Last week, Jerry Zhou, a co-founder of the Boston University Urbanists Club, went out to document the city's poor snow removal on the protected bike lanes on Commonwealth Avenue, one of the city's busiest bike routes.
"The City of Boston had come out and used their machines to plow the lanes at some point," said Zhou. "But it’s like they’ve never seen a bike lane before, because they'd plow part of it, but there’s a still a giant snowbank at the (intersection) where you'd have to haul your bike over a giant pile of snow."
"I was just fed up, and decided to document how bad it was," Zhou continued. "This is a college campus, so there are tons of people biking all winter, and with the bike lanes blocked, everyone's had to ride out in the street."
On Wednesday, Zhou shared his photos and videos to the Boston Cyclists' Union Slack group. Just two days later, on Friday evening, a group of about 20 volunteers from the BCU and the Boston University Urbanists Club showed up on Comm. Ave. to form a volunteer shoveling brigade.
"I’m a firm believer that we should work as partners with the city. But we also don't want to see someone harmed due to something that could have been prevented," said Tiffany Cogell, executive director of the Boston Cyclists' Union. "We started a campaign to submit 311 reports and reach out to city officials. I’m happy to say that we did get some positive, affirming responses from City Councilors. But nothing was going to change unless we did it ourselves."
The work was hard and slow-going, because some snowbanks were over 5 feet deep, and had consolidated over a week of freezing and thawing into heavy blocks of ice.
But the group received a steady stream of encouragement from passerby.
"One really sweet story is that there was a woman, and older woman inside Firestone, getting work done on their car," recalled Cogell. "She came out and asked what’s going on, and when we explained, right away she was like ‘Are you kidding me? That is the city’s job! I’m calling the city right now.’ And after that, we could see her on her phone, and she was giving it to them."
After around two hours' worth of shoveling, the group managed to clear out about two blocks of the eastbound bike lane near Babcock Street.
Zhou said that it was satisfying to make things a little better, but the event also made it clear that they need the city's help.
"Honestly, our efforts are a little in vain, because from the new snow we got on Saturday, they just plowed more snow into the bike lanes," said Zhou. "There’s another new snowbank blocking the bike lane now where we'd shoveled on Saturday."
In a statement to StreetsblogMASS on Monday, City Council President Liz Breadon, whose district encompasses the Commonwealth Avenue neighborhood, said that "I share the frustration of Allston-Brighton residents regarding the condition of bike lanes, crosswalks, and pedestrian infrastructure, and the City’s lack of prioritization for clearing these spaces of snow."
"While I deeply appreciate the efforts of the BCU and residents who came out to help, it’s incumbent on the City to keep our bike lanes in good working order," the Council President added. I have spoken directly with the Chief of Streets about the need for the City to clear the Comm. Ave. bike lanes and bike lanes elsewhere, and will continue to raise this issue with the Streets Cabinet."
