Boston Cyclist Union Update

from the email:

Standing up for protected bike lanes. Literally. This month, we sent a powerful signal that protected bike lanes (PBLs) save lives. More than 120 people joined us to stage people-protected bike lanes on Park Drive and Fenway to protest the Department of Conservation and Recreation’s decision against providing physical separation for cyclists on those roads. The following week, we helped organize a Critical Mass-style ride on Memorial Drive to demonstrate against another DCR plan, which fails to provide adequate, safe spaces for all modes along that parkway. Both actions received widespread, favorable coverage, elevating bike safety in the public consciousness, shaping the narrative around this issue, and building pressure on officials to act. In conjunction with these actions, we also testified at a DCR stewardship meeting about the need for the agency to update its approach to PBLs and/or cede control to agencies with more resources to handle road design. We’ve received encouraging feedback from both DCR and lawmakers, and plan to continue this conversation until PBLs are the norm, not the exception, on our parkways and greenways.

Another Big Win: The Charles River Dam / Craigie Bridge Redesign Protected bike lanes arecoming soon to the Charles River Dam / Craigie Bridge! This is an ideal outcome won through our collective action. Despite November’s fatal bike crash in this area, original plans called only for painted bike lanes. However, that changed after we mobilized a mass turnout to a December meeting about this project and placed pressure on MassDOT to develop a safer alternative. Thank you to everyone who spoke out on this project, either at that meeting or in written remarks! Your feedback is directly responsible for making this new, better design possible.

Make the Case for Better Ride-Hailing Regulations Boston receives a flat $0.10 per Uber/Lyft trip that starts in the city. A bill under consideration at the State House would change that, setting a variable fee that accounts for distance, demand, and whether the ride is shared or solo. The result: A fee that better reflects the impact to our streets of so-called transportation network companies (TNCs), while providing cities like Boston with crucial revenue to reinvest in mass transit, street improvements, and new bike infrastructure. Mayor Walsh testified in support of this bill in July, and we stand with the mayor in urging state lawmakers to pass it this session. To help boost this bill’s odds of passage, we encourage you to write to your representatives and others with authority over this bill. You can find more info on how to get involved here.

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When We Fight We Win! Support the Boston Cyclists Union In There Important Work!

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Action Alert: Two Opportunities This Week To Stand Up For Cyclists On DCR Roadways

Tell DCR: Protect cyclists on your roadways

Last Thursday, we sent a powerful message to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) that we need more protected spaces for cyclists on our roads — and we need them now. Around 125 people stood ground on Fenway and Brookline Ave. to highlight the dangers of DCR’s unprotected bike lanes on those roads, proving in the process that even during rush hour cars can move just fine along Brookline Ave. with one less lane for vehicle traffic. Thank you to all of you who took time out of your day to be there! (If you missed it, here are some photo highlights.)

We urge you to now help us carry on our momentum from that demonstration with two actions this week aimed at convincing DCR to modernize its approach to bike safety and street design.

Images from last Thursday’s people-protected bike lane action (Images courtesy of Donrick Pond)
On Wednesday, a coalition of advocacy organizations called the Memorial Drive Alliance will rally to call attention to the need for a road diet along Memorial Drive as part of the redesign process currently underway there. Following the rally, there will be a critical mass-style ride along Memorial Drive, from JFK St east to the BU rotary, to show how the road could be transformed with one less lane for cars in each direction.

Despite overwhelming public comment in support of improving the corridor for walking and bicycling and expanding green space, at the last public meeting DCR presented a plan which retains four lanes of motor vehicle traffic for most of Memorial Drive, including the parts where these improvements are most needed.

Wednesday’s ride will be a highly visible way to try to change these plans before they are finalized.
Rally and Ride
Wednesday, July 17 starting at 5:30pm
Intersection of Memorial Drive and JFK Street
RSVP

As last week’s demonstration showed, if we speak up publicly we’ll be heard. Thursday’s action received significant favorable coverage in the press, got more elected officials at the state level engaging in the conversation, and renewed attention from the City of Boston to continue expediting new protected infrastructure on Boylston St and, together with DCR, at intersections with Park Drive.
In addition to attending the rally Wednesday, it is critically important to write to DCR – even if you previously wrote in – to ask them to change their plan. To submit comments, visit their website and choose “Memorial Drive Greenway Improvements Phase III”. Key points to include:

Replace 2 vehicle travel lanes with a protected bi-directional bike path. (Retain existing paths and sidewalks for pedestrians).
Protect existing trees and plant new trees wherever there are gaps.

The second activist opportunity this week is DCR’s Stewardship Council on Thursday morning, where you can share feedback directly to the Commissioner and members of the Council about Memorial Drive and Park Drive/Fenway, as well as the agency’s general unwillingness to implement physically separated bike lanes.

DCR Stewardship Council Meeting
Thursday, July 18 from 8:30 – 11am
Dillaway-Thomas House, 183 Roxbury Street
Roxbury, MA 02119

The public comment period is toward the beginning/middle (full agenda) of this meeting, and then the public can join a working group to continue to talk with council members. If you plan to speak and have something written, please bring 10 copies. Talking points you could include:

DCR roadways where you travel, and safety concerns that you have experienced on them (including crashes)
Positive experiences you have had traveling in protected bike lanes, and an ask to start using protected bike lanes on DCR roadways
In general, why it is important to you for DCR to prioritize walking/biking/green space on and along their roadways
Particular comments related to Fenway/Park Drive and their intersections, the Arborway in Jamaica Plain, or Memorial Drive

These meetings rarely happen in Boston, so this is a unique opportunity to address DCR directly. We hope you can join us!

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Action Alert: People-Protected Bike Lane on Fenway THIS THURSDAY

From the email:

Tell DCR: Protected Bike Lanes Save Lives

New bike lanes coming soon to the Fenway area will leave cyclists vulnerable unless the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) tweaks plans to include some form of physical separation. With lane striping set to begin any day now, we ask you to join us this Thursday for an urgent demonstration calling on DCR to protect these bike lanes and improve conditions throughout this busy corridor for people who bike.
People-Protected Bike Lane on Fenway

People-Protected Bike Lane on Fenway
Thursday, July 11
Intersection of Fenway and Brookline Ave. (see map here)

RSVP

An image from the first people-protected bike lane demonstration in Boston,
on Congress St in December 2017.

Protected bike lanes (PBLs) are nearly twice as effective as painted bike lanes, and are the accepted safety standard for roads like Fenway and Park Drive; the MassDOT Municipal Resource Guide for Bikeability recommends PBLs on any road with more than one lane of traffic in each direction. However, DCR has decided to leave new bike lanes on Park Drive and Fenway unprotected, and has neglected to improve the intersections between those roads and Brookline Ave.

The Park Drive bike lane will be between on-street parking and two lanes of fast-moving traffic. Putting cyclists in the door zone on busy Park Drive is putting them in danger. And while the unprotected bike lane on Fenway isn’t designed in a door zone too, DCR’s refusal to add a physical barrier to that paint-buffered bike lane — DCR claims that it gives bicyclists a “false sense of security” — is completely backwards. During Boston’s budget hearings this spring, a cyclist shared her story of being hit from behind on Park Drive — a problem that could still happen with DCR’s unsafe designs. February’s crash that killed Paula Sharaga as she biked through the intersection of Brookline Ave. and Park Drive made the need for protection painfully clear.

DCR’s design decisions are made more frustrating by the fact that the Boston Transportation Department has already begun building PBLs on Brookline Ave., and has committed to significantly expediting the timeline to add protected bike lanes to an abutting section of Boylston St.

Preliminary striping shows a paint-buffered bike lane on Fenway (top)
and a door-zone bike lane on Park Drive (bottom).

We need your help to convince DCR to change course now, before the unprotected infrastructure is implemented!

• Join the people-protected bike lane — This Thursday, stand in support of protected bike lanes on Park Dr. and Fenway. In addition to these roads, we are also calling on DCR to make PBLs the norm for similar areas; recent DCR projects, and plans for future ones, also include unprotected bike lanes.

• Make your voice heard — Contact DCR to oppose their dangerous design, and urge lawmakers to step in. Even if your state representatives don’t cover this area, they can still influence broader DCR policy now and in the future. Share feedback to DCR Commissioner Roy and Governor Baker. For lawmakers, email Representative Chynah Tyler and Senator Will Brownsberger, who represent this area, and your own state senator and representative (find contact info here). For all emails, please CC [email protected].

• Save the date — DCR’s Stewardship Council meets next week on Thursday, 7/18, at which you can share feedback on the agency’s approach to PBLs and other bike infrastructure. If DCR ignores us now, this meeting will be our next opportunity to apply pressure about PBLs.

“If Paula were here, she would say, ‘Don’t mourn: Organize, and make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Todd, a long-time friend of Paula Sharaga’s, said at her ghost bike ceremony. That time to organize and push for change is here.

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The Boston Neighborhood Bike Organizing Leadership Institute

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