that's a really good point, after spending the last five years riding in this city and watching the bike lane count triple and still there being the same "fly by the seat of your pants' oh shit!" riding experience. the added bike lanes are great, don't get me wrong...aren't getting their money's worth of progress. it put's on this fake air that the city is even really doing anything for people who use bicycles for transportation, work and enjoyment in this fine city of beans and it's metro area.
they paint a few bike lanes on some street and at best rearrange some parking and at worst just paint in an all to small bike lane right in the door zone or even worse, employ the dreaded "sharerow" laid down by these fine gentlemen every quarter mile like it's going to do anything but further confuse the masshole cagers even more.
I ride maybe 50-60 miles or more over the city streets a week and I'll tell you, the are spending vast amounts of money vamping the streets in downtown and back bay. sure, throw some ill placed paint all over and that will do the trick
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caveat. this is a real deal shoot from the hip cost estimate, but based on my many years in the concrete business and various other trades I think there is less than .1% of the resources going towards improving the safety of the road for cyclists. are the people who live and ride on the streets of boston less than .1%? hardly. and how about education? do bicycles even make one question into the drivers license test?
as far as I know there is only one separated bike path in incorporated boston and that is on western ave between harvard ave and the charles river but here's the deal. the separation is made by the parked cars. the only thing they did was move curb parking off the curb. I haven't done enough biking on it to know whether it is going to be a bonus or just another hazard. knowing the college faction in the area though it probably wont be long before doors, passengers, drivers and bikes start colliding. it's really hard to say what's a step in the right direction and what's delusional. it could be a sign that boston is at least thinking about the option, so that should really be reinforced at this forum. if it was up to me we would have a combination of UK style bright painted bike lanes on surface streets and elevated bike paths everywhere.
they'll say "where do we get the money", but what they don't understand is that we don't have a right to more expenses, we have a right to our piece of the transportation pie.
/end drunken rant
