@itamarst @bikepedantic @DemonHusky Cambridge does provide some unique challenges in this area because of the lack of geographic preference; in many areas, "low traffic neighborhoods" can enable this, while in Cambridge, my 10 year old who lived in South Cambridgeport went to school in Observatory Hill or whatever Neighborhood Nine is called, and that's a lot further than I had to go to get to school as a kid.

Doesn't make the goal bad. Just more challenging than average.

@crschmidt @bikepedantic @DemonHusky My assumption, to be clear, is that this is a 20-year project, so a couple more CSO-scale iterations before we could start on that. I don't really know how fast modeshift might happen, though.

@itamarst @bikepedantic I was allowed to bike on my own to school in 3rd grade, so I'd aim for 7-8 y/o. Did have cul-de-sac neighborhood to off-street path for the whole trip though. Will need some major traffic calming on residential streets to get there.

@DemonHusky @itamarst @bikepedantic I was walking on my own in first grade, so I expect biking was "as soon as I could reliably ride a bike" but elementary school was .4 miles and middle school was 1 mile, and effectively a similar "neighborhood" level streets (ie, no high-traffic crossings) to staying within Cambridgeport or North Cambridge. Involving high-traffic volume roads is a totally different story (and most school routes probably cross or at least take Mass Ave).

@crschmidt radically rethinking Harvard Square has the potential to reduce driving on the entire Mass corridor, unlocking all-ages potential for most of the city. Freshened local street design and operations citywide is a good complement. @DemonHusky @itamarst

@bikepedantic @crschmidt @itamarst Unfortunately, between the MassAve4 and Kiosk projects, radical rethinking is just not happening there. Both are major rebuilds, so wouldn't expect being able to do something radical as a follow-on.

@DemonHusky @bikepedantic @crschmidt HSBA at least is pushing for pedestrianization.

@itamarst @bikepedantic @crschmidt the WIP plan for the MassAve4 bus stop section does make it only 1 general travel lane, which should make the area much nicer. Haven't seen the kiosk plan, but even getting the whole area down to a single travel lane would make the square much nicer.

@DemonHusky @itamarst @bikepedantic @crschmidt I’d like to see Somerville be even half as bold as Cambridge in this vein, but our bike plan is hobbled by our revenue 😭

@jeffbyrnes @DemonHusky @bikepedantic @crschmidt The final Somerville bike plan is much improved! There's a 2030 goal of bike lanes on a bunch of major streets (though sadly Beacon St. isn't on the 2030 list).

@itamarst @DemonHusky @bikepedantic @crschmidt oh for sure! But 2030 is a ways away 😭

@jeffbyrnes @itamarst @bikepedantic @crschmidt To reach that goal, Somerville is going to need to start building towards it rapidly immediately, so if they are serious, will see lots of great stuff happening soon

@jeffbyrnes @itamarst @bikepedantic @crschmidt And the effect of both Cambridge and Somerville making big upgrades will really enhance both cities' efforts

@DemonHusky @itamarst @bikepedantic @crschmidt oh for sure! It’s really great, even if it’s a long timeline. But progress! Looking forward to my 12 week old son walking & biking himself to elementary school 🎉

@DemonHusky i haven't looked at the new plan yet, but i hope there's some really good north-south routes, esp connections between Cambridge and Somerville, proposed. @jeffbyrnes @itamarst @crschmidt

@bikepedantic @DemonHusky @itamarst @crschmidt “This accelerated timeline suggests Somerville will be building out our bike network at roughly the same rate Cambridge has building building theirs.”

Damn, I guess we have more roads in Somerville?!

Looks like Willow, Cedar, & Lowell are all getting a “one way protected bike lane”, which is protecting one direction of travel. Better than we have today for sure!

@jeffbyrnes @bikepedantic @DemonHusky @itamarst @crschmidt Based on city meetings, Somerville has about 100 miles of roads (wandrer.earth puts this at 125, including private and paths). Cambridge definitely has more, 187 per wandrer, but not sure how much is private or otherwise uncounted

@max_in_somer @jeffbyrnes @bikepedantic @DemonHusky @crschmidt The state actually has a summary: https://dlsgateway.dor.state.ma.us/reports/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=Socioeconomic.RoadMIles

Omitting state roads and (private?) unaccepted roads:

* Cambridge: 120 miles
* Somerville: 90 miles

In some cases city staff will talk about one-way miles (relevant to bike infrastructure, for example) so need to be careful with definitions.

@itamarst @max_in_somer @jeffbyrnes @bikepedantic @crschmidt That's super cool, been looking for a source like that for a little while now

@jeffbyrnes @itamarst @DemonHusky @bikepedantic @crschmidt Jeff, it’s 4+ miles of SBLs a year. That’s a ton of lanes, and quickly

@sofio @itamarst @DemonHusky @bikepedantic @crschmidt hahaha ok ok! I guess I was somehow thinking Cambridge was going way faster 🤷🏻‍♂️

I’m glad to see it, and glad to be wrong that it’s not slow.

@crschmidt @itamarst @bikepedantic ~0.7 miles to elementary school, depending on which jr. high, 7.8, 2.7, 6.8 miles, but only the middle one would be plausibly safe. Started to take the bus for those.