just continue on columbus ave to west newton, then turn left and follow onto belevedere. hang a right on dalton, jump across boylston to hereford, and then reconnect with mass ave via back st. the turn from back st onto mass ave is the end of on-street parking, and you’re clear across the bridge.

was a nice ride from westwood to MIT this morning (13m), especially w/holiday traffic!

DCR is in charge, and theyre using the same system on the dam bridge.

Geoff: great idea to try the Jamaicaway. will give that a shot, including your shortcut from ‘B’ to ‘C’.

The BU bridge is open to cyclists now, too. The sharrows are right in the middle of the lane and there are several signs stating “bicyclists have full use of lane”. So when you’re crossing the BU bridge, just take the whole lane and go at your own pace. You’re not going to ruin someone’s life by making them cross the bridge at 12-15 mph.

Hopefully when they’re done with it, it’ll have a nice bike lane.

I commute almost daily from Field’s Corner to MIT. I take a few different routes depending on the day or whim. Here they are:

http://ur1.ca/f9wb — fastest route. Traffic on Blue Hill isn’t that pleasant, but the other roads aren’t bad. Northampton st. only works northbound unless you want to go wrong way on a one-way street; I just take Mass ave the whole way back going south.

http://ur1.ca/f9wd — Lowest traffic route. It took me a long time to learn all the turns, though, it’s a total zig-zag through north Dorchester/Roxbury. I take this one when I’m feeling relaxed.

http://ur1.ca/f9wi — simplest route (basically Dorchester Ave and Massachusetts Ave). These roads have higher traffic, but they are fairly wide, which is sometimes better than moderate traffic on a narrow street. I take this route when I feel like riding as fast as I can (but not necessarily getting there fastest).

Wish it were better, but this is the best I’ve yet found.

you can ride up the J-way and when the path hits park street, cross and take a left. on the map at point-B, there’s a very convenient alleyway there that will take you straight to point-C. at point-D, there’s a bike/foot overpass that takes you straight to the esplanade along the river. From there, you can get on the longfellow bridge, i guess, but I take it all the way to north station.

hope this helps — I personally like the J-way better than the southwest corridor since there aren’t so many stops, and it seems a bit safer.