Boston City Summer Bike Program

From the email:

CELEBRATE BIKE TO WORK DAY WITH MAYOR WALSH AND BLUE BIKES! Register now for Boston’s National Bike to Work Day Festival on Friday May 18, the City’s annual celebration of bicycling hosted by the Boston Transportation Department! This year, Mayor Walsh will be joined by Andrew Dreyfus, the President and CEO of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, to celebrate the rebranding of our public bike share system as Blue Bikes. The new brand recognizes Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts as the new title sponsor of the publicly-owned system, which we’re expanding this year. You can join one of a dozen bike convoys at stops all across the Boston area or ride over on your own. When you arrive at City Hall Plaza, you’ll be greeted by bike-friendly exhibitors and free breakfast provided by Clif Bar, High Brew Coffee, Iggy’s Bread of the World, and Whole Foods – Charles River Plaza. You must pre-register for the event in order to be eligible to receive a limited edition 2018 Bike to Work Day shirt. Shirts will be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis. Blue Bikes members can receive Blue Bikes sunglasses. Registration, a map of the convoys, and other event details can be found at boston.gov/bike-to-work-day.

LEARN TO RIDE AT A WOMEN’S LEARN-TO-RIDE CLINIC Are you a Boston resident who identifies as female or gender-nonconforming? Do you want to learn to ride a bike or sharpen existing bike skills? If so, you’re invited to participate in the Boston Transportation Department’s free clinics. The “Basic Skills” clinics are for you if you’ve never ridden a bike before, haven’t been on a bike for years, or can ride a little but need to build basic skills like starting, stopping, turning, and hand signaling. “Intro to Street Skills” clinics are for you if you have the basics down, but want to build your confidence riding on the street. Pre-registration is required for all clinics. Bikes and helmets are provided upon request. Find more information at boston.gov/women-bike. Schedule of planned events: Basic Skills | Tuesday, June 19, 6 pm – 8 pm, Mattapan Basic Skills | Wednesday, July 11, 6 pm – 8 pm, Roxbury Basic Skills | Wednesday, July 25, 6 pm – 8 pm, Charlestown Basic Skills | Wednesday, August 8, 6 pm – 8 pm, Allston Basic Skills | Saturday, September 8, 10 am – 12 pm, Dorchester Intro to Street Skills | Saturday, September 8, 12 pm – 2 pm, Dorchester Basic Skills | Saturday, September 29, 10 am – 12 pm, Roxbury Intro to Street Skills | Saturday, September 29, 12 pm – 2 pm, Roxbury Basic Skills | Saturday, October 13, 10 am – 12 pm, East Boston Intro to Street Skills | Saturday, October 13, 12 pm – 2 pm, East Boston

LEARN ABOUT BIKE SHARE AT A BOSTON BY BIKE(SHARE) RIDE Are you a resident of Boston who is interested in the region’s public bike share system but haven’t yet tried it out? Join one of four Boston by Bike(share) events hosted by the Boston Transportation Department this year. These events are a great way to try bike share for free and learn more about the different membership options available. An experienced ride leader will take you on a group bike ride through the neighborhood, traveling along comfortable on- and off-street routes. Helmets will be provided and participants should be a minimum of 16 years old. Information about our Boston by Bike(share) events can be found at boston.gov/bikes. East Boston by Bike(share) | Wednesday, June 27, 6 pm – 8 pm South Boston by Bike(share) | Wednesday, July 18, 6 pm – 8 pm Dorchester by Bike(share) | Wednesday, August 22, 6 pm – 8 pm Roxbury and South End by Bike(share) | Wednesday, September 19, 6 pm – 8 pm

RIDE CONNECT HISTORIC BOSTON WITH US Connect Historic Boston (CHB) is an initiative between the City of Boston and the National Park Service to link historic sites through downtown Boston. While construction on the full project continues, the Boston Transportation Department will be able to take people on a ride of the substantially-complete bike trail. Meet us on June 22 at 5:30 pm at South Station. We’ll ride along the CHB Trail, and make a few stops along the way to discuss the project. The ride will take approximately one hour and will end near a Red Line T stop. Don’t have a bike? A limited number of Blue Bikes (formerly known as Hubway) will be available. Please be sure to register if you want to ride a Blue Bike. Registration is optional for riders who have their own bikes, but does help us in planning. All riders will need to sign a waiver. Helmets will be required.

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Ways You Can Be Part Of Vision Zero

After 4 pedestrian fatalities in January, the Mayor is rolling out new ways to allow you to help reduce all traffic fatalities to ZERO in Boston.

Here are some ways you can help.

1. Submit your safety concerns on the City of Boston’s new interactive Vision Zero safety concerns map. You can pick a location and comment on specific street safety concerns in Boston with this tool. Now you can report safety concerns, near misses, and incidents – valuable data that can be added to existing police and EMS crash data.

2. Read the City Of Boston’s Vision Zero Action Plan and share it with others via Facebook, email or Twitter. Spreading the word is an important first step in making sure everyone is working to reduce traffic fatalities.

3. Sign up for Vision Zero updates. Stay informed and get alerts about important meetings, events and actions you can take to help make Vision Zero a reality.

That map is going to be pretty marked up when I am done with it…

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Mayor Walsh Announces Vision Zero For Boston

Like New York, Mayor Walsh has outlined a ‘Vision Zero‘ philosophy for Boston.  It’s something myself and many other have been saying for years.  Traffic fatalities are not “accidents” they are crashes.  They don’t just happen by cosmic chance, someone is at fault.  Through good planning, comprehensive education, strong engineering and proper enforcement we can reduce them to zero.

Some other juicy announcements in the press release below.

from the city:

March 24, 2015 – Today, Mayor Martin J. Walsh announced five transportation initiatives to improve how individuals on foot, bike, or in a vehicle move around the City of Boston with a significant focus on improving public safety. The announcements include a complete streets approach to Commonwealth Avenue, featuring protected bike lane on from the BU Bridge to Packard’s Corner, the adoption of Vision Zero Boston, aimed at eliminating traffic fatalities in the city, the citywide replacement of parking meters with intelligent parking meters, and a pilot program to eliminate street sweeping towing. The initiatives are early action projects as part of Go Boston 2030 launched to imagine a bold new transportation plan for Boston for the next five, 10, and 15 years. Additionally, the Mayor and the Boston Transportation Department will begin a nationwide search for a new Active Transportation Director to think holistically about how our streets are used by people who walk, bike, and take transit.

“We’re implementing innovative and inventive transportation strategies and infrastructure upgrades in the City of Boston to improve travel safety and convenience,” said Mayor Walsh. “Whether you walk, drive, take the T, or ride a bike on our streets, we’re looking at solutions that can accommodate every mode of transportation in a meaningful way.”

Vision Zero

Mayor Walsh announced that the City of Boston will adopt Vision Zero, based on the premise that traffic fatalities are not accidents, but rather they are crashes that can be  prevented by effective policies and systematic evaluation, enforcement, engineering, education, and  community engagement.  By adopting Vision Zero, the City of Boston joins cities such as New York, San  Francisco, and Chicago, which have committed to making traffic safety a priority. Toward that end, Mayor Walsh has convened a Vision Zero Task Force to develop an action plan for a  comprehensive and coordinated strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities and injuries in Boston.

The Task  Force includes representatives of Boston’s Transportation Department (BTD), the Boston Police Department (BPD), the Public Works Departments (PWD), the Boston Public Health Commission (BPHC), Boston Emergency Medical Services (EMS), and WalkBoston, Massachusetts’  leading pedestrian advocacy organization, and the Boston Cyclists Union.  Early action items include:

• BPD improvements to its electronic crash reporting system that will lead to  better data collection and better crash analysis;

• BPD is hiring a full-time Transportation Safety Data Analyst and a full-time DDACTS  Analyst (Data Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic Safety) to reduce motor vehicle,  pedestrian and bicycle collisions. Evidence in other cities suggests that this will also reduce  crime.

• BPD and EMS will use crash data to identify pedestrian crash hot spots and high crash corridors with the help of researchers from BPHC and the Tufts Medical  Center Division of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery.

• BTD and PWD will pilot test rapid-response improvements at pedestrian crash hot spots and along high crash corridors, as well as “residential slow zones”

• BPHC will assist with education and outreach to educate residents  on safe road behavior.

Commonwealth Avenue Multi-Modal Redesign

At a public meeting held at Boston University, the City of Boston last night unveiled the new Commonwealth Avenue Phase 2A Redesign Plan, which will transform the portion of this busy thoroughfare that extends between the BU Bridge to Packard’s Corner. The built roadway will be innovative and provide bicyclists with physically protected bike lanes on both the inbound and outbound sides of the avenue.  It will also offer the MBTA and its patrons with fully ADA compliant crossings at all intersections along the project route and will create a framework for the construction of wider platforms that will be safer and more efficient for trolley riders. The design affords motor vehicle drivers and pedestrians with numerous enhanced amenities.

The Complete Streets design incorporates a “Protected Intersection” approach to make Commonwealth Avenue one of the most progressive multi-modal corridors in the country, and the first time that this design component will be used on Boston’s public streets.  This utilizes a sizeable separation between bikes and cars at intersections to reduce “right hooks,” a  common cause of bicycle/motor vehicle crashes where motor vehicle drivers turning right crash with cyclists continuing straight. This is a cutting edge safety feature built into the design along with bike boxes and a corner deflection island to maximize safety while accommodating turns and providing better visibility for both motor vehicle drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians.

A collaborative process between Boston’s bicycle advocates, pedestrian groups, the Boston University community, as well as others with an interest in Commonwealth Avenue, helped formulate the design with the City.

Commonwealth Avenue in the project area will also receive new street lighting, landscaping, repaving and new street furniture.  Construction financing for this $17 million project is being funded 80% by the federal government and 20% by the state.  The city expects to have another public meeting in the fall of 2015 before bidding begins on the project contract.  Construction is expected to begin in the spring of 2016 with a completion date of  late fall of 2017.  The design process for this project began in 2009.

Adding protected bike lanes has shown positive economic impacts on surrounding businesses in cities across the country, including New York City, San Francisco, and Portland. A redesign of NYC’s Union Square to include a protected bike lanes resulted in nearly 50% fewer commercial vacancies, and the construction of a protected bike lane on 9th Avenue saw a nearly 50% increase in retail sales. Studies have shown that adding a protected bike lane increases cycling traffic on the roadway, boosting retail performance, with nearly 70% of merchants on San Francisco’s Valencia Street seeing a positive impact on business. Studies have shown that customers who arrive at retail stores by bike spend the same amount per month as comparable people who arrive by car, making smaller purchases but returning more frequently

Intelligent Parking Meters

The Boston Transportation Department will be making parking at the curb smarter and easier for people who park at the 8,000 metered spaces across the City. With the addition of new intelligent multi-space and single space parking meters, drivers can pay through mobile phone, a credit card, or pocket change. This next generation of meters will also provide real-time data to the City to help BTD better manage the space at the curb. The information provided by an upgraded parking system and an analysis of current on-street parking regulations will allow the City to make decisions based on data, not just intuition. Credit card and mobile payment enabled meters have shown increased revenue with drivers more likely to pay for the maximum length of stay.

Multi-space meters will be deployed in new locations in the Back Bay and in the Innovation District to improve City operations. A typical multi-space meter allows for more vehicles to fit on a blockface than a block demarcated with single space meters. In addition to the approximately 145 new multi-space meters that will replace some single space meters, current multi-space meters throughout the Back Bay and parts of Downtown will be upgraded, reducing annual maintenance costs for the aging equipment.

The remaining single space parking meters will be replaced with smart single space parking meters that can also be paid for with a mobile phone, credit card, or pocket change. A current pilot of credit card enabled single space meters in the Back Bay and around the Public Garden has shown positive results since deployment. This next generation of meters will provide the potential for collecting occupancy and turnover rate of vehicles, critical data that gives the City insight on how to better manage the curb space around Boston.

Street Sweeping Pilot

Mayor Walsh will file a City Council ordinance to pilot a new street sweeping initiative in one of Boston’s neighborhoods. The ordinance, which is being drafted now, will propose eliminating towing for street sweeping, and increase the fine for not moving a vehicle from $40 to $90. The City plans to use the pilot to determine whether this initiative should be extended to other neighborhoods.

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Mayor Walsh Proposes A Truck Safety Bill For Cyclists

From The Boston Cyclists Union:

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The City of Boston took a big step forward for the country today as Mayor Marty Walsh presented an ordinance to the City Council that will make truck design far safer for pedestrians and bikes.

“We believe this is the first ordinance of it’s kind in the country,” wrote Mayor Walsh’s press secretary Kate Norton. “The ordinance requires side guards, convex mirrors, cross-over mirrors, and blind-spot awareness decals on all vehicles over 10,000 pounds awarded a city contract. There is a fine for those not in compliance — escalating from $100 for the first offense, to potential termination of the contract.”

The Bike Union began pushing for the ordinance through Councillor Ayanna Pressley’s office in the wake of Eoin McGrory’s tragic death in Charlestown in early April. (Please contribute to a charity fund in his memory.) At the same time, the city’s office of Urban Mechanics was talking to the city’s new mayor about the success of a pilot program that required sideguards first on the city’s public works truck fleet, and subsequently on all trash hauling trucks that contracted with the city. The results of the pilot were positive and all parties agreed that a move toward design requirements for all trucks contracting with the city was the best next step.

Today the Bike Union is also releasing a new“Sideguards Save Lives” fact sheet that illustrates the benefits side guards and blind spot mirrors. The fact sheet is that will give residents in other municipalities, the state, and the country a tool to push forward similar ordinances and legislation.

“The Bike Union knows who’s who and they set up a face to face meeting with Councillor Ayanna Pressley’s staff,” said Alex Epstein, one of the nation’s expert on truck safety design who works at USDOT at the Volpe Center in Cambridge, and also helped advise the Mayor’s staff. “I don’t think it would have been possible without that insider connection.”

Read more here.  I can’t wait to see this passed into law.  There is no reason such a simple and cost effective way to save lives is not mandatory.

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