Community Activism

I went to the follow up to the Mayor's safety summit tonight,  and I will try to do a full post on it later.
It was a good meeting,  attended by about 50 people,  most of whom looked pretty familiar from bike events and other community meetings I've been to.
 One of the guys who is at most of these things, stood up and said 1) There has been a real sea change in how public institutions think about bikes in Boston, and 2) We, the bike community need to keep the pressure up and keep creating political pressure to get the infrastructure improvements and cultural changes we need to make the streets safer and more pleasant.

And I agree.  While I still don't feel that have visionary leadership (other than Nichole Friedman) in Mass Dot and the other transpo organizations,  at least they aren't actively hostile to bikes anymore.

And while it's great that there are 50 people who make it a priority to spend their Wednesday nights at meetings like this, we need to have 500.     So please, if you bike in Boston, and want better infrastructure,  mark your calendars,  next Wednesday night, October 6th from 6:30 to 8:30,  a public meeting about the Longfellow bridge reconstruction at MGH:  Information here.   This is a vital link between Boston and Cambridge/ Somerville,  and they're unlike to redesign it again in our lifetimes.   There's a viable proposal to remove a traffic lane to create good sidewalks and good bike paths in both directions,  it just needs support.

Come out to tell the planners and engineers, that we, the public, the taxpayers, are bikers and pedestrians, not just drivers, and we deserve consideration and safer facilities!