It was certainly a pleasant Saturday afternoon in Boston. Virtually everyone was outside. Dotriderblog started by doing a turn at Franklin Park with the Williams Gate group cleaning the sand patch as well as cleaning up a few camp sites. Then I thought about climbing a tree with a rope until a red tail hawk started squawking on a branch of the beautiful oak that was strapped out with a dozen or so lines for young and old to try. The Franklin Park Coalitions event was gearing up with a nice crowd of young families finger painting and going on a series of nature walks as well. For us however the lure of the Sustainable Food Festival down on the pier behind the Children’s Museum was irresistable. So mid afternoon we tooled up Dot Ave for the first time in a while. Stimulus had the effect of splitting what was meant to be a full scale rehab of Dot Ave into 16 micro-jobs that are more like oases in the desert of bumps and pot holes. I’m glad to say that I wasn’t the 50 or so of my neighbors who had gone to the dozens of meetings the past four years before this came up working on the Dot Ave master plan. But I digress. Perhaps the longest segment of Dorchester Avenue that was covered by the Stimulus was from Broadway to Old Colony Boulevard in South Boston. Anyway the job appears to be completed with nice new curb cuts and light poles and a brand new paint job…sans bike lanes. I guess the state must have been using the old plans, or the ones we see online that don’t include ANY bike lanes. So we’ll see what the explanation will be.
Here’s the link as we’ve posted a half dozen or so on the dotbike flickr site… By the way. I’d love it if someone could explain the point of the sign with the only reference to a bicycle in that entire stretch… “To request green — Wait on… (with a bike chevron guy ) what does that mean please???? http://www.flickr.com/photos/dotbike/5045049105/
The Food Fest was crowded with enthusiastic eaters. There must have been hundreds bicycles just strewn around any fence or sign post within a block or two of the event. We suggested to the organizers that they contact Massbike to arrange for bike valet service. They liked the suggestion. I know I would have appreciated it. Hey it was the first one, so may be next year!
