Well we’re heading into the dark time of year. I actually enjoy it to some degree outside of being on the street in some places in the dark. The ride through Franklin Park in the gloam is awesome. You hear the geese and the ducks settling in on Scarborough Pond. There is a mad rush of squirrels and chipmunks skittering through the forest. Who knows, I might get a shot at the coyote I’ve heard has been seen in the park. I hope he gets a few geese!
Dotbike continues to deliver new riders and good results whenever we have a ride or community event. Perhaps most noticable during Saturday’s Dotbike Art ride were all the OTHER riders we saw. Riding up Geneva Avenue and down Bowdoin Street was new territory for a number of riders in the group. When we stopped at Nonquit Park on Dudley Street one comment I heard was in amazement at how many other folks were out riding. YUP! That’s what we’ve been saying all along is that there’s no typical Dot rider. I wish those who made decisions on our bike infrastructure would come out and hang during the day sometime and really see how importants bikes are in our neighborhood.
The bike count along the Dorchester part of the Harbor Walk that we call the Missing Link was pretty interesting. I got to count at perhaps the busiest spot at the base of the Neponset Bridge. We saw folks riding in both directions on the bridge and quite a number of folks zipping along underneath. The pathway users tended to be those in stretchy suits. The folks riding into Quincy were going to work in their work clothes… One non-bike related observation was how many of the folks who work at the ambulance company walked to work. I guess they spend enough time in a vehicle during the rest of the day…
So, we’re waiting to see a rush of late season activity toward reaching the city’s goal of another 15-20 miles of bike lane. So far it’s been low hanging fruit. The 10-intersection solution continues to defy a full length treatment of the Avenue. Throw in a collection of steel plates along the entire stretch and who can blame the city for delaying any lane or sharrow installation. We continue to see paving jobs where sharrows or lanes might have worked. Sadness in that Mr. Timlin and his crew still haven’t lived up to their talk and begun to think bikes in EVERY road project. We’ll continue to hope their actions get caught up with their rhetoric.
The winter riding through Franklin Park appears as though plowing will continue up Pierpont. It may not go down Glen Road. Parks smoothed out the plow bumps on Pierpont Road. Since I don’t go down Glen myself as a regular practice we haven’t seen any indications that Parks is planning to go down there. Let us know if we should try to make that happen or not?
