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| "traffic" on Longwood Ave c. 1920 |
I've had to bike to Brookline/ Longwood Medical area a couple of times in the last months. I'm a confident, experienced biker, and even for me it's an unpleasant experience. Traffic is bad, busses are weaving in and out, there's no bike lane, and drivers frustrated by the traffic do stupid, unpredictable things. I can't imagine anyone who wasn't a fairly confident biker being able to ride in that area.
But they badly need to increase transportation options It's very difficult to drive there, the Green line barely keeps up with demand, and the Masco busses can only do so much.
They could bring a lot more people in and out of the area with safer bike facilities which would encourage more people to at least explore the option.
Boston is having a meeting to discuss adding bike lanes to Brookline Ave, one of the one ways in and out of LMA. This would require removing a number of car parking spots, which means that some people will oppose it as a knee jerk reflex. Boston Bikes has asked bikers to turn out and support the lanes to demonstrate that the needs of the many bicyclists who use this public space outweigh the desires of a handful of people to have parking spots.
The meeting will be Thursday October 4, from 6pm to 8Pm in room 306 of Dana Farber's "Yawkey Center" 450 Brookline Ave. Some more info here
If you bike or would like to bike to the LMA, please consider attending and adding your voice to those asking for safer streets.
I can't make this meeting, unfortunately, but look forward to reading your debrief in your blog!
ReplyDeleteMy son and I bike to his pediatrician appts at Children's Hospital. I have to say it's very empowering to bike (and not drive) up to a hospital. Makes you realize how healthy you are. My son is almost 11 and biking around town can be a VERY scary experience -- although I have to say with all the construction at Joslin, there are loads of police officers directing traffic (at least in the morning when we were last there) and they were very helpful to us. But, riding down Longwood with a distracted boy can be a nightmare.
Anyway, thanks for blogging about cycling. Keep up the good work. I bike in heels, too :) See you around!
http://www.bostonbikes.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/LMA-PublicMeeting-2012-10-041.pdf?0bbda9
ReplyDeleteSlides from the meeting.