Over the past week, the City of Boston has been re-striping several newly-paved streets in the South End and Back Bay to implement new protected bike lanes on parts of Berkeley Street and Columbus Avenue (pictured above).
These new protected bike lanes only cover a few blocks, but they provide crucial connections between several other existing bikeways, and take a big step towards connecting a gap between the Boston Common and the Southwest Corridor:
A map of the newly-installed protected bike lanes (the thicker green lines on Columbus Ave., Tremont St., and Berkeley St.) and their connections to existing protected bike lanes (solid green lines) and paint-only bike lanes (dashed lines) in Back Bay and the South End.
The Columbus Avenue bike lane near Clarendon Street and Back Bay Station, looking northeast toward downtown Boston. This segment of the street has been the site of several "temporary" protected bike lane projects since the Covid-19 pandemic, as indicated by the old City of Boston sign at right, which is left over from last year's Orange Line shutdown.
On Berkeley Street, a new northbound-only bike lane has been created on the eastern curb and the number of car lanes has been reduced from three to two between Tremont Street and Columbus Avenue.
Berkeley Street in the South End, looking north toward Back Bay.
Two photos stitched together in a panoramic shot show the reconfigured Tremont Street (left) and Berkeley Street (right), with their newly-installed protected bike lanes. Upgraded traffic signals at the intersection also sport new "No Turn On Red" signs.
When we took these photos last Friday, the new bike lanes were still a work in progress: the city had installed flexible-post bollards on some blocks, but not others, and several segments of the new bike lanes were still blocked with parked cars.
On Friday, while city workers were still installing flexible-post bollards, numerous cars were still parked in the new bike lanes. Pictured is the intersection of Berkeley Street and Appleton Street.
Under that plan, the Berkeley Street bike lane will continue further north through Back Bay to connect to a planned eastbound protected bike lane on Boylston Street, and to the existing westbound bike lane on Beacon Street.
On Monday, a city spokesperson told StreetsblogMASS that work on Berkeley Street north of Columbus Avenue will continue next spring.
In another project to the east, the city would extend the new Tremont Street bike lanes into downtown Boston via a new one-way northbound bike lane on Charles Street South.
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