With the Arborway Parkways Improvement Project just getting underway, now is a crucial opportunity to shape this project’s goals — including whether it will aim to complete the Emerald Necklace with protected bike lanes.

You have until THIS FRIDAY (July 10) to tell the Department of Conservation and Recreation what you want to see done with the Arborway. You can submit written feedback or, even better, pinpoint comments on an interactive map.

Before the city even begins drafting potential plans, help us make the case that any new design must include protected bike lanes!

Despite the project’s limited scope, its potential impact is huge. (You can review DCR”s most recent presentation about the project here.) Adding protected bike lanes to the Arborway would:

• Improve safety on one of DCR’s most dangerous roads (1 crash every 5 days)
   
• Support Boston’s goal of a climate- and congestion-mitigating shift from cars to bikes and busses
   
• Enhance connectivity for commuting from Mattapan, Dorchester and beyond to employment areas in Longwood/Fenway/Back Bay/Downtown
   
• Provide greater access to greenspace and recreation

Over the next few months, DCR will develop concept plans to present at the next public meeting in late summer / early fall. That makes this Friday the deadline to ensure your feedback is taken into consideration for those initial renderings.

Please join us in asking DCR for:

• Traffic calming to reduce vehicle speeds
   
• Separated bike lanes, or an off-road, shared-use path, to complete the gap in the bike network 
   
• Comfortable & ADA compliant pedestrian routes on both sides of the parkway
   
• Increased green space and trees — put the PARK back in Parkway!

In our comments, we’re also asking that DCR include separated bike lanes in their short-term plans (construction won’t begin until fall 2021, and is expected to last 2 years.) And we’re also raising a concern that DCR is forecasting an increase in traffic when this project should be planning for — and building toward – the less car-dominant future we need.