It’s The Little Things: Cambridge Going Nuts With Bike Infrastructure (And Photo Contest)
Written by Boston Biker on Oct 02I have been riding around Cambridge lately and noticing a lot of new things going on. Potential new bike lanes on river street (although they come with some problems as the right hand side of the street is a shit show). The Mass. Ave. Bridge bike lanes have gotten a new coat of thermo plastic. The bike lanes on western ave look like they got a new coat of paint. It looks like the lanes got narrowed on prospect near Mass. Ave. and it also looks like they are putting in bike lanes there. Harvard square seems to be getting some new bike lanes. Various other bike lanes around town (Hampshire off Broadway, and various parts further north) seem to be getting re-painted, or parts that have worn off redone. Over all it looks like there are new bike lanes going in, old ones being fixed up, and a whole lot more. Thanks Cambridge. It is the little things that matter, and I congratulate you on keeping up the good work.
(Anyone that can take a picture of everything I just mentioned and send me the pics will get a prize, use the contact form to drop me a line and I will tell you where to email the pictures)
Tags: Bike Lanes, cambridge, little things
Posted in advocacy, fun | 4 Comments »
By grimlocke
on Oct 2, 2009 | Reply
Call me a cynic, but I doubt this is all going to help us come Old Man Winter. The snow will still get plowed up against the sidewalk, causing the cars to park out in the bike lane, causing me to ride in the passenger side wheelrut in the street (which would be clearer of snow than the bike lane anyway).
Oh, and GET OFFA MY LAWN, DURN KIDS!!
By J
on Oct 2, 2009 | Reply
Also note that the charles river dam road now has sharrows – theyre being installed temporarily while construction is done, at which point a full bike lane will be painted.
Im not sure what city the road is in, may be cambridge, might be boston, might be somerville. Doesnt matter, as DCR is in charge of that!
Info can be found here:
http://www.mass.gov/dcr/news/publicmeetings/materials/cragie6-11-09.pdf
By DB
on Oct 3, 2009 | Reply
It’s encouraging to see these new developments, I agree. Usually any cycling facilities make me hopeful.
I have been dismayed, though, about the sharrows on Mass Ave between porter and Harvard Sq. I believe they are relatively new–correct me if I’m wrong– and they are extremely ill-placed. That part of mass ave is very wide (I’m thinking specifically of the section at Linnean St. heading toward Harvard), and the sharrow symbols are as far to the right as possible… smack in the door zone and even sometimes partially eclipsed by a parked car. They are so far to the right and so far apart that motorists are unlikely to notice these symbols, but a cyclist might blithely follow the dots and get nailed by a door.
By J
on Oct 6, 2009 | Reply
While I dont have any pictures of the lanes you asked about, the new exclusive silverline busway on essex street is 90% done. While the signs indicate bus only, its prime space for a bike. Unlike the washington street lanes, these use colored asphalt, so there will be less illegal car use. Pictures can be found on archboston.