How Boston Built An Amazing Bike Lane Network

Bike Lanes have been built across America. But few cities have had as much success as Boston. In this episode we look at the history, opposition, and results of bike lane programs in Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and other cities in the Boston Metro Area.

#bikelanes #architecture #transit #urbanism #city #cities #Boston

Picture Credits:
Keep McGuinness Moving Protest pictures – Josh Katz @joshkatz
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Sources & Credits:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mNBUv8QgkkC0pzcPm48l6UTqdB5f57y9fO78Xwcb3sg/edit?usp=sharing
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Case Study Videos:
Removing Parking Helped These Businesses: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7I-1rSrFttA&t=3s
Why Road Diets Don’t Hurt Businesses: https://youtu.be/DLA60ZNR_Sc?si=-5KEezkqHPBuTpAq&t=367
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Social Media:
Instagram: @i.just.walk
Threads: @i.just.walk
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Contact:
tim.chin.walks@gmail.com
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Music Credits:
Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/funk-me
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https://uppbeat.io/t/kevin-macleod/bass-vibes
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Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!):
https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/business-as-usual
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Currently many cities Across America are battling to get bike Lanes right as growing cities struggle to curb traffic and car emissions the bike seems to be the obvious and costeffective solution but poor design is costing many cities not just with redundant infrastructure but with accidents and lives for many cities it’s their first

First time building bike lines and as a result they lack the standards to do it well they’re also battling communities as some neighbors oppose any change in their town and their fighting culture as many Americans were sold on the idea that the car was the ultimate symbol of

Freedom our American Dream yet one city or should I say region has done an exceptional job of building out not just bike Lanes but a fantastic bike network but it wasn’t easy and the region faced a lot of backlash and today I’m going to show you how the Boston metro area went

From streets having useless paralleled white paint to a real bike Network and how Boston’s politicians succeeded over local Opposition hey so the last week was pretty special for the team here we saw a lot of support and good growth across our social media platforms as always I wanted to say thank you as the success of this channel heavily relies on the support and engagement of all of you we

Have a lot of big plans and small plans to explore how cities got to where they are what they’re doing now and where they need to be going so if you want to keep walking with me through big stories and small I recommend subscribing and if

You fan see the episode remember to drop a like all right let’s get back to Boston our story starts in 2010 when mayor minino the mayor of Boston at the time made The Bold and ambitious statement the car is no longer King in Boston the mayor said while he was just starting to roll out some of the first Bike Share programs in Boston he had big plans in

Mind mayor minino would continue to walk the walk into 2013 when he released a 30-year plan to develop a well-connected and extensive bike Network in Boston at the time the city only had 120 mes of bike Lanes but their plan was to get it

Up to 350 m in the next 30 Years but it wasn’t just about miles and the Boston government recognized this early they knew the network itself had to be good and the mayor made it a goal to make sure that these bike networks hit important destinations such as workplaces schools parks and public

Transportation the network also aimed to cover all of Boston not just the downtown area as many cities tend to do the city outlined some decent bike infrastructure most of it was still just White paint and plastic Bol ards but it would get so so much better but we’ll

Get back to that in a bit there is actually an important detail that makes building a good bike Network in Boston hard most of Boston is not in Boston what do I mean by that most people that work in Boston or along the Charles River don’t actually live in

Boston Proper thanks to a little thing called suburban sprawl and white flight more than 85% of the Boston metro area doesn’t actually live in Boston City what makes this problematic when building out a bike network is that these other cities have their own government and Boston City cannot tell

These governments what to do furthermore two of the main cities that Boston neighbors Cambridge and Somerville only connect over a bridge so there aren’t too many options for a bike network path but both of these cities would really step up across the Charles River is K Cambridge Cambridge is a college City in

Fact it might be the college city as it has both MIT and Harvard in it this subsequently means that the area has an enormous student population the area also has a relatively low population density and as a result of having a lot of room a lot of students who do not

Possess a car the city was well prepared to develop its own bike Network and in 2015 the city of Cambridge did develop a bike Network plan the city published probably the most comp apprehensive bike Network plan I have seen in America nine chapters nine whole chapters detailing

Their plan for the network was released to the public they covered the aims and motivations for bike infrastructure they generated several data driven goals isolating the areas where bikes were most prone to be hit by cars and they outlined a Citywide Network and remember how I said that Boston listed some

Decent bike infrastructure plans well Cambridge went all out the city outlined different characteristics for bike Lanes such as the type of Separation whether it should be sidewalk level or Road level how to deal with intersections and whether the bike lane should be one way or two-way I visited Cambridge a few

Weeks ago and got to see some of the progress firsthand most of the implemented infrastructure is still fairly simple mainly paint with either parking or Bard protected bike Lanes the city does have a few sidewalk level bike Lanes around new developments other cities were more hesitant to expand bike infrastructure Somerville which borders

Cambridge and Boston was not as eager to develop a regional bike plan but in Boston mayor after mayor would reaffirm their commitment to developing bike infrastructure in 2019 mayor Walsh announced that the city would need to reduce car usage by half if it were to hit its 2030 goals and in 20122 mayor

Woo would reaffirm her commitment to bike infrastructure by announcing more bike lane expansion and more rental bike stations finally other suburbs would start to come around Somerville started incremental Vision zero and bik improvements in 2020 leading up to a comprehensive bike Network plan being published in 2023 while it was nowhere

Near as comprehensive as cambridge’s in many ways somerville’s bike Lanes actually went up cambridge’s somerville’s protected Lanes went Way Beyond plastic bow ards with the majority of Somerville Avenue actually implementing sidewalk level bike Lanes or curb protected bike Lanes these sidewalk level bike lanes are brilliant

As the curbs prevent cars or mopeds from just leaving the road whenever they want the dividing pattern also uses natural materials so they don’t remove from the regional Aesthetics the way plastic bards do but probably even more importantly Somerville would develop on its Community path turning it into an

Excellent bike Greenway that connected the exurbs in Arlington to the city core in Boston and this route would become super important in the present day but we’ll get back to that today many of Boston’s bike lanes are impressive and feel incredibly safe and while they look great now their construction was truly

An uphill battle on the on this channel I’ve shown repeatedly opposition to bike Lanes better Transit and safer streets in America Boston was no different when the city of Cambridge started entertaining the bike Network a group of neighbors organized save Mass a in opposition to a bike Network planned

On Massachusetts Avenue in mden another city outside of Boston groups fought to oppose bike lanes and bus lanes the group was called keep Mal than moving with the slogan put a brakes on bikes and bus lanes wait what no it can’t be in Somerville another group was formed

Called keep Somerville moving also with the slogan put a brakes on bikes and bus lanes okay y’all that can’t be that can’t be a coincidence for those of you who have watched this channel you know I did an episode on these guys before and Town Hall meetings were set up all

Expressing the same message keep mcginness moving okay y’ who who who’s writing your playbook Exxon shell you can tell me I won’t be mad in West Roxberry another group formed opposing a bike lane and road diet along Center Street honestly it’s the same story every single time they’re scared of

Losing parking in business and it’s the same results every time either the businesses aren’t impacted or they actually benefit and at most they lose like I don’t know two or three parking spots people are honestly so unoriginal if you want to see my case studies where

I talk about this some more I’ll leave two videos in the description below okay so there was this opposition yet the region still got its bike Network how did the elected politicians succeed simple they didn’t cave a lot of these politicians ran on a promise they promised that they would build this bike

Infrastructure so they have to assume that their constituents who voted for them support this promise and as politicians with a constitution they didn’t feel the need to Pander to a few people that attend community board meetings in most of the cases the councils did hold a vote to decide

Whether they should put a pause on the bike Network expansion but in the case of massav and Malden each time the city council stuck to their promise and voted against pausing the effort Boston and some of the cities around it now have a good and sprawling bike Network it’s allowed for more

Economical and sustainable traveling it’s also assisted with the proliferation of ebikes which tend to be more cost- effective cleaner and healthier than driving a cumbersome car and more comfortable than riding a standard bike the bike infrastructure has also been vital to adding redundancy to the Region’s Transportation Network

Remember that bike Greenway I mentioned in Somerville well earlier this year when the MBTA Red Line slowed down due to maintenance commuting by bike on this Greenway became actually faster than taking the train this is healthy for the overall Region’s traffic as people now have options of how to get around does

The bike Network have room for improvement of course the network arguably suffers from the same thing that the train Network in the region suffers from most of the routes are centered around getting to downtown Boston for example while I was in the area I wanted to bike from Arlington to

West Roxberry but most of the suggested routes recommended I go directly into Boston but the Region’s network is a fantastic start and the cities around only have further plans to expand them hey I just wanted to say thanks again for watching the episode as I mentioned we have some small and big

Plans for future episodes and if you’re a fan of our work there are some small and big ways you can help out as always liking and subscribing helps us greatly but also share the episode helps us grow the channnel and spread awareness about the great Urban stories happening across

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Remember to keep on walking or Biking