This is Part 5 in a 5 part series about infrastructure projects in the Boston area that will have a dramatic effect on biking in 2017. The projects were selected based on various criteria including improvements to safety and convenience and innovation in implementation and design.

Read Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 and Part 4

If you’ve ever ridden a bike down Massachusetts Ave, one of the area’s main thoroughfares connecting Cambridge and Boston, then you wouldn’t be surprised to know that it has one of the highest number of crashes of any road in the Boston area for people on bikes.

Despite the City of Boston removing some parking and installing bike lanes on Mass Ave in the Back Bay in 2011, most cyclists regard the stretch as a minefield of double parked cars, speeding, and car doors opening into the bike lane without warning.

Well, thanks to a major campaign by advocacy organizations including the Bike Union, some tactical urbanism by activists, and the incredible dedication and hard work of the Boston Transportation Department, Mass Ave in the Back Bay now boasts stretches of protected bike lane! While implementing the project is still ongoing, it will be complete in the Spring! Check out the video below to see what it’s like to ride in the new protected bike lane!

SB on the Mass Ave protected bike lane before all the flex posts were installed. More green paint has also been added in a lot of places pic.twitter.com/UaVIFkNeeP

— Doug Johnson (@TheMomentumist) December 30, 2016

Even better, after a massive campaign by Cambridge bike advocates and the Bike Union, the City of Cambridge agreed to pilot protected bike lanes on two segments of Mass Ave this year, with the intention of expanding on the protected bike lane pilot program in the Spring!

Also worth noting, the Town of Arlington recently installed bike lanes on a stretch of Mass Ave along with other traffic calming measures, and the intersection of Mass Ave and the Minuteman Bike Path was recently redesigned to provide better path connectivity and transitions from the path to the road!

In 2017 the Bike Union will be pushing the City of Boston to address safety issues on the stretch of Mass Ave between Melnea Cass and Uphams Corner, the only remaining part of Mass Ave that does not have any bike facilities.

This is the kind of progress that you help us make when you become a member or donate to the Bike Union! PLUS, when you join or donate between now and the end of 2016, you have a chance to win one of two bikes from our friends at Broadway Bicycle School in Cambridge or Wheelworks of Belmont and Somerville! Become a member today and help make 2017 the best year ever for biking in the Boston area!