Over the past week, the city of Boston has been finishing renovations on the Boston University Bridge that began last summer as a part of Imagine Boston 2030.
The project will further Boston 2030’s plan to have no fatal crashes in Boston, as well as to get to a carbon neutral city, by protecting bike riders and encouraging more bicycling, which it will accomplish by including protected bike lanes and signal lights at intersections for bike lanes to prevent cars from hitting riders during turns.
While these will be the first protected bike lanes in Boston, the city plans to incorporate similar protections throughout the entire city to promote sustainable transportation.
Increased protections on Commonwealth Avenue bike lanes will include three-foot wide granite barriers on the left-hand side of the bike lanes between parked cars and the sidewalk. These barriers will allow bikers to ride safely without fear of cars entering the lane or parked cars clipping them with open doors.
By adding these protections, the city hopes to increase bike ridership fourfold from the current 2 percent for a greener more sustainable future by 2030.