ICYMI: New bike lanes are coming to Boston!
On September 6 Mayor Wu announced the 9+ miles of bike projects the city will be prioritizing for implementation next year. This announcement is cause for celebration, and a reaffirmation of areas where we need to continue to push.
For years, we have been saying the City of Boston needs to be building 10 miles of protected bike lanes a year in order to reach our goals of eliminating half of car trips by 2030. This plan includes almost 10 miles of bike lanes planned by the end of 2023, which is a major win for mobility and sustainability in Boston. Thank you Mayor Wu for committing to a huge first step in creating a true bike network in Boston!
In addition to the projects shown in the image above, we have also been informed that there are other projects the city plans on completing that were not featured in this announcement. Neighborhoods like Roxbury, Mattapan, Dorchester and South Boston that seem to have been overlooked in this proposed network expansion will also get new bike infrastructure, but projects won’t be selected and plans won’t be released until more robust community engagement is launched. Stay tuned for more information about those projects!
They also announced they are starting a city-wide bike network planning process and forming an advisory committee to oversee that process. We encourage you to sign up to be part of the committee!
In more good news, some of the pop up infrastructure from the Orange Line shutdown are becoming permanent. The Chinatown SL4 bus stop, Copley bus lanes, new signage in Jamaica Plain and the Huntington Ave bus/bike lane are here to stay. While the Boylston St pop-up protected bike lane is temporarily removed due to limited capacity to maintain it, it will be made permanent this Spring – and stretch all the way to Mass Ave! The City is also starting a public process around Columbus Ave, with the possibility of adding protected bike lanes—click this link to hear how you can make your voice heard in this process!
It was exciting to see so many people take advantage of free Bluebikes passes throughout the shutdown, and we know it helped introduce new people to biking. It’s great that more infrastructure is coming to support growing ridership across the city!