The Mayor’s Bike Program and its progress or lack there of reflects what is typical of a new initiative. Remember it took the Menino administration 16 years to get its curbside recycling program to be comprehensive. It still stinks in terms of how many of us actually recycle. So biking is about the same.
The Mayor hired Nicle Freedman. She’s got a fancy degree but she’s missing ears and much political savy outside of kissing Menino’s butt and acting smart and perky with ideas in his presence. I’m glad I’ve never witnessed that as I might gag.
He’s let her go out with this assinine bike share program. It’s already broken all of its stated goals and outlines. It was supposed to be up and running by now. Nope. It was supposed to be free. Nope $3 million in Federal Tax dollars. Why Menino didn’t see that it didn’t cover Boston means he doesn’t care and wasn’t paying attention. Thanks Tom.
Now all we here is poor Nicole is toooo busy to keep on Public Works and the state to keep bike accomodation as part of every repaving project on any major thoroughfare in Boston. Dorchester has missed getting lanes on Bowdoin Street and Park Drive already. Bowdoin is a very bikey stretch used primarily by my minority neighbors who dominate that part of town. I ride through there often. The roads are wide and there was plenty of room for lanes. I’d wager Ms Freedman would be totally lost if we dropped her at the corner of Bowdoin and Hamilton… so I guess I was expecting too much there. Park Street was only the most heavily bicycled road as observed by the BOLD Teens traffic survey (which Mass Bike did a great job of supressing by the way). Now a nice road with only parking on one side will become a race track thanks to the new pavement. I’m sure there are more streets too as I go away alot in the summer. The corner of Quincy and Bowdoin come to mind already…
So what do bicycle advocates get out this? So far bike lanes in the more affluent parts of Boston. Promises and missed opportunities in the rest of town, half assed compromises with Public Works and no advocacy. The way public officials practically genuflect when they say Nicole Freedman, one might think she has more ‘power’ than she knows. What difference does it make if she’s only using it to promote an elitist tourist attraction aimed at getting cheap publicity? Sadly another waste.
Meanwhile Tom Menino thinks the bike program is going great! It gets easy press. The swells across the river are impressed. He hasn’t ridden a bike in two years only there is still an aura of Tom the Rider. He doesn’t see how the neighborhoods get short changed (of course his doesn’t so what does he care?). Oh well. Some things never change. Half assed solutions aimed at coopting the advocates and keeping them shut up. Well I’m not going to shut up. How about it those of us who are unhappy with today’s Boston Bike Reality? Your turn!
