As Boston begins to develop its budget for the next fiscal year, now is our chance to make sure that the City allocates the necessary resources to build new infrastructure and make significant strides toward a safe, connected bike network. Will you join us in pressing for the 2019 Boston Bike Budget?

Among our successes with this campaign in 2018, we:

• Increased the overall Transportation Budget by $5 million, with funds coming in part through higher parking ticket fines. The increase led to the hiring of 20 new staff in the Boston Transportation Department, including 4 positions solely focused on implementation of Active Transportation and Vision Zero projects.
• Increased the budget for the Strategic Bike Network by $300,000. This was the first increase in many years.
• Met with 14 out of 15 Boston City Councilors to elevate bike issues and make sure your representatives heard your voices.
• Activated BCU members to show up at the Transportation Budget hearing in May and to contact City Councilors, showing the power of our community.
• Won protected bike lanes on a stretch of Columbus Ave, part of Summer St. and Seaport Blvd., and saw the near completion of the Connect Historic Boston cycletrack as well as continued work on Commonwealth Ave. Painted bike lanes were also installed along Longwood Ave. after two years of advocacy, and we got a new peak-hour bus/bike lane in Roslindale.

Despite these advances though, the pace of change is too slow and not enough to achieve the City’s own goal, outlined in GoBoston 2030, of adding 33 miles to a low-stress bike network by 2022. Critical links are still missing in places like Mass Ave. in Dorchester, Cambridge St. connecting Downtown to the Longfellow Bridge, the rest of Columbus Ave (or an alternative route) in the South End, and on Summer St. all the way into South Boston. Mayor Walsh, and Mayor Menino before him, identified streets around the Boston Common, Malcolm X Blvd. in Roxbury, and Mass Ave and Columbia Road in Dorchester as priority projects for the bike network, but the City has yet to make any progress in these places. Many of these key connectors are high crash corridors and in need of immediate improvements to prevent more injuries and deaths.

We need your help to get us closer to the collective vision of a safe, connected network of low-stress bikeways all over Boston.

As a first step, we want as many of you as possible to join bike rides and/or meetings with your City Councilors so you can tell them directly why you are fighting for this vision. If you are interested, please fill out this brief form.

There will be many ways to get involved. Over the next 4 months, we will call on you to:

1. Join an in-district bike ride or walk with City Councilors we have identified who could be critical champions for safe roads and better biking. We hope to organize these with Kim Janey, Lydia Edwards, Matt O’Malley and Frank Baker.
2. Join a meeting at City Hall with all other City Councilors.
3. Attend the Transportation Budget Hearing at City Hall in April or May (exact date TBD) and testify in support of increased funding for pro-bike policies and projects.
4. Contact decision-makers through social media and email. Stay tuned for details.
   

Our previous Bike Budget campaigns have shown how our collective action can influence the city’s priorities and secure big wins. Make your voice heard now, and help us make Boston a better city for bikes!