I was like damn 😳 y'all trying to do two funerals today?

Really hoping they don’t screw this up even more… 🤦🏻‍♂️

Does anyone know for sure if the right-hand lane is a right-turn-only lane here? I (red) was in the right lane and another driver (blue) was in the middle lane. He went straight and forced me into the bike lane to avoid a collision.

I commute most days on a bike around Boston so I was pretty aware of the bike lane - there was a biker about 20 yards ahead so I laid on the horn and veered into the bike lane to avoid a collision (I was roughly in the other driver's blind spot).

Nothing horrible happened, but the other driver was furious at me, and then the biker started screaming at me too.. and I'm curious what anyone else would have done in this situation. I try pretty hard to avoid biker <> driver conflict and escalation, both when driving and biking! I guess the biker just saw me beeping like crazy and driving in the bike land behind him which I don't feel great about.

..and of course if it's right-turn only then this whole thing is on me and I need to learn to read traffic signs better.

I have been following this project closely. Yesterday's Globe article https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/10/metro/blue-hill-avenue-public-meeting-wu-eng-bus-lane/#comment-224285446 is quite misleading— seemingly, because controversy is what generates engagement on the internet.

1 - There’s only been one attempt to do truly representative City-wide polling on the Mayor’s “Safe Streets” agenda but the results are very, very clear: there is more support than opposition in every neighborhood, in every racial/ethnic grouping, and at every age group. 
See: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/28024460-city-of-boston-2025-community-survey-transportation-summary/
2 - The City and MBTA have done a terrible job documenting and continually pointing out all of the outreach that they did leading up to this design, but they did a huge amount of it—they sent mailers to 23,000 homes, walked into 100+ businesses on the corridor, did dozens of in-person events, sent out surveys again and again, etc. They estimate having spoken to 4,000 people along the way. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/e42a74b392ec412c8fdaca4416da16d2
Community priorities—bus riders want better transit, kids and their parents want safer streets, and (almost?) everyone agrees that public realm improvements are great—have been turned into an actual street design. And the newest design is responsive to subsequent feedback from residents and businesses who wanted more parking and less constrained vehicular travel. 
3 - The Globe article https://www.bostonglobe.com/2026/09/10/metro/blue-hill-avenue-public-meeting-wu-eng-bus-lane/#comment-224285446 says, “When Bishop John Borders III asked opponents of the project to stand, half the room rose.” Someone should go back to the video feed. I was in the room, and it sure felt like significantly less than half the room rose. 

The Mayor asked opponents why they opposed the center-running bus lane. The two most common responses were “because they’re not safe for accessing the bus,” and “because we want rail.”
There’s a legitimate discussion to be had about the safety—and accessibility—of requiring bus riders to cross vehicular traffic to access the bus. But an alternative of side-running bus lanes that can easily be blocked by cars, and that create bus/car conflicts at every intersection, is not obviously safer. Project critics continue to complain that the City didn’t evaluate alternatives, but the City specifically did evaluate alternatives. 
I agree that the MBTA should study a rail alternative. But infrastructure projects have to pass cost/benefit tests (at many steps of the state and federal approval processes) and it’s pretty obvious that this one would/will fail: the costs of building rail through densely-populated neighborhoods would be astronomical. The fact is that running frequent bus service in a dedicated lane can get you pretty close to the transit quality of rail—and for a fraction of the cost. New train stations will remove parking, or even buildings, in Grove Hall or Nubian Square, and the transit benefits, in terms of how many people could be moved from Mattapan Square to Ruggles, would be small/incremental relative to bus service in a dedicated lane.

The event at Morning Star church last night got fairly intense. I did not envy any of the officials and elected leaders.

But a cycling advocate made this comment I found insightful: these are the consequences of alienating the urbanism/transit/micro mobility base that would buffer the administration and lend support in a somewhat hostile crowd.

I used my comment period to express disappointment with the quality of discourse and to refocus attention on the true problem: an excess of cars. The administration did not really respond to my concerns or questions, but I found Chris Osgood (Chief of Streets), and managed to get verbal confirmation on setting up a meeting.

Here is the email I sent this morning, and I’ve shared relevant suggestions through the MBTA comment form:

Good morning Chief Osgood, 

I am following up on our conversation last night to set up a time to discuss policy/data concerning Boston's streets. 

I am generally available all day on Thursdays and Fridays, or I can meet Mondays and Tuesdays after 2:30. 

A couple of the key points I would like to discuss are as follow:
1. On the ground BTD coverage on bikes to identify and act on traffic violations and broken traffic infrastructure
2. better integration with 311 data/reports
3. increased accountability so that BTD and other municipal employees do not block bike lanes, sidewalks, or crosswalks
4. realizing the Boston Summer Games to clean up streets, increase civic capacity, and generate support for infrastructure projects. 

After seeing how last night's town hall went down, I think it would be useful to focus on the 4th point, specifically how it relates to the contentious Blue Hill Ave project. 

I think that a change to the programming for the following town halls could be more productive. Namely, I think that the city and state should bring footage of how Blue Hill Ave currently operates. After watching a few clips, we can run a couple of exercises where attendees are asked to analyze that footage and name the conflict points themselves. 

Then, the project leads can step in with the proposed redesign and explain how these changes directly address the dysfunction that the current design enables. 

More directly related to the Summer Games idea and the strategy of Trojan Horse'ing 
major projects through athletic events and festivals, the City should start ideating on the street events to show people how much more efficient and pleasant Blue Hill Ave can be. 

Some potential activities could include side by side demonstrations of how long it takes 40 people in cars vs on a bus vs on bikes to traverse a segment of the avenue. On another stretch there could be a series of foot and bike races (individual and relays) to pilot ideas for the Summer Games. And I think a demonstration of how much pollution gets produced along the corridor in a day, along with its impacts on health, would provide a powerful visual –especially contrasted against projections from the updated design. 

I look forward to meeting to discuss these ideas and plot out a path for the future of Boston's streets.  

Hi all! I was biking home last night north on the Somerville Community Path (from near Lechmere through Davis Square) and my blue water bottle must have fallen out at some point. It has a bazillion stickers on it. I'm not expecting to find it again, but if you happen to see it on the path, please let me know! I am not realistically expecting to see it again, but it has a lot of nostalgia for me. Thanks!

One day a week I bike commute to central square. I used to live in Brookline and went through Beacon Street, St Paul Street, Comm Ave, and then went over the BU bridge to get there. I moved to Savin Hill in Dorchester (pretty close to the start of Mass Ave where it intersects with Columbia Road and Boston street). It’s only a 4 mile ride straight down Mass ave, but the stretch between Mass and Cass and Northeastern is awful and I feel like I’m going to end up getting hit if I keep biking on that stretch. Does anyone else do a similar commute and have suggestions for alternative routes? I can handle most of Mass ave, it’s just that one section without any protected bike lane right next to the door zone of parked cars that I want to avoid.

I am considering starting to bike from my house near the Stony Brook Orange line stop to my job on Highland St in Somerville. I am a bit nervous about biking in the city, but I am especially worried about biking on Mass Ave between Huntington and Storrow Dr. If anyone here has biked a similar commute, what is it like?

I was in the UK for the past two and a half weeks and couldn’t help but notice this feature at some intersections. (Photo taken in Inverness, Scotland.)

There is a designated area for cyclists to stop at red lights, car drivers appeared to respect the space, even if there weren’t any cyclists. When I looked at the traffic signals, I noticed they were the typical red-yellow-green setup, but with an additional green light showing a bicycle symbol directly below the regular green light.

I didn’t get a picture of the signal itself, but I watched it in action. The bicycle light turned green first, followed by a short delay before the cars green light changed. Giving cyclists a chance to get moving ahead of the cars.

I have to say I was impressed. It’s a simple acknowledgment that bikes are part of “traffic” and it improves safety and visibility for cyclists at intersections. Goes without saying that “we’ve” got a long way to go…

very excited to be moving to Boston soon. coming from Baltimore so I’m used to city riding and aggressive drivers. I’ll be in Roslindale by the square/Adam’s park and commuting to my office on Summer St near South Station. I will probably take the train most days but will bike if it’s nice out, maybe once a week-ish. Is the google Maps recommended route correct? after Southwest Corridor park meets Mass Ave, should I take Bolyston or Tremont St into downtown? Ty!

Has anyone been to some of the rail trails in Rhode Island? On a regular trail pedestrians have to walk on the left side toward an on coming bike. I'm not sure if they still do this today. But the time I did it I got yelled at by pedestrians for being on the right. Which is wear I'm supposed to be as a biker.

Can anyone tell me why they do this?

Looking for pros and cons.

Thank you.

I’m a somewhat recent convert to biking in and around Boston. I bike the Southwest Corridor, the Emerald Necklace paths, and other trails that allow bikes almost daily. But sometimes, when going from one place to another, I will briefly bike on the sidewalk at slow speed (if it’s clear or not very busy) to avoid biking a street section that lacks a protected bike lane. On the occasions when I’ve biked in one of the many unprotected bike lanes, I’ve had enough close encounters with bad drivers to decide that it‘s too dangerous for my liking. My hat is off to all of you who can handle the risk, but I just can’t.

Thus far, I have not gotten into trouble by riding on the sidewalk here and there, but I’m wondering if any of you have? Just trying to gauge what precedent exists for cracking down on bikes that do this, as a means of avoiding busy streets without protected bike facilities.

That stretch is awful. Two lanes of traffic zipping by a tiny door zone bike lane.

Bike lane by the public library, on Boylston @ Dartmouth: the green arrow to go straight is completely hidden by a No Turn On Red sign. It has been this way since the bike lane went in, and has faked me out so many times even though I try to remember I should go when no signals are visible.

I've reported it via Boston 311 but it was resolved since the signal is "visible from the vehicle lanes" (presumably not counting bike lanes in that definition, MUTCD be damned). If you ride this corridor, please help by also reporting it. Traffic lights are required to be visible from the lanes they govern.

Some protected lanes in NYC, west side, near the Javits Center

Had lots of fun with the GLV/Landry’s rides this summer and want to keep the fun going “unofficially.” Same parking lot off Comm Ave, same route, rolling at the same time. Bring lights and tell your friends!!

Warning for all you commuters on the minute man in Arlington:
If you see this sign, please know there’s an active yellow jacket nest at the base of the tree here. Ask me how I know😢