(Picture of a Bicycle Lane in Brooklyn)With gas hovering around $4 a gallon, more people from the neighborhood are biking to and from downtown for either work or fun. Even the mayor of Boston, Tom Menino rides to work from the Hyde Park neighborhood. Biking is not only for a great way to exercise and get around, but increased biking would help decrease energy consumption. More bikers riding about may help reduce street crime because there are even more eyes and ears on the streets, and to be honest there is just something cool about communities with large numbers of bikers.
To encourage more bicycling:
1. The city of Boston should install bike lanes along main thoroughfares such as Dorchester Ave., Blue Hill Ave., and improve the bike/walking trail along Morrissey Blvd. (for example pave the entire path).
2. The city should also install more bike racks near T stations and other area attractions (such as popular restaurants, community parks, banks, supermarkets, and post offices).
3. Finally the city or a private company could create a community bike program (with various self-service terminals in Dorchester, and rental would be free or reduced-cost and use a credit card as a deposit) like those that exist in many European cities, Montreal, and Portland, Oregon. This way people that do not bike enough to purchase a bike, can use a quality bike for an hour or day trips.
Do you think this is a good idea? Rate below.
Please consider checking out Dot Bike for more information on biking and great biking maps of Dorchester or the City of Boston's Biking Site or Boston's Critical Mass.
(Pictures of a bike lane in The Mission District of San Francisco and a community bicycle program in Vienna, Switzerland)
