#bostonWeekend Fri BIKES its the last friday of the month - #CriticalMass meets at Copley at 630 and rolls at 7. Come! #BikeBoston #BikeTooter #boston #CopleySquare #Charlestown https://www.instagram.com/p/DcjPoK3xKZe/
#bikeboston — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #bikeboston, aggregated by home.social.
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I am heartened by the massive #BikeBoston community showing tonight in #Boston for #LouisaGag. Hundreds of people from all over, so many friends.
I feel for every speaker (yes, even that one) and every staffer and her whole family. Every detail about this situation makes me more emotional, so much rage and anger and love.
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@scooooooott Ride today 5:30pm Friday 7/10/2026, per Cambridge Bike Safety:
Hello Bike Friends,
We are heartbroken by the death of #LouisaGag, who was killed yesterday while riding her bike near #RoxburyCrossing. Louisa was deeply committed to advocacy, as a bike share and transportation planner for the City of #Boston and through her previous work at #LivableStreets Alliance.
This loss is resonating deeply throughout this community where Louisa was so active and so loved. At just 36, her life was tragically cut short while she was devoting it to making our streets safer, more equitable, and more accessible. Her death is a devastating reminder of the urgent need to keep working for streets where everyone, whether walking, biking, taking transit, or driving, can get around safely.
This evening, there is a memorial ride to the site where Louisa was killed. The group will leave Fern Triangle in Lower #Allston at 5:30 PM, travel along Harvard Street, and meet another group near Trader Joe's in #CoolidgeCorner at 6:00 PM. From there, the ride will continue along Longwood Avenue to Tremont and Parker Streets. You can also reach the gathering by taking the #MBTA Route 66 bus.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Emx75JyAuM8js1ZDA
With heavy hearts,
Cambridge Bike Safety #BikeBoston #bostonBikes #BikeTooter -
In good news for me (and other #BikeBoston riders), #CambridgeMA has made the lead-in section of the Garden St. bike lane parking protected. I'd been hoping they would do this for ages; now, assuming they actually put some physical barriers in to keep people from parking across the line, it should be much smoother sailing getting those last minutes to the office.
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#BostonWeekend Sat BIKES Learn about #FreakBikes #TallBikes #choppers with #SCUL - #boston's friendly local sci-fi themed bicycle chopper gang - ticket sales end today (fri) - Optional group ride after (bike provided) <$10 for the experience eventbrite.com/e/scul-boot-camp-tickets-1991498193707?aff=tootboston #bostonGeek #bostonBikes #BikeBoston #ArtisansAsylum #bikeTooter
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#BostonWeekend Fri BIKES #CriticalMass in #Boston 630p gather and social - 7pm start at #Copley https://thepit.social/@tsyum/116813778068636259 #BostonBikes #BikeTooter #CopleySquare #BikeBoston
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The tricky decision they have to make is what to do when a town doesn't have any of a given category.
For all cases, they chose to exclude the subcategory if it doesn't exist in a town.
BUT!!! for some things, if you can't bike to it because it's out of town, then the bike network isn't sufficient! If you can't bike to groceries, then THAT is a gap in the network.
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P4B basically tries to see what each census block can reach within 1.67 miles, with categories for People, Jobs/Education, Core Services (Medical/Dental, Supermarkets, Social Services), Recreation, Retail, Transit.
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OK, so P4B should find a compromise solution from all streets within 2 miles of their borders and only looking at what's within a city's borders. But that isn't the only problem that leads to small towns getting outsized ratings, while the cities in the country with the most people biking are systematically under appreciated. Let's dive deep into the methodology!
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Again, this isn't an idle complaint about looking at networks in isolation by municipal border. The experience of Boston is that it is reasonable to go in a straight line on a commute and experience 5 jurisdictions in 5 miles, including exiting and re-entering the same city (I've personally had this commute).
Viewing the region as a whole is a driving feature of @bikeboston.bsky.social BCU Labs (https://labs.bostoncyclistsunion.org/)
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In cities like Cambridge and Boston, paying attention to streets just outside respective borders is critical to understand the bike network! The Beacon/Hampshire route is one of the most important routes for both cities, but P4B analysis changes actually punishes both cities because of that.
How does a network analysis that excludes Brookline understand Boston?
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Neighboring cities also work closely together on projects. Beacon going into Inman had a ton of collaboration. Somerville building better bike lanes on Washington St is pushing Cambridge to make Kirkland better. Huron bike lanes are being extended to Belmont's Grove St as coinciding with their project.
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The Community Path is part of 2 major trails (MCRT, Minuteman) that go through Cambridge, and Cambridge has co-signed letters to the state/feds about completing the CPX and MCRT. They have direct influence here!
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I am pretty sure the exclusion of routes outside the city lines is the primary culprit for both Somerville and Cambridge ratings tanking.
However, the statement that cities have no control outside their borders isn't fully accurate.
Just taking a look at Cambridge's 2020 Bike Plan you can see that Seomerville's Somerville Ave, Beacon Street, and Community Path (with Extension) are included!
https://www.cambridgema.gov/departments/communitydevelopment/2020bikeplanupdate
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From their description of the methodology updates:
"These updates have steadily improved the accuracy with which City Ratings reflect real-world bike networks."
"In previous versions of City Ratings, the Bicycle Network Analysis included some roads and destinations just beyond city limits — typically within one to two miles — as part of a city’s score. In some cases, that meant scores were influenced by infrastructure outside a city’s control."
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I alluded to it before, but P4B did make a major change to their methodology this year. You can read about the changes and rationale here: https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/2026-city-ratings-methodology.
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To be clear, I actually have a pretty good understanding of how hard a problem P4B are trying to solve. Using #OSM data to estimate biking stress is exactly how our @bikeboston.bsky.social Stress Map (https://labs.bostoncyclistsunion.org/stressmap/) is created.
I know more than most the limitations to this type of project. But I don't think their stress map is off, its how they rate cities after creating the stress map.
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Somerville is down at #32, below such biking havens as Bedford, Hopkinton, Lynnfield, and Acton
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Let's take a look at the #Massachusetts top 10
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#1: P-Town - sure, small town that you could bike everywhere in town easily enough
#2: Groton - ??? Take a look at that map and tell me you can reasonably travel throughout town on low-stress streets
#5: Sturbridge - LOL
#6: Cambridge - Yeah, I can confidently say the low-stress network here is much better than basically all those other towns
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FWIW, #Boston, #BrooklineMA, #ArlingtonMA, #MedfordMA, #WalthamMA, #NewtonMA are all basically level
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#People4Bikes just released their 2026 city rankings
https://www.peopleforbikes.org/news/2026s-best-places-to-bike
This is a really cool project that tries to estimate the biking stress level of every street in a city, and calculate how likely you can get to where you want to go on low stress streets.
However, taking a look at how #CambridgeMA and #SomervilleMA are rated, I have some questions and thoughts.
Let's dive in! 🧵
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This was a project that was helped by a team of students at BU as part of their BU Spark! program and led by @jacksonjmoon
BCU Labs is happy to work with other student team programs, just reach out. We have a ton of project ideas we are eager for help on.
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We are primarily using the state database of police reports, so you can actually explore all of #Massachusetts #MA
We are working to get other data sources (EMS responses from Boston, etc.) included because police reports miss a shockingly high number of crashes
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BCU Labs just released our Crash Map!
Read about why this is so critical here:
https://bostoncyclistsunion.org/bcu-labs-new-interactive-crash-map-highlights-why-we-need-safer-infrastructure-nowAnd explore the map here: https://labs.bostoncyclistsunion.org/crashes/
@universalhub @mass.streetsblog.org
#BikeBoston #BostonPoli #BikeTooter