By CHRISTIAN MAITRE
Waltham Times Contributing Writer
With the Mass Central Rail Trail now running through Waltham and bike lanes included in the Moody Street Pedestrian Mall Feasibility Study, bike safety is becoming an increasingly important topic in the city.
Bike safety advocates believe there is a need for improvement within Waltham, and that need could be remedied by more and better infrastructure.
They say such infrastructure is lacking at the moment.
“Waltham has nearly no traffic-calming devices, except at a few trail crossings, and no protected bike lanes,” said Mitchell Dipanni, a member of Bike Together Waltham, a bicycle safety advocacy group.
Another member, Saul Blumenthal, said he, too, believes local government isn’t doing enough to promote bicycle-friendly infrastructure in the city,
Blumenthal uses bike racks as an example. He said there are bike racks downtown, but they’re located in parking lots behind Moody Street rather than along the street itself. This leads to people locking their bikes on signposts and trees, which can sometimes block areas around accessible parking spots.
Blumenthal said he feels that the city has prioritized building new parking lots over installing bike infrastructure. “Just getting bike racks onto the sidewalk is like pulling teeth,” he added.
Bike safety advocates also cited the inequity in bike routes among different areas of the city. Bike Together Waltham member John Allen said the South Side, due to its grid layout, has a majority of the city’s bicycling routes while the city’s north part, with the disconnections between its neighborhoods, has fewer bike routes.
“The worst one I know of is between the Pigeon Hill neighborhood and Bishops Forest, where there are no street connections or path connections between those neighborhoods,” he said.
It’s important to note that there have been efforts to improve biking infrastructure in Waltham. The Mass Central Rail runs through Waltham, and dedicated bike lanes are included in the Moody Street Pedestrian Mall Feasibility Study.
But these members of Waltham Bike Together said there’s more work ahead, calling for the city to change its mindset about transportation. They said the city does not have to be anti-car, anti-bike or anti-pedestrian but instead should take a holistic approach to transportation planning and design so that it brings a balanced environment for every type of traveler.
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