Make South Boston Roads Safer For All
Change cannot come quickly enough to South Boston, where a spate of recent crashes — including one in July that killed a toddler — has the city eyeing long-awaited improvements to roadways throughout the neighborhood.
The City has demonstrated that it understands the severity of the issue, and has shown a willingness to act. However, people who ride bikes (and who would start riding if it were safer) are not always being considered in the design. The removal of parking spaces and addition of new signage and striping will improve visibility and create more safe spaces for cyclists. It’s a good start, but more is still needed including:
- Immediate implementation of the redesign of Preble Street including parking protected bike lanes. This will make the road narrower and help slow cars as well as increase pedestrian safety.
- Consider redoing Day Blvd with a 2-way cycle track (protected bike lane) on the beach and add parking on the non-beach side. If that is not possible, then protect the existing bike lanes with posts to keep cars out and make a separated bike path once bikes are routed onto the sidewalk so pedestrians and cyclists are not in conflict. If South Boston residents and visitors alike can get safely to the beach, more people of all ages and abilities would bike there.
- Create a 2-way cycle track on Farragut Rd to slow traffic and make pedestrian crossing shorter throughout the length of the road (recently they made the crosswalk shorter and safer but bike lanes would also narrow the entire street and slow cars).
- Continue bike facilities down Summer St to L Street to create a connected network to downtown Boston.
We hope you can join us Monday to connect safety for cyclists into an overall road safety conversation in South Boston. Meeting details:
Monday, September 24
6:30-8pm
Tynan Elementary School
650 E 4th Street
South Boston, MA 02127
This meeting is not intended to replace the recent Day Blvd meeting with MassDOT that was canceled at the last minute. This meeting is a follow-up to the City-hosted meeting in August. We have not heard anything about a new Day Blvd meeting being scheduled.
Contact eparad@bostoncyclistsunion.org with any questions or concerns.