Dot road report: We saw a “Bikes can take full lane” sign at the Corner of Blue Hill and Seaver Street. Haven’t noticed any other signage, but with the lines fading fast it would be nice to have signs sometime. There are a couple of sharrow squiggles in a few of the Ten Intersections on Dot Ave. What ever did happen to the City’s promise to make it a bike lane? Seems like they think it is mission accomplished on their maps. Meanwhile Talbot Ave and Columbia Road remain on the punch list as uncompleted. We’re desparate for a sharrow guy heading west in front of the Lee School. Of course with the T working on the station from there to Codman Square perhaps we can review and ditch some parking and add a bike lane? Fingers crossed. We saw Neponset Ave being scraped for repaving this week. Any plans for lanes there? It’s wide! It’s well ridden all year round. Nah, we’re too busy working on our Hubway system to actually make bike access better in a neighborhood that won’t be served by it…(sorry I can’t stop).
The press for Dotbike and riding was great this week! We got a front page piece in the Dorchester Reporter and an editorial the next week. Sadly the editorial painted an all is good picture instead of it could be better if the city took Dot as seriously as the rest of the city (and Cambridge and Somerville for that matter) attitude. Another Dotbiker has promised to write a letter so my diatribe won’t affect the conversation 😉
The Virtual Globe did a patronizing piece indicating it’s surprise that Dot has a bike group at all opposed to our friends in JP and A-B (who naturally would have one). Jeesh! Cut it out! Dot has it all folks! They also used the population count in Dorchester that has Mattapan expanded up to Grove Hall, cutting out about 30,000 Dotites in their assessment. Small wonder we’re under served. We’re under counted too! Of course it’s hard for folks to realize the depth of Dorchester’s spirit and population looking at it through the Media-if it bleeds it leads perspective… We got our issues but we also have more millionaires than any other zip code in Boston… Just saying. Stop selling us short.
When the city had to be brow beat into a curb side recycling program we had the largest and most diverse group of recyclers of any neighborhood. Well guess what? The same is true of bicyclers. While we all don’t work in town and donn our stretchy outfits and bitch to City Hall about any bump in the road, we’re out there riding. If it is as simple as a gang banger hanging with his dudes on his dirt bike or the hotel worker saving a half hour getting to Kenmore Square the range is complete. With nearly 500 images of folks riding in Dorchester on the dotbike flickr site, how can anyone argue?
We had the second largest group enrolled for Friday’s bike event to City Hall. Just think if we’d tried? In fact on the ride back to Dot after the event I saw more folks riding than did the ride! We’re out there more and more and more and more. Just like everywhere else. We’re not counted but we’re out there. Ignore us at your own risk.
