Biking the Boston 'Burbs (Trails, MDC, & Towns beyond Hubway area)

The DCR is doing a new master plan for Nantasket Beach to make the beach a better destination, reclaim space from parking, and give people something to do when the tide is up and the beach shrinks. Transportation is a big part of the plan and there are many changes to the road network and parking setup: http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dcr/ne...ials/rmp/2016-1-17-nantasket-presentation.pdf

It’s not the main part of the project, but there will be some improvements for cyclists. The DCR is proposing new on-street bike lanes for the fast set joining the disconnected lane that Hull recently installed Nantasket Avenue. Longer term there they are proposing a two way, 12-foot bike path between a fancy new boardwalk and the parking. It looks like it’s going to be buffered from both pedestrians on the ocean side and from cars on the land side which should keep it useable year-round. Cruising the Revere and Nahant beach multiuse paths is nice on a quiet day but basically impossible on a day when you’d actually want to go to the beach due to the lack of separation between bikes and peds.
 
Scipio said:
The DCR is doing a new master plan for Nantasket Beach to make the beach a better destination, reclaim space from parking, and give people something to do when the tide is up and the beach shrinks. Transportation is a big part of the plan and there are many changes to the road network and parking setup: http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/dcr/ne...ials/rmp/2016-1-17-nantasket-presentation.pdf

It’s not the main part of the project, but there will be some improvements for cyclists. The DCR is proposing new on-street bike lanes for the fast set joining the disconnected lane that Hull recently installed Nantasket Avenue. Longer term there they are proposing a two way, 12-foot bike path between a fancy new boardwalk and the parking. It looks like it’s going to be buffered from both pedestrians on the ocean side and from cars on the land side which should keep it useable year-round. Cruising the Revere and Nahant beach multiuse paths is nice on a quiet day but basically impossible on a day when you’d actually want to go to the beach due to the lack of separation between bikes and peds.
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Despite being on the south shore which in general (and sorry, it's true despite any embedded classism here) is filled with guys who drink too much and drive like maniacs and hate bicycles as a corollary, hull is an oasis from that sort of behavior and accordingly a delightful place where drivers actually drive appropriate speeds and always let pedestrians walk in front of them, bikes meander, etc. Part of that is the dense and near-ferocious police presence, both local and state, but mainly it's because the entire town is essentially a beach zone and people get that. It's what makes it a great place. Im not a huge fan of any reconfigurations here because frankly they're not needed... It'll be a big waste of money. The real problem (for me) is without the ferry or car, there's no way to bike TO nantasket from boston since the roads to get there are terrifically dangerous. I know it don't work this way, but spend the hull money on weymouth, braintree and quincy and leave hull alone.
 
FK4 said:
the south shore which in general (and sorry, it's true despite any embedded classism here) is filled with guys who drink too much and drive like maniacs and hate bicycles as a corollary,
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Seriously?
 
MassDOT has announced $12.5 million over the next two years for complete streets planning and construction projects: http://www.massdot.state.ma.us/InformationCenter/WeeklyNewsletters/MassDOTNews02052016.aspx

The program is a competitive grant program to encourage cities and towns to adopt complete streets policies. Cities that have adopted some sort of complete streets policy then become eligible for up to $50k in planning money from the state to put together an implementation plan. Once they’ve done that they become eligible for up to $400k in state construction money for building or improving pedestrian, bicycle, and transit infrastructure.

Not sure what the timeline is but I’d expect several of the Boston suburbs to try to get some of that funding for bike stuff.
 
Arlington's Arlington Center re-work of the Minuteman @ Mass Ave is at 100% design (54 page Engineering Doc), and construction on the project starts April 1 and runs for 1 construction season, with a public meeting March 23d.

Basic premise is as we've seen previosly: shift all "outbound" (westbound) conflicting movements 1 block east, and provide right-curb bike lanes on both sides of Mass Ave.

Patch.com article here:
http://patch.com/massachusetts/arlington/arlington-center-safe-travel-project-start-date-announced-0
 
Arlington said:
Arlington's Arlington Center re-work of the Minuteman @ Mass Ave is at 100% design (54 page Engineering Doc), and construction on the project starts April 1 and runs for 1 construction season, with a public meeting March 23d.

Basic premise is as we've seen previosly: shift all "outbound" (westbound) conflicting movements 1 block east, and provide right-curb bike lanes on both sides of Mass Ave.

Patch.com article here:
http://patch.com/massachusetts/arlington/arlington-center-safe-travel-project-start-date-announced-0
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Sheet 33: You can't have a through bike lane to the right of a vehicular right turn only lane. Like... you actually can't per design guidelines.
 
sm89 said:
Sheet 33: You can't have a through bike lane to the right of a vehicular right turn only lane. Like... you actually can't per design guidelines.
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Seems like an exception is possible when every movement is fully signal-controlled? (in this case a bike signal shows a bike-red while the cars are crossing in front of the bike lane while getting their right-green-arrow)

Sheet 24: Bike lane Westbound (that you are worried about) gets its own bike signal that is green only when the "straight" Mass Ave flows are going (the parallel ped crossing gets its Walk at the same time). Then bike signal turns red. Table says that the Straight westbound cars and bike-green get up to 31 seconds of green.

Already this intersection has the unusual "all right turns only" cycle (they're forbidden at all other times) separated from an "all walk" cycle
 
sm89 said:
Sheet 33: You can't have a through bike lane to the right of a vehicular right turn only lane. Like... you actually can't per design guidelines.
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Check sheet 24, looks like they have bike signals so rights and through bikes do not move at the same time.
 
chmeeee said:
Check sheet 24, looks like they have bike signals so rights and through bikes do not move at the same time.
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Well I stand corrected then! Forgive me if I assumed that no entity would care to install bike signals haha.
 
sm89 said:
Well I stand corrected then! Forgive me if I assumed that no entity would care to install bike signals haha.
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Hey, it was/is kinda cutting edge. Let's hope it isnt bleeding edge and that both the bikes and the right-turning-cars are paying attention. Both will have to resist the "go 'cause the dudes next to me went" and focus on their signals.

Personally, I'd like to see more of the "Bikes use pedestrian signals" signs (which is how eastbound bikes will cross Mass Ave) or a universal law change to let bikes go on Walk (so long as they yield to peds).

There's also one of the new bike boxes that lets left turning bikes walk out on the ped signal and then go with the car's green
 
Arlington said:
Personally, I'd like to see more of the "Bikes use pedestrian signals" signs (which is how eastbound bikes will cross Mass Ave) or a universal law change to let bikes go on Walk (so long as they yield to peds).
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Crab mentality will prevent common-sense laws like that from passing, along with more ambitious things like the Idaho Stop and Paris's recent law where bicyclists may turn right on red or proceed straight across T intersections on red. Senator Brownsberger has written that passing any pro-bike legislation this year will most likely require increased crackdowns on people cycling in order to get political support.

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In better news Massbike has a piece on Sudbury as the crossroads of the Central Mass Trail and the Bruce Freeman Trail. Eversource is eyeing the right of way from Sudbury to Hudson for a transmission corridor. There is the chance that path advocates can glom onto the project and at least get some grubbing, clearing, and subsurface work done along the corridor. There's a public meeting coming up in early April. http://massbike.org/blog/2016/03/08/your-town-tuesdays-sudbury/
 
The bike lanes in this design are great if you're going to the Minuteman. If you're going straight on Mass Ave, they'll send you directly into the back of parked cars.
 
cden4 said:
The bike lanes in this design are great if you're going to the Minuteman. If you're going straight on Mass Ave, they'll send you directly into the back of parked cars.
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I'm not going to say its perfect, but keep in mind:

0) I expect that a lot of westbound bike traffic will switch to the Minuteman at this point, both because Mass Ave gets narrower "from here on out", and because "outer" Mass Ave's reconstruction is years away. And the Minuteman gets less "dog walky" west of this intersection (partly it is just that the town gets less dense and partly that the most "leisure travel" is concentrated between Spy Pond and Alewife).

1) This plan does have a sharrows in the right thru-lane of Mass Ave for those cyclists going straight. The bike lane on Mass Ave having disappeared about 1.5 blocks inward/east (where the Mass Ave reconstruction ends and things start getting pinched around the firehouse.
2) Merging from the far right bike lane has decent runway (the width of the intersection, plus 3 car-lengths of "No Parking". As I read the existing/planned, I also see that they are eliminating a parking spot (currently a handicapped spot). So that'll give 4 car-lengths worth of merge (and, I'm assuming, re-painting an existing spot as the new handicap spot).

So net-net this is the capstone on the rebuild/restripe of "inner" (east-of-Center) Mass Ave, accommodating increased biking on both the Minuteman and on Mass Ave ( leaving only the pinch at the main Firehouse).
 
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An RFP for a study and cost estimate of options for the long-suffering Belmont Community Path has finally been approved by the town: http://belmont.wickedlocal.com/article/20160315/NEWS/160316953

Belmont has to hire a consultant and get $200k in their hands by the end of FY16 or it vanishes. The study and final route selection is expected for in spring 2017, then a town-funded 25% design, then they have to find funds to finish the design and actually build it. I doubt this thing is open to the public before 2020.
 
Scipio said:
An RFP for a study and cost estimate of options for the long-suffering Belmont Community Path has finally been approved by the town: http://belmont.wickedlocal.com/article/20160315/NEWS/160316953

Belmont has to hire a consultant and get $200k in their hands by the end of FY16 or it vanishes. The study and final route selection is expected for in spring 2017, then a town-funded 25% design, then they have to find funds to finish the design and actually build it. I doubt this thing is open to the public before 2020.
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That's MA's FY16? So hire a consultant by June 30. That'd be sweet.
 
Yeah, June 30th. Hard deadlines might help move this project along, it's crazy how much opposition there still is. And it sounds like even if the project's proponents can force the preferred, direct route through, then the opposition will focus on watering down the design:

"We need a community path, not a commuter path," Selectman Mark Paolillo said at a televised election debate about the community path. For many, this statement raises questions.

A bit of context: on Dec. 15 last year, Town Administrator David Kale asked the Selectmen, "Do you want a community path or a commuter path?" while expressing concern that if the path route were straight, bike commuters would have collisions with pedestrians. This comment came as a way to justify adding the on-road route Concord Ave. to the RFP that will assess costs of possible routes. The Concord Ave. route would have many turns, narrow passages and crossings that Kale believed would discourage bike commuters. At that time, Mr. Paolillo protested adding Concord Ave. by Sami Baghdady, BoS Chair. Also, many citizens expressed dismay that commuters could not coexist with other users as happens on most paths.

It's concerning if Mr. Paolillo is intending to support a design that discourages commuting. Does he appreciate that in order to receive State and Fed. funding for a multi-use path, a number of criteria be met, including the ability to reduce traffic? Why does he choose this way to divide path users?
Is Mr. Paolillo showing lower priority to bike commuters? He said a few times during the debate that he met with Channing Rd. abutters to hear their concerns, but didn't express any intent to meet with other groups, such as the Friends of the Community Path.

Interestingly, the route that appears to have the most room to accommodate both commuters and pedestrians is the north side of the tracks, since there's the space where two defunct rail lines existed. In Kale's view and perhaps Mr. Paolillo's, this would be bad. The north side abuts Channing Rd. properties.
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(from the path advocates' facebook page)
 
Now THAT is some good news... And about bloody time, too!
 
Bruce Freeman construction is also full steam ahead in Acton, tree clearing looks totally done and I assume grading will start when it warms up.
 
Fantastic news! I'm yet to ride the Bruce Freeman but I'm glad they are working on more.
 
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