Dot Bike

The next DotBike meeting will take place at Roseanne’s house 65 Welles Ave. at the corner of Welles and Ocean on May 6th from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Email dotbike AT bostonbiker DOT org with questions.

On a beautiful Saturday afternoon a group of 18 cyclists from Dorchester and beyond met up at Franklin Park for a ride around Dorchester for a tour of some of the neighborhood green spaces. Riders not only came from different places in and around Boston but came riding many types of bikes including road, hybrid, mountain, comfort, folding, fixed gear and recumbent.

We started off led by Christine Poff, executive director of the Franklin Park Coalition, with a one mile loop within Franklin Park that circled White Stadium and passed by the old Bear Cage ruins and the ruins of the old Field House/Summer stage. Christine told us a bit of the history of the park and some of the current projects the group is working on in the park. If you haven’t been to Franklin Park in a while its definitely worth a trip.

We then headed out of Franklin Park and headed up the the Geneva cliffs urban wild at the intersection of Bowdoin and Geneva. There we were cordially greeted by Davida Andelman and the Friends of Geneva Cliffs. They graciously invited us to enjoy their BBQ with them and a number of riders dug right in. They have been putting some hard work into clearing out invasive plants and building some great paths through the area.

A short leg with a little bit of up brought us to Ronan park which has an absolutely fabulous view of the harbor and surroundings. Brian Foust, a dotbiker himself, who spent the morning participating in a park cleanup and BBQ met us at the park and related a bit on the community efforts of the Friends of Ronan Park to maintain this beautiful park.

Then onto the Fields Corner neighborhood, mostly downhill, to make a brief circle of Wellesley Park, a stop at the DYA green house off Gibson St. and finally to Peabody Square. At each of these sites a DotBiker (thanks especially Mike and Roseanne) had something to share about the location.

From Peabody Square we made our way down Dot Ave. to Dorchester Park for the final scheduled stop for the ride. There we were met by Henry Belot of the Dorchester Park Association who gave us a historical tour of the Olmstead inspired park. It was quite informative and enjoyable.

We then headed back to Franklin Park via Washington St. diverting around the Codman Square traffic by way of the tunnel cap gardens near Shawmut station and back up Melville Ave. A quick stop for the view at Mother’s Rest Park and then back up Washington to Columbia and into the park.

Hope everyone had as enjoyable a ride as I did and hope to see you on a future ride.

Join us for the city wide ride to work. We’ll assemble at Peabody square (near the corner of Ashmont and Dorchester Ave.) and leave promptly at 7:00 a.m. to ride up Dot Ave. and end at Government center. Riders are requested to arrive by 6:45 a.m. so we can leave on time. We are scheduled to pass through Fields Corner at 7:08 a.m. and riders are welcome to join anywhere along the route.

Several other bike caravans from other parts of the city will also be converging on Government center and once there free breakfast will be available for all.

This will be a great opportunity to show the city the face of Dorchester cyclists.

You can register for the 50000 mile commuter challenge and sign the waiver in advance here. Information on other bike week events can be found on our event listings and at the Bay State Bike Week site.

Our regularly scheduled commute home ride for May lands smack dab in the middle of Bay State Bike Week. A great time to join us and help increase the visibility of bicyclists in Dorchester.

See this page for more information.

In celebration of Earth Week and Boston Shines we’re going for a ride around the neighborhood to check out some of Dorchester’s many parks and green spaces.

The ride starts from the giraffe entrance of the Franklin Park Zoo at 12:30 p.m. and after a riding tour of Franklin Park we’ll head out of the park on an approximately 12 mile loop to hit various other green spaces.

Check out the map for planned stops and points of interest.

View Larger Map Click link to the left to see what the markers are marking.

And here is the Cue Sheet for the ride as a downloadable PDF.

We’ll ride at a relaxed pace and leave no one behind and there will be several stops along the way.

Helmets are required and riders under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Email dotbike AT bostonbiker DOT org or call Andy at 781-367-9200 with questions.

The Blue Hills Cycling club is sponsoring the “Blue Hills Classic” Bicycle Race Sunday May 4th. A great opportunity to race, spectate or even help out with a local event.

For more information click here.

In celebration of Earth Week and Boston Shines, join us on April 26th for a family friendly tour of Dorchester with stops at several Parks and neighborhood green spaces.

We will meet in front of the Giraffe Entrance to the Franklin Park Zoo at 12:30 p.m.

Click here for a map of the start location and the ride route.

See the post on the site for more ride and contact info.

Just a quick recap of the meeting for those who don’t get the dotbike email.

We had a productive meeting. Thanks to Amy for hosting us at the Federated Dorchester House.

Nicole Freedman the Boston Bicycle Coordinator attended.
She outlined the two major priorities of the effort to make Boston a better biking city for this year.

1. Engineering i.e. bike lanes, bike racks and the Boston Bike Map
2. Encouragement particular focusing on two showcase events bookending the cycling season
   • Boston Bike Week May 12-19
   • Hub on Wheels Ride September 21st

A draft of the bike map was presented by Alan who is working with Nicole and attendees had a great time marking up the Map with additional streets and ratings in Dot.

Thanks to Nicole and Alan for attending.

Mary Lou and Tessa of the ‘Dorchester Youth Alternative Academy’ (DYAA) based in fields corner attended the meeting and told us about how they are working with Bikes-not-Bombs on a build a bike program. They have 16 youth participants and they hope to integrate their flower planting/maintenance program with the bike program allowing participants to cover a larger area by building then using cargo bikes for watering.

We agreed to help out as we could and are hoping that their group can work closely with DotBike.

April 26th green spaces ride.
Starting at 12:30 in Franklin Park with stops at various Dot green spaces and parks. More details coming soon! Keep an eye on the event calendar, too.

DotBike and Bike Week - May 12 - 16
Tuesday May 13th 7 - 8:30 we will hold a Commuter Breakfast at the new Dot2Dot cafe or the Ashmont Grill.
Wednesday May 14th - the regularly scheduled commute ride home
Friday May 16th - National Bike to work day - starting at Peabody square to City Hall Plaza.

Stay tuned for more details.

Other items

Contacting Dot organizations - we need more volunteers to contact groups routinely - please let us know what community groups you can regularly notify about Dot Bike stuff.

Dot Day June 1st - plans for parade participation are ongoing.

T-shirts - they’ve arrived and you can get one. If you aren’t on the dotbike email list you can email Andy at andrewschro AT gmail DOT com .

A quick reminder that the next DotBike meeting will be tomorrow April 15th at 18 Samoset. For directions and information see the calendar item to the right.

One of the main points of the meeting will be details of our upcoming weekend green spaces ride planned for April 26th.

We’ll also have updates on other upcoming events.

And don’t forget that the t-shirts are in and they’ll be available for pick up at the meeting.

Hope to see you there.

Just a reminder that this upcoming Wednesday is the start of our regularly scheduled monthly commute home rides.

That’s Wednesday April 9th starting at the common at 5:30 or the Mother Theresa church at 6:00.

Complete info here

It’s shaping up to be a nice day so hope to see you there.