Beantown cycling

To say Boston has become bike friendly would be an understatement.

As I mentioned, it is not a college town, it is the college town, and all those students have had a direct influence on the growing use of bikes for real world use.  I guess it has flourished in the past few years.  My friend Jim told me that the Mayor is an enthusiast and that really helps.  The neighbors in my apartment there were from Great Britain and said that they have just noticed the increased use of cycles in the past couple of years.  I've been told the growth in infrastructure has been dramatic.

 The Hubway bike rental system has been really successful.  Eighty dollars a year provides unlimited usage in 1/2 hour trips.  There are stations throughout the city less that 20 minutes apart.  The above photo is one outside the Lechmere Square Subway station.  I saw the bikes in use everywhere I went in the city.  How cool, use their bikes around town

and don't worry about your own.

The city seems to have put bike lanes wherever they fit and when they don't, they install sharrows to remind the cyclists and drivers that the lane is for common use.  It was the first time I have seen them used on mult-lane roadways to designate the right lane as shared.

But wait!  There's more!  They've added street signs also as a further reminder, in some cases they add instructions to change lanes to pass a bike.

There are some really innovative things I haven't seen anywhere, such as splitting the bike lane to provide multiple avenues for straight and turning traffic.

And this at a side street stop light.

Sensors installed to fit a bike geometry and request a light change.

That was cooler than cool.

It"s all  impressive and makes me feel all warm inside thinking about the seventies when people intentionally opened doors to knock me down, and threw open beers from their passing cars.  It's taken a while, but I really think that in a few generations people will believe cars were a failed experiment in urban transportation.