Boston Bikes Update

Know any women who never learned to ride a bike, or haven’t been on a bike in years?Registration for our free learn-to-ride clinics is now open. Taught by women for women (anyone who identifies as female), our clinics are a great way to get on a bike and keep rolling!

Clinics will be held on May 9th, June 20th, July 18th, August 25th, September 15th, andOctober 17th. For complete details visitbostonbikes.org/programs/women/learn-to-ride

Boston Bikes is looking for a confident urban cyclist to help organize our Women’s Initiative on a part-time contract basis through August. At least two years of program management experience required, plus excellent communication skills. To apply please emailkim.foltz@boston.gov.

Nothing says spring like Hubway bikes sprouting up around the city. The full system reopens on Friday April 17th (except for a handful of stations along the marathon route, which will reopen after Patriot’s Day). So dust off your key fob and get ready to pedal! And if you don’t have a membership, now’s a great time to sign up.

Join us on April 24th for the first Bike Friday of the year. This is the first year that we’re hosting an April Bike Friday; help us make it a success! Pedal, on your own or with one of our many convoys, to City Hall Plaza from 7-9am and you’ll be greeted by a festival full of bike-friendly vendors. As always, we’ll have free breakfast provided by Boloco, Iggy’s Bread of the World,Larabar, and Whole Foods!

Registration is free, but it helps to know you’re coming. Please note that breakfast is only for people who bike to City Hall Plaza.

Boston Bikes is hosting the Get Biking Challenge to encourage K-8 students to bike more during May, National Bike Month. Students will record how many minutes they bike each day, and all participants will be awarded with prizes. Top schools and classes will earn a variety of prizes such as the coveted Golden Pedal Award, free bike raffles, bike field trips, and more! Schools need to register for the challenge and it can be coordinated by a teacher, administrator, other school staff, or parent volunteers. For more information, visit our website:bostonbikes.org/programs/get-biking-school-challenge

On March 24th, the Boston Transportation Department unveiled plans to make a stretch of Commonwealth Avenue one of the most progressive multi-modal corridors in the country. The design incorporates protected intersections and physically protected bike lanes on both sides of the avenue. We hope that this is just one of many more cutting-edge projects to come! Thank you to the many advocates and allies who worked hard to make this happen.

The day after the Comm Ave Public Meeting, Mayor Walsh announced that Boston will adopt Vision Zero. This comprehensive strategy prevents traffic fatalities through effective policies and systematic evaluation, enforcement, engineering, education, and community engagement. Boston Bikes is a part of the Vision Zero task force which will be planning the program’s roll-out over the next few months. Read more about Vision Zero and the Commonwealth Avenue plans here.

Last year we exceeded our goals and installed more than 300 bike racks. You can find the locations of all public bike racks in the City of Boston using our interactive map.

We continue to work on increasing bike parking. Our installers are currently putting in new racks across Boston; we recently got approval to install 30 more racks in the Back Bay Historic District; and we have more in our queue that we are moving through the approval process. Our goal is to make it easy for you to park your bike anywhere in the City of Boston.

The record-breaking snow damaged a record number of racks. And as the snow continues to melt, abandoned bikes are popping up around Boston.Report broken racks and abandoned bikes using thecitizens connect app or by filling out a service request form. Please be sure to include a picture that shows the rack, or bike, and its location (i.e. the building behind it). This helps us expedite the repair / locate the bike.

Please note that the City of Boston is only able to remove bikes that are attached to public property. If the bike is locked to a fence, or other private property, you will need to contact the property manager to have it removed.