Boston Chosen for Green Lane Project

By April Newell 3-20-14

Boston Green Lane
credit: Flickr via Gene Bisbee

The Green Lane Project has made its way to Boston.

Six United States cities have been chosen to join its two-year program to build safer bike lanes for public use, and Boston happens to be one of them.  The program will provide financial, strategic, and technical assistance to realize these lanes, which are called ‘cycletracks’.  These on-street lanes are separated from cars by curbs and posts to make biking a safer and more appealing option.

“I don’t bike in the city very often because I feel like it is unsafe, but I would like to,” said Boston student, Hunter Reis. “If the traffic was less intimidating and we had better bike lanes, I would definitely be more encouraged to travel on my bike.”

Boston has slowly been moving up in the ranks of the biking community.  In 2007, Boston was named the worst bicycling city in the country by Bicycling Magazine, but as of 2013, it has transformed into one of the best.  The New Balance Hubway system rents out more than 1100 bicycles to Bostonians and tourists every year, and former Mayor Thomas M. Menino made worked with the city to add 82 miles of bike lanes to improve the city’s bike traffic.  In addition to renting out bikes, Boston donated 1,000 bikes to low income residents in 2013.

Most recently, Mayor Martin Walsh has declared that Boston will begin to add protected bike lanes with the recently completed Bike Network Plan, which supports a women’s cycling program and expands the already popular Hubway system into greater Boston area neighborhoods.  After Boston leaders join the national Green Lane Project at an official kickoff event in Indianapolis in late April, the two year program in Boston will begin.