Eyes On the Street: Cambridge Fills A Key Bike Network Gap

A freshly-paved Webster Avenue in Cambridge with new protected bike lane markings.
A freshly-paved Webster Avenue in Cambridge with new protected bike lane markings.

The City of Cambridge is installing a short but crucial protected bike lane on Webster Avenue near Inman Square this week, closing a key gap in the city’s bike network and completing a project that the City of Somerville had implemented on its side of the city line in 2018.

Webster Avenue is a short but frequently-used bike route between Union Square in Somerville and Cambridge Street in Cambridge. Before this week, to the chagrin of Cambridge bike safety advocates, the city line between Somerville and Cambridge had been clearly demarcated by a protected bike lane that existed only on Somerville’s side.

Webster Ave. locator map
The new bike lanes span a short section of Webster Ave. from Cambridge Street, where there is a paint-only bike lane, to the Somerville city line, where a flexpost-protected bike lane has been in place since 2018. Existing bike lanes are highlighted in blue.

Earlier this year, advocates added Cambridge’s segment of Webster Avenue to the city’s list of high-priority protected bike routes in its 2020 bike plan update and in the newly amended Cycling Safety Ordinance.

The Cambridge segment of the street was also recently paved. On Tuesday morning, when the photo above was taken, City of Cambridge crews were still installing the new lane markings and crosswalks, but the work appeared to be mostly complete.

 

 

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