Though Cambridge and Somerville are often looked at as being the region’s most bike-friendly cities, Boston is poised to snag that reputation from them in the new year. The city is expected to receive two new cycle tracks – bike lanes separated from the road by a barrier – in 2015. Somerville, though, will keep riding its momentum by adding a cycle track of its own.
1. The Beacon Street Reconstruction Project – Somerville
Costing in the neighborhood of $9 million courtesy of federal and state funds, the project will support new bikes lanes and much more. Roads will be resurfaced, pipes will be repaired and new plant life, crosswalks and benches will be added.
According to the City of Somerville, Beacon Street is the most heavily traffic roadway by cyclists. Implementing the cycle tracks means street parking spaces would need to be removed, thereby expediting traffic and increasing cyclists’ safety.
The proposal put froth earlier in 2014 suggests 6-foot cycle tracks separated in some places by as mounted curb and by small street-lining gardens at other sections of the road on one side. On the other would be a wide track, 9-feet, separated by a granite curb.
2. Cambridge Street Bridge Cycletrack – Allston
Cambridge Street in Allston spans I-90 (the Massachusetts Turnpike). It’s a bridge in need of substantial overhaul to more safely accommodate cyclists and pedestrians.
The latest proposal calls for mixed-use tracks on either side of the bridge, a traditional median or one of platers, and a possible change in the road’s width.
According to the Boston Globe, several bike and pedestrian deaths have occurred as a result of the bridge’s current state of decrepitude. Not only will new cycle tracks be built, but new crosswalks and flashing lights will be installed as well.
Says the Globe, “Some areas of the bike lane have already been put down closer to Union Square, and officials hope to replace the lanes with a cycle track in the spring.”
3. Seaver Street Cycletrack – Roxbury
This Roxbury throughway is set to receive a cycle track but, to the chagrin of the Boston Cyclists Union, only on one side of the street. In tandem with the Roxbury Bicycle Brigade, members of Bikes Not Bombs, the Cyclists Union was able to procure the eastbound track “and the critical area around the cliffs in Franklin Park where speeds are high and visibility is low.”
So why is Public Works Department Commissioner Michael Dennehy not inclined to put tracks on both side of the street?
“The project is going to go forward as is,” he said, “there are safety concerns on that stretch of Seaver Street for people exiting cars into such a narrow travel lane.”
Still, one cycle tracks puts the neighborhood on the right track and represents just one small aspect of Roxbury’s revitalization.
