Gifts of 2016!
Thanks to you we’ve made a lot of progress in 2016 in making the Boston area safer and better for biking! While there is always more work to be done, now is a time to celebrate our victories as we prepare for next year.
Read below for highlights of milestones from 2016. If you like what you read, and want to help bring even more progress to the region in 2017, please consider making a tax-deductible year-end gift to the Bike Union. We also encourage you to get involved in our work or with your neighborhood advocacy group – none of this change happens without the passion and commitment of the community.
We hope you have a great and restful holiday!
Becca Wolfson, Executive Director
Doug Johnson, Community Organizer
ps: If you donate now through Dec 31st you could win one of two bikes!
Milestones This Year
February
- We launched our Bikeways for Everybody Input Map, which you can add your input to and help inform our advocacy campaigns in 2017!
March
- The City of Cambridge Adopted Vision Zero! Following the City of Boston’s launch in March of 2015, Cambridge became the second municipality in Massachusetts to formally sign on to this policy to save lives and work to eliminate traffic fatalities.
- The Town of Brookline began working on the Route 9 Emerald Necklace crossing, and it’s almost done! All that is left is to activate the traffic signals.
May
- Despite a contentious debate and a back and forth about first whether it should be parking protected or buffered, then whether or not it should be installed at all, the Town of Brookline commits to installing a buffered bike lane on Beacon St.
- Becca Wolfson became the permanent Executive Director of the Bike Union and we celebrated our 5-Year Anniversary!
- We launched the inaugural Montreal to Boston Ride, where we took 15 riders to Montreal to show them what Boston could be in a few years, and then we rode our bikes 400 miles back to Boston to fundraise for the Bike Union!
June
- We turned out over 250 people for the Mass Ave Protected Bike Lane public meeting, and the City of Boston committed to installing protected bike lanes on Mass Ave by the end of the year.
- We published the Definitive Guide to Biking to Logan Airport!
July
- The Boston Transportation Department piloted and then made permanent Boston’s first Parking-protected Bike Lane!
August
- The State Legislature passed legislation allowing Cities to reduce their default speed limits from 30 to 25!
September
- There was a huge showing of support from Stony Brook and Talbot-Norfolk Triangle residents for the launching of the City of Boston’s Neighborhood Slow Streets Program in JP and Dorchester! Traffic-calming measures are slated to be installed in early 2017.
- The Bike Union and our partners in the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition held the Streets Are for People Rally outside Boston City Hall.
- We finished the Bike to Market season with over 800 bikes worked on and bike repair skills taught to over 500 people!
October
- The Commonwealth Ave Reconstruction project, which includes innovative protected bike lanes and protected intersection designs thanks to a massive advocacy effort by the Bike Union and our partner organizations in 2014, finally broke ground.
- The City of Cambridge banned Left turns in Inman Square in order to make the intersection safer for all users.
November
- The City of Boston installed protected bike lanes on Mass Ave in the Back Bay!
- We held Boston’s First Ever biking Taco Tour!
- The Bike Union and our partners in the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition held a bike ride, walk and vigil for the World Day of Remembrance for Victims of Traffic Violence.
- The City of Boston opened its very first curb-separated bike lane on Staniford Street! This is part of the Connect Historic Boston project that in 2o17 will connect Beacon Hill, the West End and North End with protected bike lanes!
December
- The City of Cambridge began piloting protected bike lanes on sections of Mass Ave!
- Gov. Baker signed Duck Boat safety legislation requiring the tour vehicles to have 2 operators at a time (one to drive and one to narrate tours to passengers) as well as motion sensors and cameras.
- We hosted a design charette for the Peanutabout, an innovative design solution for Inman Square. The design solution will be considered, along with other concepts, for Inman Square. Regardless of whether or not it is adopted here, it became a national sensation and is now in the toolbox as a potential solution for other dangerous diagonal intersections across the nation.
- The Bike Union and our partners in the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition Released the Vision Zero Boston Report Card, which tracks the City’s progress towards its goals set in their Vision Zero Action Plan and highlights where the City has more work to do