we need to strike a balance between providing enough detail to let people know what's going on, versus trying to provide too much detail and thereby boring our readers to tears (in the news biz, they call this "editorial judgement").

Part of that decision also requires asking ourselves how important those details really are in the grand scheme of things. If you're walking, driving, or taking the 39 on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, it's cold comfort that the city has spent $840K out of a $1M budget – the street is still kind of a mess, and whatever planning and design work the city has done is still incomplete.

In other words, the ratio of spent/unspent funding doesn't matter much to the fundamental outcomes our readers experience. These projects had been in the city's project capital plan for years, and everyone was expecting them to remain there until they produced a shovel ready design plan followed by additional funding (often with state or federal matching funds) for a construction project.

By removing them entirely from the city's capital plan, all those prior years' expenditures on design and planning work are now just sunk costs for projects that are much less likely to proceed.

 

[RandomWalk]

Progress on the reconstruction of the Minuteman near Alewife.