Driving the Conversation About Biking in Boston

One way we gauge our impact is through the Bike Union’s visibility in the media. The more we’re included in the discussion, the more we can shape the narrative around biking and spread our vision for a bike-friendly Boston.

As we’ve grown, our success in this respect has grown, too. The most recent case in point: Last week, Bike Union Executive Director Becca Wolfson joined WGBH for an hour-long panel discussion about the state of biking in Boston, “Next Stop: Bikes.” This was the last in a series of Facebook Live transportation panels, and other guests included Cambridge City Councilor Jan Devereux, Boston Transportation Department Director of Planning Vineet Gupta, and host Bob Seay.

Do you think Boston is a bike friendly city? WGBH News' Bob Seay sits down with Executive Director of the Boston Cyclists Union, Becca Wolfson, Cambridge City Councilor, Jan Devereux and the Boston Transportation Department's Director of Planning, Vineet Gupta, to discuss the state of biking in Boston, what has improved and what still has a long way to go.

Posted by WGBH News on Wednesday, March 27, 2019

To see how far we’ve come, you need only look back six years to a previous WGBH report on biking, which played up the tension between cyclists and drivers and seemed to portray biking as exceedingly dangerous. (At that time, the Bike Union successfully campaigned for WGBH to change the name of the report from “Wheel Wars,” which Wolfson recalls in last week’s forum.)

Though we’re still fighting that same tendency to portray bikers and drivers as enemies, we now have a bigger platform and a louder megaphone to offer our perspective. And in that way, we’re no longer just responding to the conversation; we’re driving it, too.