I know I'm late to this, but a few thoughts on Mayor Menino's latest push to lift Boston from the depths of the bike-friendliness ratings:
- Great.
- All the grassroots in the world can't beat the influence of a mayor to get things going. (See also, Chicago.) Fortunately or unfortunately, progress in Boston may end up being more a function of the Mayor's new-found love of biking than all the good work by MassBike and other groups.
- I hope that Boston takes a coordinated regional approach, recognizing that many of Boston's bikers come from the surrounding cities and towns, which are on a spectrum of bike-friendliness.
- Matt Viser's report in the Globe is nicely researched and balanced.
- There's a great opportunity for incremental improvement to be had with bike racks. Every block that has more than 3 bikes locked to meters or fences ought to get a bike rack. (There's another great small opportunity along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.)
See also this piece in BostonNow, which quotes friend of NS&S Peter Furth.
1 comment:
I would be nice if Mayor Menino actually followed up on this but as of May 20, 2008 there is still no progress. The mayor is famous for his initiatives that gets lots of press and initial celebration but never get followed through on. This is the third time over the past 12 years that the mayor has announced in bike initiative and the second time he has appointed a bike czar. Just look at the South Boston Waterfront area and you can see how serious this administration is about making Boston a bike friendly city. This area was a blank slate, all the roads have been built within the past 10 years and there are absolutly no bike lanes anywhere. Every new road reconstruction project in this city has one thing in common and that is the lack of bicycle lanes. Look at the Washington Street corridor, this was completely reconstructed about 6 years ago and it is arguably the widest though fare in the city and there are no bike lanes. I really wish the local media would stop giving press play to the mayor’s initiatives around this issue and expose the administration for its total lack of vision and follow through.
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