Hubway Update

From the email:

In 1928, five African American women set off from New York City on a 250-mile adventure to Washington D.C. Their three-day ride was about personal pleasure and challenge, and the story calls into question our ideas of who bicycled in history and why. We found this important story via the series archives of The Bicycle Story: A Tale of People and Bikes, where you can read and hear this and other inspiring features about race, diversity, empowerment, and their connections with bikes.

Stations in Boston, Brookline, and Somerville will be back before you know it, but if you’ve got a little riding downtime, now is the perfect time to use Hubway’s Suggest-a-Station tool. Got ideas for future Hubway station locations? Put ’em on the map, and provide feedback on others’ suggestions. We use this info when making Hubway expansion considerations.

Looking for places to ride Hubway? Want to brush up on your riding skills? Interested in a group ride?Check out our full list of upcoming local events, festivals, rides, and classes. Here are some coming up in the next few weeks.

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Live In Cambridge? Time To Make Some Phone Calls.

Time to get on the phone!  In between calling up your senators and telling them to fight trump, you should call up your local folks and demand bike lanes!

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We’re writing with good news and bad news about our shared work to make our streets safer for everyone in Cambridge.

First, the good news: All four designs for Inman Square include protected bike facilities and so many of us showed up to the public meeting they had to turn people away and schedule a new one!

Now, the bad news: Unfortunately, the city does not appear to be committed to implementing a Spring network of protected bike lanes as the council requested last fall, based on their most recent update which they’re going to present to the city council tomorrow. Instead, they only plan to complete a portion of Cambridge St and a small sliver of Mass Ave this spring, with no concrete plan for further work. We continue to be excited about the popup protected bike lane that’s planned for Cambridge St, but that needs to be just the first step in a concrete, accelerated work plan for a broad network across the city.

Two cyclists died last year and the city’s lack of urgency is troubling. We need your help to keep up pressure on the city to commit to a detailed plan and timetable for a connected network of protected bike lanes.

Here’s how you can help:

1. Most valuable: Come to the city council meeting tomorrow, Monday January 30, and speak out in support of an expansive Spring network. Public comment starts at 5:30pm, you can call (617) 349-4280 to sign up until 3pm or sign up in person until 6pm. Say that you are speaking about CMA 2017 #27 (the bike safety work plan). We’ll put up talking points here. RSVP and share on Facebook.
2. If you can’t make Monday’s council meeting, please write or call your City Councillors and the City Manager expressing your disappointment at the lack of urgency and the narrow scope in the plans for protected lanes. Numbers for each City Councillor are available here.

Sincerely,
Annie, Nate, and other members of the CBS core team

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Hubway Shut Down For The Storm

Good to know if you use Hubway to get to work:

From Hubway:

Due to a forecast of inclement weather, Hubway will temporarily close at 12PM noon on Saturday, January 7th, to protect the safety of our riders and staff. Once the closure has begun, no bikes can be rented at the stations, though any bikes in use at that time can be returned to any Hubway station with an available dock.

Following the storm, Hubway field staff will be working to clear stations, after which the Cambridge stations will reopen. Boston stations will remain closed for the remainder of the season. While the Boston stations were originally scheduled to be removed a few at a time throughout the next week, the expected snowfall will require additional time for Hubway field staff to prepare and remove the stations.

We understand that forecasts vary and may change. Closure and re-opening information will be posted to the Hubway website, Facebook, and Twitter. For real-time station, bike, and dock availability, visit our station map, or call to speak with a Member Service Representative at 1-855-9HUBWAY (948-2929).

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The Math On Driving Doesn’t Work

From MetroNews

A common political argument is that bike and transit riders should “pay their own way.” A study in Vancouver however suggested that for every dollar we individually spend on walking, society pays just 1 cent. For biking, it’s eight cents, and for bus-riding, $1.50. But for every personal dollar spent driving, society pays a whopping $9.20! Such math makes clear where the big subsidies are, without even starting to count the broader environmental, economic, spatial and quality-of-life consequences of our movement choices. The less people need to drive in our cities, the less we all pay, in more ways than one.

Or to put it another way, you are not paying for bike lanes and side walks with your taxes, your paying for massive infrastructure projects to move cars around.

All that money could be used in much better ways.  For instance we could just leave it in your pocket…or we could put it into public transit, or renewable energy, or use it to hire more teachers, or make sure our water is clean, the list is nearly endless.

The other thing to think about is that once car usage is reduced, deaths from car usage is also reduced.  Less crashes, less hit and runs, less obesity, less asthma, less wars for oil, less fracking, less cancer, less diabetes, less global warming induced bad weather.

In short we are spending our money all wrong on things that are only hurting us.

In contrast cycling walking and public transit actually makes money for society!

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Lawmakers Pass 50$ Fine For Parking In Bike Lanes

Don’t know if the governor is going to sign it…but he should.

Drivers across the state could be penalized with a ticket of up to $50 for stopping in a bike lane under legislation sent to the governor’s desk on Tuesday, the last day of the biennial session.

State and local officials have increasingly turned portions of roadways into bike lanes, and municipalities have imposed their own fines against drivers who use bike lanes for parking or stopping.

In May 2014, a new bike lane obstruction penalty went into effect in Cambridge, with a $35 charge, according to the city’s website, which says that previously vehicles obstructing bike lanes were ticketed for double-parking or other offenses. Boston also tickets drivers for stopping or parking in a bike lane, according to its website. (via)

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