2nd Annual Boston Bikes Report

Tonight I attended Boston's second annual Boston Bikes Report.  More than once Boston has been rated the worst biking city in the country, but King Mayor Menino has made a new pledge to bicycles.  He hired Nicole Freedman, former Olympic bicycle racer, to lead the effort toward making Boston a "world-class bicycling city."  While she used to race and she says she'll ride on any highway, it's not the hardcore bicyclists that Nicole is looking to target.  No, Nicole wants to see everyday people on bikes, which is how it should be.  After spending four months in Copenhagen, where more than half of all trips are done by bicycle, I'm quite critical of Boston and other North American cities for their very poor bicycle infrastructure.  In two years Boston has gone from less than one-half mile of bicycle lanes to more than 15 miles.  It's still pretty sad, but a huge improvement.  We rank #1 in the U.S. for improvement in the number of trips over 2008--63%.  The big news was that by July 2010 we're going to have a bike-sharing program with 2,000 bikes at 85 stations across the city.  Overall the presentation was great, and gave me a little relief from my frustration as U.S. cities look to catch up where cities like Copenhagen and Amsterdam have been excelling for years.

Thanks Nicole for your work, and I look forward to much, much more.