Bicycle commuters in Boston's Allston neighborhood got a rude surprise this week when construction workers erected barriers and blocked the Cambridge Street bike lane at the southern entrance of the Franklin Street footbridge over I-90, forcing considerable volumes of bike and pedestrian traffic to share a narrow, broken sidewalk.
Emily Jacobsen, a Brookline resident who regularly uses the Franklin Street footbridge on her bike commute, told StreetsblogMASS that workers on the Cambridge Street bridge erected the barriers that block the bridge's southbound bike lane sometime during the day on Monday.
Those barriers now block bike traffic coming off of the Franklin Street footbridge from using the on-street bike lane to continue south, and they also prevent northbound bike traffic from turning left from Cambridge Street to the footbridge.
"You have a huge flow of bike traffic down a busy sidewalk and a horrendous highway-side bike lane on the Cambridge St. bridge," warned Brookline resident Emily Jacobsen in an email to City of Boston officials and the district's state representative, Rep. Kevin Honan, on Wednesday morning. "Bridge renovations often take years. Please do not let this situation languish," she added.
MassDOT promises 'minor adjustments'
The Cambridge Street Bridge is under the control of MassDOT.
In a statement issued Thursday evening, a MassDOT spokesperson said that workers had closed the right lane of Cambridge Street southbound "to support ongoing construction activity related to the Cambridge Street Bridge Rehabilitation Project," and that "the lane closure will remain in place through October 2026. "
"As with most work zones, there is a need to balance the space needs of drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists with the protection of construction workers on the bridge," the statement continued. "MassDOT has heard the concerns of bicyclists and will make minor adjustments to the barrier to reallocate space while continuing to prioritize the safety of all users including construction crews."
As with most work zones, there is a need to balance the space needs of drivers, pedestrians and bicyclists with the protection of construction workers on the bridge. MassDOT has heard the concerns of bicyclists and will make minor adjustments to the barrier to reallocate space while continuing to prioritize the safety of all users including construction crews.
Meanwhile, Jacobsen told StreetsblogMASS that the bike lane was still blocked on her morning commute Thursday. She's started an online petition to ask MassDOT "to provide a safe protected bike lane, with jersey barriers between bikes and vehicular traffic along Cambridge St."
She also plans to raise the issue at this evening's meeting of the Allston I-90 project task force.
A bottleneck for bikes and pedestrians
The Franklin Street footbridge and the Cambridge Street bridge that it connects to are a major bike and pedestrian connection in Allston.
They are two of only five north-to-south crossings of I-90 in the Allston neighborhood in a 2-mile stretch between Market Street and the B.U. Bridge., and the nearest alternative routes across the Turnpike require long, inconvenient detours.
In bike traffic counts from June 2025, the City of Boston recorded 613 and 570 bike riders on two consecutive weekdays on Franklin Street near Alcott Street, near the northern entrance to the footbridge. That represented more than a quarter of the street's total vehicular traffic on both days.
