New in Boston: Bike Paths
We’ve written before about Boston’s great potential as a hardcore biking town. The city is compact, and although there are a few big hills, there aren’t too many steep slopes that can’t be avoided. Yes, it’s true that Boston’s cold weather makes biking impractical (or at least very, very cold) through several months of the year. But on the other hand, there are many other months where hopping on a bike to go to work or run a few errands is entirely preferable to sitting in traffic on jammed roadways, or fighting for a seat on the T. And if you live downtown in central Boston, so much the better for biking.
So that’s what makes the latest news so great: last week, Mayor Thomas Menino held a press conference to annouce the opening of new bike lanes around Boston. The new lanes run down Commonwealth Avenue between Kenmore Square and the Boston University Bridge, down Ruggles Street near Northeastern University, down Perkins Street in Jamaica Plain, and around the South Bay Shopping Center in Dorchester. In additon, the city is installing 250 new bike racks around town to offer biking commuters a place to park their wheels. Maybe the best news of all is that the city is considering adopting a bike sharing program like the one that Paris has made a huge success. Washington, D.C. has already started its bike sharing program, so there’s no reason Boston can’t too. The goal of biking advocates is to create a comprehensive network of bike paths that would allow biking commuters a safe, clean commute all the way from Chestnut Hill into downtown Boston. Maybe one day, the city may even consider putting the Green line trains underground and turning the resulting street-level space into a network of bike paths that are safely tucked away from cars.
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