I bike to work!

Dotrider was one of six panelists at the WGBH studios this week for their upcoming special exploring the interaction between motor vehicles and bicycles. It was a somewhat varied group. Two of us were from Dorchester and a third worked there (note that City of Boston bike planners). They have way more tape than they could ever use as we had a wide ranging discussion directed by reporter Adam Reilly. Here’s some of my impressions.

My dismayed feelings about the immensely popular Hubway bike share program was generally shared among all regular riders with one panelist piling on by describing it as “putting the cart before the horse.” Yeah, if you’re suffering from the slow pace of improvement in to bike infrastructure outside of down town it is still plainly obvious that the time, talent and effort put into that program has detracted from the potential progress elsewhere despite’s its surface success. There was also a conclusion that it may have only helped to add to the tension between drivers and riders.

Most of us were car drivers as well with one panelist trapped in a suburban life that requires driving everwhere. The suburban riders suggested the perils of riding in the city are nothing compared to sparring with the high speed rushed drivers out there. We all agreed that there is a growing, if not grudging acceptance of bicycles on the road. Many emphasized that cars should get used to us and recognize the fact that as cyclists we take up a lot less room than if we were in a car and they should celebrate every bike they see as one less car.

We also were pretty unanimous related the approach taken by the Boston Public Health Commission when they brought out their wear a helmet campaign. If you want to encourage more folks to get active you don’t raise the bar. Besides, the more folks out riding the safer it is for all of us (at least statistically).

One of the riders was hit while riding on Seaver St and we got a chance to promote the cycle track ideas there as well as on Malcom X & around the Public Garden.

There was a lot of talk wrt riding strategy, like taking off early at a light to avoid the turning cars or taking a lane in an intersection. Certainly if drivers had an idea of cyclist thinking it might help them.

The overwhelming conclusion though was that it is hard not to be grumpy if you’re a driver in Boston. After all the streets are clogged, there are choke points where no matter how fast you drive elsewhere you just have to wait. Despite short distances it can take a painfully long time to get anywhere. Well d’uh! Wonder why I ride more and more? It’s mostly because after a half mile in my car I start honking and getting frustrated and wish I’d ridden my bike.

Anyway, I don’t envy Adam Reilly and his producer at trying to distill down over an hour of wide ranging excellent discussion into a 20 minute segment. There’s a chance that nothing I wrote here will emerge at all while they chose something else as more appropriate. Here’s hats off to the attempt and hopes that they do a good job.

Bike-car-T Commuter Challenge idea!!! We sent a fb message to Liveable Streets (as yet no reply) suggesting they take a fresh angle on their annual race across Somerville and Cambridge to a place in Boston via bike, car and T. As good as it is, it’s sort of becoming trite and the big gains in bike infrastructure only make it more so. My suggestion was that there be a race from a Boston neighborhood to downtown. Imagine the options of a ‘race’ from Mattapan Square to Down Town Crossing… T options 28 to… or Trolly to Red Line… or the new Purple Line? Car options…which way through Dot or Roxbury or JP? Bike options? Water front, through Franklin Park or straight line?? There could be a dozen racers and a myriad of results that would give us a lot to think about. We hope Liveable Streets would join us and help.

Anyway, the idea has been put through the Dotbike planning and it got a tepid response with the idea that we try to get Liveable Streets to join us next year and promote one. Other ideas included having a ‘race’ in a different angle, like from Southie to Hyde Park to accentuate a lack of options for those of us not working down town.  But hey! if anyone is interested in this idea please let me know. I’d be willing to do the work it would take to get this done.

May has begun with some super weather and we see more new riders on our route everyday. If you’re not now and have been thinking of riding now’s the time!! We’ll be looking for you. Pedal on!!

With the challenge of a blizzard and an unforcast foot last Friday it’s been quite a challenge to keep riding over the winter. As someone with a bit of an addictive personality, I’m not ashamed to admit my addiction to riding a bike for transportation in the city. The recent snow has only made me more so.

I only took the T last Friday and our office was closed. I rationalized the trip since I stopped at Down Town Crossing and shopped out the soon to close Windsor Button Shop for upcoming family birthdays. It would have been quite a challenge for the Dahon on Friday from what I saw.

Thursday however was another matter. I was toying with the idea of driving that morning in fact when the snow suddenly eased up a bit and I realized it would be fun to ride through a snowy Franklin Park. Since there was the Franklin Park maintenance meeting later that day, I also wanted to drive home the point that there were riders in the Park ALL THE TIME. So off I set…

By the time I got to Ashmont Street at All Saints Church I was wearing a big smile. Ashmont St. was backed up over the hill to the east. Dorchester Avenue was completely filled with cars that were NOT moving an inch. Me, with a 20 pound box on my back thanks to an IKEA bag steadily made my way up the Avenue laughing all the way. Of course these roads were packed due to the ‘wicked’ high tides closing Morrissey Blvd.

The P.O. was empty and relieved of my package off we went up Washington Street. It backed up from Four Corners to Columbia Road and I just labored along in the slush passing all vehicles, still with a smile.

Of course getting to the Park made the entire exercise worth it as it was very pleasant heading over Pierpont with no cars and just movie-effect snow flakes. We rode back to the meeting that evening and toured the Park for down limbs and unplowed paths (they’ve given up on Glen Road btw… Call the Park line and complain please).

Now that daylight savings is with us, it’s time for everyone else to get riding. While we saw a lot more folks out this winter than even last the momentum that was building has fallen off. The one day every week or two when I would end up rallying up Washington Street with a rider or two hasn’t happened since October. Outside of the super regulars and the sidewalkers, we haven’t seen many new faces. C’mon! It’s faster, healthier and at times fun! Every mile you ride is a mile you’re car doesn’t drive or someone you don’t have to jostle with on the T.

So Pedal on folks!

Typically it’s easy for this blog to be critical of the constant half hearted delivery of services to the neighborhood of Dorchester, particularly with an eye towards the inequity for bicycle infrastructure. Lately it’s occured to me that ripping the city is too easy and counterproductive. So, this entry will be devoted to outlining the changes and improvements that I would make if I had the reins of State and City transportation and infrastructure planning and doing. Let’s set the bar high eh? Here’s my wish list.

The City would relook at the turn lanes and sharrowed zones on Dorchester Avenue and instead take them out put a bike lane where any turn lane existed. Then they’d remeasure the stretch from Melville Ave to Peabody Square and put at least one dedicated lane in that stretch, if not two. They could repaint Neponset Avenue to include all dedicated lanes instead of the mix of dedicated and sharrow. (I wouldn’t even dare to dream that one lane of parking be removed from the Avenue and replaced by separated bike infrastructure, but there it is…)

The T might include at least ONE bike rack in their new train stations. I haven’t noticed any to date. The piece of cement in Ashmont might get its cage one day soon too. The T and City should combine on Talbot Ave by the station to eliminate one side of parking and make it a bike lane instead of a sharrow through that busy busy busy stretch. After all, half the cars parked on the south side of Talbot from the RR bridge to New England are waiting for the car repair company to take them in. Why should the street serve as someone’s storage yard? Also there are three bus stops in that stretch so only a couple of dozen spots are affected…

They might look at Geneva Avenue by the RR bridge there too to add bike accomodation. Although Geneva in that stretch could WAY USE repaving. The stretch of Geneva from Bowdoin to Columbia is wide enough for lanes.

The Governor could find the cash to finish the segments of bike path that are missing from UMass to Mattapan Square. Instead of waiting for Federal Tiger Grants, step up and give us what had been planned 15 years ago and never accomplished. It’s not a new deal, but one that keeps getting swept under the rug.

Mass Ave from Everett Square to Melnea Cass could have a separated bike accomodation and by the way the turn lanes the state added by the train station there should be removed.

Blue Hill Ave should ignore the anti-improvement and keep cars king local reaction and just do a dedicated 28X with it serving bicycles as well.

Sharrows should be added without delay to all of Washington Street, Bowdoin, Harvard, Hancock, Dudley, Adams, Ashmont, Bailey, Melville, Park, Freeport, Fuller, Norfolk, Boston,Victory Road, River Street and any other road I can’t think about that is a normal north/south or east/west transportaion way.

Morrissey Blvd north of the UMass entrance should add dedicated bike accomodation instead of the 5 lanes going north and 4 lanes going south on that stretch.

Old Colony Blvd should have dedicated accomodation. The Columbia Road segment in Southie should have separated bike infrastructure and lanes or sharrows out to Castle Island.

Hubway stations should be added at the Red Line T stops, The new purple line stops, Codman Square, Dudley Square, Grove Hall, Franklin Park and Lower Mills this year EARLY. JP should get similar treatment.

Franklin Park through car traffic should be ended as they should close the road between the Valley Gates and the turn to the tennis courts by the hospital.

Seaver Street should have separated bike accomodation.

The broken bike racks in Peabody Square should be replaced with the specified metalic finish. The plastic bollards that are half mowed down should be replaced with cement filled steel ones that would stand up to a car not just snap.

The disc golf course DCR designed and owns the baskets for at PJPII Park should be immediately installed. (oops, non-bike dream creeping in…)

I imagine there are a number of ones I haven’t thought of, but you get the idea. The city is basking in the lime light with Hubway and 50 miles of dedicated bike accomodation (which is stretching the truth because it counts sharrows), but obviously just in Dorchester there is plenty to do.

Reading back on that it’s no wonder we get frustrated at what we see is progress that is haltingly slow and frustratingly uninispired. We can see so much more for Dorchester and why not?

I haven’t seen them, but I heard from a reliable source that the Sharrows between Gallivan Blvd and Richmond Street on Dorchester Avenue are back! Woo hoo! If only it didn’t feel so hard and it took a year. But hey! here they are. Kudos to City Councilor Frank Baker for keeping on those in the know to make sure it was finally completed.

Just to keep us humble the same reliable source indicates there is a repaving project from Richmond to Adams Street so that one block section is bare of Sharrows for the time being. We’ll see how long we have to wait for that paint after they put the paint down for the cars…

Otherwise folks, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Enjoy the holiday no matter what your background and PEDAL ON!

Recently biking in Boston has shown how much it has grown in the past few years. First, it is steadily in the news, even in December! How good is that? Second, some of the press has even figured it out and understands urban biking to at least some degree. Hey, it’s a rapidly growing and evolving segment of our community, so we’ll give them some more time to catch up.

Sadly there are still folks out there riding around in automobiles and trucks who believe they own the road and bikes are a pesky nuisance they shouldn’t have to deal with. After all, there are the thousands of other folks in cars to deal with, isn’t that enough?

I find it amusing to hear complaints about scofflaw bicyclists when not a day goes by on my daily ride where nearly EVERY DRIVER that passes me is breaking the law… The speed limit in Franklin Park is 25, so every car that passes me there is no doubt breaking the speed limit. I know as I commuted by car through the park for years and I can tell my own stories of idiot drivers passing me over the double line or even on the right in the break down (now bike) lane while I was tooling along at between 30 and 35 mph… They’re probably from the same group of people who would complain about those idiot bicyclists…

Specifically for me is Boston Cab with the Medalian #1238 cut me off, yelled out of the car window and was generally fairly unsociable while I was riding on Ruggles Street on Friday. We’ve complained to the Hackney Division, but the only way to get any satisfaction is to go to the police station and file a report…. Could happen.

There’s also still the yawning gap in City Hall between those charged with advancing biking and those who actually do the work. Public Works and contractors for Boston don’t seem to be getting the message that the car isn’t king as they continue to put biking issues at the bottom of their punch lists. A year-long gap on Dorchester Avenue where a repaved stretch has yet to get sharrows is the most glaring example. C’mon! What a waste of energy NOT to get it done.

Second in the biking in Boston is growing are the continuing sitings on my part of other riders. Even today, a rainy day with hard rain forecast for later we saw a number of regulars along with the usual complement of local Dot Sidewalkers. Riding to town on Saturday night we saw at least a half dozen folks out on their bikes in Dorchester. They need more lights, but they were out there.

Third, Hubway’s so successful it is planning to go year-round. One aside here are congrats to Charles Yancey for making a big point of how inequitable Hubway is. He may be doing it wrong, but he’s spot on related to how unequal it is. Dorchester and JP in particular should be areas where Hubway needs to add more stations. We’re just as dense as Somerville and Cambridge and by the way, we’re actually in City of Boston limits… Imagine if City of Boston time and money getting Hubway in Cambridge, Somerville and Brookline was spent getting it into Boston neighborhoods? I guess that’s what Mr. Yancey and I see… Think about it from our perspective eh planners? Your excuses don’t hold water. PERIOD.

So, someone who read this post has sent me a shot of a local fellow riding a white bicycle that looked like the Ghost Bike. I’m going to post both here for you to decide. We’re still thinking of creating an installation for Mr. Bui too. If anyone can for sure tell us both bikes are the same ones, please respond.

The report by Boston Biker that the police in the town of Wellesley didn’t want a ghost bike helped spur today’s post.

As someone who has lived in Dorchester for almost 30 years I can say I’m not a big fan of memorials to folks who have been killed on the street. I pass by a number of them daily. Some fade away, but others remain for months and years. Of course I don’t like the dozens I see when I’m out driving on the highway either. But I’ve grown to accept them as being important to someone, so I tolerate them.

Well obviously one of our Dorchester neighbors wasn’t as tolerant as me regarding the Ghost Bike installed by Dotbike to memorialize our neighbor Mr. Bui who was struck and killed while riding his bicycle on Morrissey Blvd.  We’re pretty sure it was stolen and here’s why.

A Dotbiker was passing by the site of the Ghost Bike and noticed it was gone. He looked over and saw it leaned against a trash barrel, the lock was cut and thrown in the barrel. He returned the bike to the spot and tied the bike to the post with the cut lock. A day or two later the bike was completely gone.

We checked with the State Police and DCR who we had cleared the installation with back in September. They indicated no one had taken it down at their behest. So, who did?

The family was a suspect, but given there has been a consistent line of flowers installed there even after the bike was removed I would write them off the list.

So, that leaves the driver or someone close to him as a leading suspect. Isn’t it bad enough that you had a tragic accident while you were speeding and killed someone? Now you have to dishonor the dead by removing a memorial to them?

Personally driver, from the moment I heard of the accident and your reaction I had been sympathetic to your plight. Why would someone be riding down Morrissey Blvd on a bicycle at midnight? You did the right thing and stopped and turned yourself in. Perhaps you schemed to avoid a DUI by feigning illness and being brought to the hospital or not. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. 50 on a spot that is 30 and there’s often a cop sitting there? Stupid but it’s easier to go 50 on that road than 30 I must admit.

But removing a memorial to someone because it hurts you? Guess what? You shouldn’t be driving down Morrissey Blvd anymore anyway. I hope you don’t have a license. Perhaps you should start riding a bicycle yourself instead of wasting others lives. Given the report of your sporatic driving record, you don’t seem to be getting the point. You lost your license once already, HEY SLOW DOWN!

There didn’t seem to be an upswelling of emotion to replace the lost Ghost Bike outside of me. Hey we were planning to take it down around Thanksgiving anyway. But after stewing about it, seeing the student get run over by a T bus earlier this week and then seeing Wellesley discouraging one, I’m fired up.

My idea would be to get a foot or two long miniature bike sculpture or something and then install it on the post about 12 feet above the ground. I’ll take my time though. If anyone wants to help, please get in touch.

Meanwhile, I won’t be going to a certain bakery on Dorchester Avenue ever. I’m way less inclined to go to the bar/restaurant nearby either. Even with only circumstantial evidence, this jurist has decided the driver is guilty of insensitivity. Too bad, I was willing to give you the benefit of doubt. Until now. There is a path to redemtion. If by some miracle you read this, you can redeem yourself by returning the bike!

What an amazing month or so for coverage of bicycle issues in Boston. While we suffered two tragedies with two riders being struck and killed, it seems to have kicked off a genuine effort in more than one media outlet around town to do more comprehensive reporting on bicycles.

The leader in this regard has to be the Boston Globe. They ran several pieces, photos and letters related to the Ghost Bikes that sprung up after the accidents. Since they have continued to run news and opinion articles related to the various issues around riding a bike in the city.

While we don’t watch network or local news, we’ve seen a link or two on other outlets that suggest there was some varying coverage on bikes as well.

The other print outlets have had their moments too. Both the Herald and Metro have had some pretty in depth bike stories. Amazing…

While not all of the coverage has been great, the more press there is leads to more overall understanding. Some of the pieces have even resonated. Even the misconceptions presented have led to intelligent responses that have been run.

The worst press was the Public Health Department’s roll out of their public safety campaign to increase helmet use. The bike community has done a good job of responding to that, although Public Health so far has seemed oblivious and defensive. No doubt we’ll see more on that.

The Department of Transportation, which is generally loathed by most bike advocates as being totally auto-centric has even begun to try to make an effort. Now if that ever would turn into results, like not having turn lanes and more car accomodations included on our narrow roads instead of efforts to calm traffic and make room for bikes and pedestrians. It’s sort of like turning the Titanic.

Meanwhile in Dorchester, Neponset Ave gets lanes/sharrow mixes, Gallivan Boulevard has sharrows in spots. However the sharrows that disappeared last fall when Dorchester Avenue was paved south of Gallivan Boulevard down to Richmond Street remain lost on a contractor’s punch list. C’mon McCourt! Get with it.

Get your lights going folks as there is less and less daylight. Also we’ll soon be falling back and the ride home will be really dark. Pedal on!

Dotbike installed this Ghost Bike in honor of our fellow Dotrider Mr. Bui age 63 who was run over on Morrissey Blvd late one night when he was returning from fishing.

Here’s my first effort at posting a photo on this site. Typcially I post a link to the dotbike flickr site. While the idea is to honor the fallen rider Mr. Bui, the Ghost Bike also says something about Dotbikers. Beyond Casey (works with Boston Mag & lives nearby) and his partner ??(sorry) the folks who showed up could be identified as the core of Dotbike. We might have had a few more, but the crew that communicates, gets out into the community and rides rides rides was there. You know who you are. Thank you one and all for responding to my e-mails calling for us to install a bike. Thanks to those who obtained a bike, found the paint, donated the lock, showed up on Sunday morning at 8:30 AM! and said our prayers over the spot marked Left Sho in what was a gruesome looking stretch of roadway where poor Mr. Bui and the unfortunate Mr. Ahern met. God bless you all. Given this is the stretch of road dubbed “The Missing Link” by Dotbike and the Dot Reporter piece chronicalling this even turned to a photo of our state and city elected officials not far up the road looking at the Pedestrian Cross Walk marking this site and honoring Mr. Bui was imperitive. Add to that the fact Hub on Wheels was minutes from riding past and the installation was timely and sensitive. Here’s hoping everyone who saw the Ghost Bike and realizes its significance will call their State Representative, Senator and the Governor’s office and tell them enough is enough and its time to make installing “The Missing Link” priority #1, not something we might do with some Obama Tiger Whatever # $. Enough now, I’m getting angry… Pedal on! Call your Rep & Senator NOW! Thanks!

Dotriderblog was part of Boston Bikes recent bike count. We worked two sites, Dot Ave and Columbia Road and Washington St (in Dot) and Columbia Road. The following are my unscientific observations.

The Washington Street post revealed that there is a lot of education that needs to go on for Dotriders. With over 50 men passing that site, 80% of them didn’t wear helmets and 66% of them were what Dotriderblog calls “Sidewalkers.” They were typically riding on the sidewalk and very often heading the wrong direction. Some would wind back and forth onto the road where it seemed convenient. There wasn’t a lot of long distance commuter traffic. It’s a small wonder dotriderblog is always scratching his head when Boston Bikes reports high percentages of folks wearing helmets.

The Dot Ave site revealed much the same as a high percentage didn’t wear helmets and rode on the sidewalk. Lowering this percentage was a growing stream of folks who commute up the Avenue utilizing the bike lane and Dot Ave’s terminus in downtown.  This number will continue to grow as the fact is there will be more bike riders every day rather than less. Having counted at this site a year or two back, the 139 bikes we saw in two hours doesn’t seem like much but it was much more than before. Even the 71 seen at Washington Street was higher than what we may have found a few years back.

Riders at all spots didn’t do any good for cyclists’ safety image. I was amazed at the high number of folks coming north who drifted halfway across Columbia Road instead of waiting for the light. Perhaps it was spurred because Dot Ave there has a turn lane and there is no bike box or spot for riders to feel safe in what is probably one of the city’s craziest intersections. For better or for worse this intersection wasn’t included in the Stimulus Funded 10 Intersection Solution for Dorchester Avenue. It’s a state planned intersection though as there is no thought to accomodate cyclists. So it’s not a big wonder that many riders eschew the road and take the law into their own hands.

On the safety front though we witnessed two automobile accidents in two hours at Washington and Columbia. Both were a direct result of someone running a light. The police could make thousands each day at BOTH intersections just by standing there and citing folks who ‘block the box.’  Of course if they did, all havoc would break out. And they say it’s those crazy cyclists making things difficult for cars…

We saw one Hubway at Dot Ave. I got a chance to speak with the rider and he goes from Central Square to UMass which are two sites just added this year. Of course he took off down the sidewalk the wrong way. Wouldn’t it be nice if local Dorchester students at UMass would have the option of picking up a bike at Fields Corner or Peabody Square and head to school?

One thing that is definitely true about a significant number of bike riders in Dorchester is that many riders are using bikes for very very local riding. Many must be riding just a few blocks or less than a mile to home or work locally. Eyeing the riders closely, many had poorly tuned bikes with rusty chains and low air in their tires. There wasn’t any spandex or fancy bike computers. IPhones might be about the only similarity.

So how do we help our local riders? Good question. Given the news that two riders have been killed on Dorchester (South Boston was part of Dorchester until 1804 and it was a block from Dorchester Avenue) this past few days makes it a very important one too. Hopefully our Interim Bike Czar will either shed the Interim tag or be replaced by someone with a real title and more political pull that’s been on display since Nicole Friedman moved to Maine. Given most folks at City Hall are ensconsed in their jobs for life, they can easily ignore anyone who appears temporary, especially someone so young without any obvious political clout. So Boston’s bicycle future is on a bureaucratic hold despite a constant swelling of our numbers.

Neponset Avenue has been repaved for about half its length. Bike lanes have been installed going north but only sharrows going south. This road is way wider than 50 feet, so what’s with only one lane? (Must be a state planner?)

Franklin Park is blocked going from Pierpont Road to Glen Road due to pathway improvements which will actually make for a flat transition for riders in the future. While there is no easy access, regulars may plan an alternate route which isn’t as nice but is ok. Also this project is due to be completed fairly soon (before winter) so let’s go!

Broken (run over) bike racks in Peabody Square in front of Ashmont Cycles fixed within a week of ribbon cutting ceremony when dotrider asked the simple question, “How does leaving broken bike racks in front of a new bike store reflect on your actual support of his business…”

Dot Ave from Gallivan to Richmond is on a punch list. Great punch list! It’s a year old and aging daily.

Hubway announcements for JFK and UMass? Our bet is 2013…Anyone else?

And the beat goes on out in the hinterlands of Dorchester.

Peddle on!