Bike News Roudup

With the warmer weather, the bikers are out, and with them the bike news.  Here is a roundup of local bike news.

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Harvard gets award for being bike friendly:

As the number of cyclists on Harvard’s campuses continues to grow, so too does the infrastructure to support them.  New bike racks and repair stations are being set up, expanded bicycle benefits for commuters have been rolled out, and the University has made a major investment in the Hubway bike-sharing network by supporting the installation of 12 stations in Boston and Cambridge. The national advocacy organization League of American Bicyclists has recognized that progress by naming Harvard a silver-level Bicycle Friendly University.

Bike advocates push for more use, safety in Newton:

An effort is underway to make cycling a more appealing alternative to driving in Newton.

Advocates and city officials, who see cycling as a way to improve the health of the population and reduce road congestion, are working on plans to better enforce existing laws for sharing the road and to extend bike lanes throughout the city.

Building new infrastructure is key to getting more people to get out of their cars, according to Andreae Downs, chair of the Transportation Advisory Group.

“Unless Newton is the outlier, once you start building bike infrastructure you get more cyclists,” said Downs.

Boston man to cycle from London to Brussels for children’s charity:

THE efforts made by paralympians last summer have inspired a Boston man to take part in a bike ride from London to Brussels.

Paul Maddison was also inspired by his son Nick to take part in the 340-mile cycle challenge for a charity that helps children with disabilities, A Smile for the Child.

Connolly: Let’s Talk About Bike Infrastructure and Safety
The mayoral candidate is calling for a public hearing to discuss the future of city cycling:

As the warm weather slowly begins to creep back to Boston, more bikes will begin popping up along the roadways and paths connecting various city points, which makes it a perfect time to start discussing bike safety once again.

City Councilor and mayoral candidate John Connolly has filed a request to convene a public hearing to talk about Boston’s bike infrastructure and how it can be improved. According to Connolly, the purpose of the hearing will be to devise a long-term strategy for planning, funding, and implementing projects to expand the current cycling infrastructure. In a statement, he said that the city’s budget for bicycle infrastructure is “insufficient to fully implement all essential new projects,” including cycle tracks on Malcolm X Boulevard and around the Boston Public Garden.

How to protect cyclists HSPH team stresses data collection in meeting with city councilors:

How do you make Boston bike-safe? First you find out where it’s unsafe.

Answers to that and other key questions would provide the foundation for effective policy, a team of four Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) students told Boston City Councilor Ayanna Pressley on Wednesday.

The four — Aaron Pervin, Temitope Olukowi, Claire Albert, and Marie McIntee — were the winners of an annual spring exercise at HSPH in which student teams examine a health policy issue and devise recommendations on how to address it. Professor of Health Policy David Hemenway and doctoral student Dahianna Lopez advised the team.

In their presentation, the students told Pressley that dealing with Boston’s bike-safety problem — made apparent by a string of fatal accidents last year — is especially difficult because information on ridership, common routes, and even accidents is scattered among reports by the Boston Police Department, ambulance teams, emergency rooms, and a variety of city departments.

Justice Breyer Has Shoulder Surgery After Bicycle Accident:

According to Supreme Court spokesperson Kathleen Arberg, Associate Justice Stephen Breyer underwent reverse shoulder replacement surgery for a proximal humerus fracture at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital on the morning of April 27th.

The fracture was sustained in his right shoulder after a fall from his bicycle on the afternoon of April 26th, where he was taken to the hospital by an ambulance.

This is the third biking mishap for Justice Breyer. Two years ago, he fractured his right clavicle (collarbone) after he fell near his home in Cambridge, Mass.

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