DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE
CONTEXT
WHERE/WHEN APPLICABLE
RESPONSES
TESTIMONIES

DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE:
Providing safe, inviting bike paths and bike lanes to encourage biking is a critical step towards creating a livable neighborhood. Bikers get where they need to go without polluting the atmosphere, contributing to congestion, or worsening the parking issues in the Heart of the City. At the same time, bikers get good exercise and have better access to the area's open spaces. Bicycles can be an ideal mode for residents and visitors to experience the civic, commercial, and natural spaces in the Heart of the City.

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CONTEXT:
Although the MBTA does not permit people to bring their bikes onto the trains during peak hours, on weekends and off-peak hours bikes can be taken on trains. Unlike in cities such as Seattle, buses in the Heart of the City do not have bike racks on front of them. If they did, it would help facilitate cycling in the city. There are, however, bike racks at all MBTA train stations.

In 1999, Bicycling Magazine named Boston the least bicycle friendly city in the country. Although many biking advocates say that Boston's potential to be a great biking town in enormous -- it is realtively flat and compact, contains long stretches of waterfront and parkland, and has a young and health conscious population -- the reality is that the city is difficult to navigate (Chris Berdik, "Bumpy ride," The Boston Globe, Sept. 19, 2004).

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WHERE/ WHEN APPLICABLE:
Model areas for biking:
-- The Southwest Corridor Park offers the strongest model for bicycle paths in the Heart of the City. The park follows along the Orange Line MBTA corridor. It separates cyclists from vehicular traffic and, in most places, from pedestrians.

-- Other major greenspaces where cycling is safe and appropriate on paved paths include the Arnold Arboretum and at the Forest Hills Cemetery.

Places where biking is possible but not easy:
-- Morton Street is wide enough for a bike lane and as of 2002 some sections of the street have a lane that is marked for bicyclers. Barriers to using this lane include fast traffic, buses picking up riders, debris along the road, and the psychological barrier that Morton Street represents for many Heart of the City residents.

-- Circuit Drive in Franklin Park theoretically has a bike lane. In reality, however, the lane is often used by cars for parking or by drivers seeking to pass other drivers, pushing them over into a non-existent second lane.

-- Centre Street/ South Street:
Bikers frequently travel on Centre Street/ South Street and drivers in the area tend to yield to them. The lanes are wide enough and traffic is slow enough to make it relatively safe to bike here, although there have been accidents involving bikers in the area. When the Arborway Trolley returns to Centre Street/ South Street, however, biking may become more difficult because of the space the new trolley will take up.

-- Perkins Street:
In October 2000, the Boston Department of Parks and Recreations painted bike lanes onto Perkins Street from the Jamaicaway to Prince Street with the blessing of the Metropolitan District Commission (MDC), which is responsible for Perkins Street. The bike lanes intersect with the Jamaicaway bike path.

The creation of this bike lane represents encouraging inter-agency coordination. However, the policing and conditions of the new bike lane have been problematic. Increasingly, people are parking their vehicles in the bike lane to access Jamaica Pond. Potholes and poor signage characterize the bikeway. The MDC is responsible for ticketing on one end of the lane and the State Police are responsible for the other half, while the Boston Department of Parks and Recreation does not have the authority to ticket (Mac Daniel, "Traffic jam in the bike lane. Parked vehicles block the path at Jamaica Pond," The Boston Globe, Sept. 15, 2002).


Places where biking is particularly difficult:
-- On the Emerald Necklace south of Jamaica Pond the bike path is difficult to navigate. Using the path requires crossing busy intersections and roundabouts. The Emerald Necklace looses much of its green character in the Forest Hills Station area. The Casey Overpass is hazardous to bikers in some areas because the bike/ pedestrian sidewalks are clogged with sand.

-- The bicycle connection between Forest Hills Station and Franklin Park is extremely weak. Reaching the Park entails crossing several major roads, one of which does not have an adequate crosswalk.

-- The connector between Forest Hills Station and the Arnold Arboretum through the South Street tract of the Arboretum is lined in mulch and is therefore not appropriate for bicycles other than mountain bikes.

-- Cycling on Cemetery Road between Franklin Park and the Forest Hills Cemetery is dangerous because the road is narrow and there is no sidewalk.

-- American Legion Highway, which accesses the Boston Nature Center and the Clark Cooper Community Gardens, has no sidewalks or bike lanes.

-- South Street, which runs along the Arnold Arboretum, is a narrow road that is recognized as curvy, fast-moving, and dangerous by the Boston Transportation Department. Because the street was repaved in 2002, it is even easier for vehicles to travel at high speeds, putting cyclists at greater risk as they attempt to cycle through this green area.


Places where biking is not permitted:
-- Cycling is not permitted around Jamaica Pond and is inappropriate in the Wilderness area of Franklin Park, on the trails of the Boston Nature Center, and at Franklin Field.

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RESPONSES:
In 1999, BikeBoston, which is part of MassBike, received a $10,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management to improve the connections between the sections of the Emerald Necklace. The group identified problems for bike access (including four in the Heart of the City) and produced a website, which is now defunct, to explore problematic areas.

The Boston Parks and Recreation Department has said that major Egleston Square thoroughfares such as Columbus Avenue, Washington Street, and Seaver Street should be enhanced so that they are more green and bicycle-friendly. The department has also suggested designating an urban trail for bicyclists and pedestrians linking places of recreational, historic/cultural, and open space significance in Roxbury.

Vineet Gupta, director of policy and planning for the Boston Transportation Department, maintains that the city has recently taken additional steps to build bikes into the system. For instance, in 2004, the city formalized a requirement that commercial developers install a bike parking rack for every 10 parking spaces and that residential developers install a rack for every three dwelling units (Chris Berdik, "Bumpy ride," The Boston Globe, Setp. 19, 2004).

The 2004 Roxbury Strategic Master Plan calls for improved quality of roads for bicycling in Roxbury. According to the Plan, the proposed Emerald Necklace Greenway is designed to make better bicycle and pedestrian connections from Franklin Park to the Arnold Arboretum and the rest of the Necklace and the barrier along Circuit Drive in Franklin Park near the Ranger Station should be redesigned to permit bicycle access. In addition, Glen Road and other roads in Franklin Park closed to vehicular traffic should be maintained with a continuous, ten-foot wide asphalt paved path.

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TESTIMONIES:
"My children still talk about how scary it was to bike into Franklin Park from Forest Hills" (Christine Poff, director of the Franklin Park Coalition, Mar. 7, 2002).

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