Dot Bike

Dorchester Public Art Bike Tour October 25th, 10 am

Dot Bike, Common Boston, and the Dorchester Arts Collaborative invite you to join us for a ride to kick off this year’s Dorchester Open Studios. We’ll visit and learn about Dorchester public art, both new and historical, at sites including the painted gas tank, Arts on the Point sculpture at U. Mass., murals by youth and community artists, and more.  Whether you have only heard of Dorchester or have lived there all your life, there’s plenty of art discover in our neighborhoods.

Meeting Place and Time: 10 a.m., Codman Square Health Center, 637 Washington Street, Dorchester, MA 02124,  (free parking, or a short walk/from Ashmont Station)

What to bring: Water, a bike, a helmet, weather appropriate clothing

Degree of difficulty:  The ride will proceed at a leisurely pace with several stops, but riders should be somewhat comfortable with biking up hills and on city streets.

No registration is required for this free community event – ride-ins welcome!

For questions or further information, please contact Dot Bike at dotbike@bostonbiker.org or call Andy at 781-367-9200

Please join engineers from Howard/Stein-Hudson Associates, Inc. on Thursday, October 16 at the Franklin Park Golf Clubhouse from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. for a presentation on the Franklin Park Transportation and Access Study Draft Recommendations. 

They look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions and answering your questions.  Please help us spread the word

Alas, I was not able to take part in the 4th annual Hub on Wheels City Wide ride this past Sunday.  However, I’ve gotten a few reports from those who rode and here are some highlights.

The DotBike team fielded 33 riders, including two groups of younger riders  – students from Codman academy and teens from the St. Peters Teen Center.   The Codman academy riders rode the 30 mile route and all reports are that the ride went well for them.  The St. Peters teens planned to ride the 10 mile route as a group.

There were also a number of DotBikers who rode the full 50 miles.   All reports were that is was beneficial to start near the front.  One speedster finished 50 in two and a half hours.  Being at the tail end of thousands of riders was reported to be less than ideal.  One DotBiker reported that he saw at least 2 mishaps (not serious) due to colliding cyclists.  Mass starts are always tricky and one needed to watch out for bobbing and weaving cyclists.

The rest stops were well supplied and provided goodies for hungry riders.  Reportedly if you were in the middle of the pack the first rest stop was a bit chaotic but volunteers were enthusiastic.  Things got much more organized and tranquil as the riders spread out.

Several riders reported that they heard many riders exclaiming about the great places that they didn’t know existed for riding and recreation that were part of the route.  Even if some of them weren’t quite sure where they were – e.g. when riding through Stony Brook Reservation a rider was “…thrilled with this lovely part of Brookline”.  Many commented on the Neponset Greenway path and the route along the Harbor coast.

And I heard that a couple of DotBikers rode places they had not before including Stony Brook and the Forest Hills Cemetary – bikes are allowed and its a lovely place to ride.

The festival at the end was enjoyed by all with various schwag and contests going on.

There was an eyewitness report of the aftermath of a fairly serious looking accident on or near the grate draw bridge on Morrissey – a noted problem area – but I haven’t seen any additional details.  And another report of a rider needing an ambulance near the Fenway.

All-in-all it sounded like a great day and a successful event.

If you have more to add, comments, suggestions or pictures you’d be willing to share either leave a comment or let me know via our contact form.

NOTE THE CHANGED DATE DUE TO THE WEATHER

The festival will now be a one day event happening on Sunday September 28th.

Where: City Hall Plaza
When: September 28 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.

Boston GreenFest 2008 is an entertaining education festival celebrating the many ways we can create a better world through greening our neighborhoods, our communities and the entire Boston area.

Many fun ways people can save energy and save money with products and systems available today will be on display.

Movies, music, art exhibits, virtual interactive experiences, youthTalks and much more…

For more info on this event check out their site.

The Neponset Greenway and the Harbor Trail are absolutely fabulous trails to ride on with great views, relative quiet and generally good surfaces.  However, as many of you likely know there is a large gap (and a couple of smaller gaps) that break up on otherwise continuous path currently starting at the Milton/Dorchester line (but eventually to extend into the Blue Hills Reservation) and goint to Castle Island in South Boston.  One of DotBike’s advocacy missions is to work with the DCR, BRA and other stake holders to close the gap.  However, that will certainly take time.  So until then I’ve made a map of the whole path and an annotated close up of how to navigate the gap.

Here’s a map of the “complete” Harbor path:

View Larger Map

And here’s how to navigate the Gap in the path.

View Larger Map

Hope you enjoy the ride!

“Beyond the Greenway II” will start at 10:00 am on Sunday, October 26,
at the Hallet St. entrance to Pope John Paul II Park in Dorchester–so
we can bike past the new mural on the SE Expressway underpass–and head
north along the waterfront all of the way to Fort Point Channel, where
we will head up the South Bay Harbor Trail to Mass. Ave.  We’ll turn
around at Crosstown and head back to the starting point.

This ride is sponsored by the Boston Natural Areas Network (BNAN) and will be led by Doug Mink.

A special presentation sponsored by DotBike.

How would you make Dorchester more bike (and foot) friendly?

Northeastern University professor Peter Furth traveled to the Netherlands this summer with 18 civil engineering students to study sustainable transportation in a country where there’s plenty of it. When they returned, they applied their lessons to Dorchester, redesigning key sites to to improve access and safety for bicycles, pedestrians, and public transportation.

Come hear and critique their ideas on Wednesday September 24th, 7 pm at the Vietnamese American Community Center, 42 Charles Street Dorchester, MA (one short block from the Fields Corner T stop). Projects to be presented include:

1) Making Dorchester Ave. bike friendly
2) Transit oriented development around Ashmont Station
3) Better walk /bike access to the UMass peninsula
4) A bike rental station for Andrew and / or JFK / UMass station
5) Making the South Bay shopping center more accessible for walk / bike / transit

Prof. Furth is a transportation engineer whose specialties include bicycle route networks and urban transit. For more information email dotbike<AT>bostonbiker.org or call Andy at 781-367-9200.

A special presentation sponsored by DotBike.

How would you make Dorchester more bike (and foot) friendly?

Northeastern University professor Peter Furth traveled to the Netherlands this summer with 18 civil engineering students to study sustainable transportation in a country where there’s plenty of it. When they returned, they applied their lessons to Dorchester, redesigning key sites to to improve access and safety for bicycles, pedestrians, and public transportation.

Come hear and critique their ideas on Wednesday September 24th, 7 pm at the Vietnamese American Community Center, 42 Charles Street Dorchester, MA (one short block from the Fields Corner T stop). Projects to be presented include:

1) Making Dorchester Ave. bike friendly
2) Transit oriented development around Ashmont Station
3) Better walk /bike access to the UMass peninsula
4) A bike rental station for Andrew and / or JFK / UMass station
5) Making the South Bay shopping center more accessible for walk / bike / transit

Prof. Furth is a transportation engineer whose specialties include bicycle route networks and urban transit. For more information email dotbike@bostonbiker.org or call Andy at 781-367-9200.

Can you join us Sept 10th from 6-8PM at Citizen Schools for the Design Kick Off event? Take a look at the one-page project overview and a picture from last year’s Orange Line Design and let me know…

Click here for directions/parking information: http://www.citizenschools.org/ourlocations/directions.cfm

The next DotBike meeting will happen on Tuesday September 16th at 6:00 p.m. at the Dot2Dot cafe address 1739 Dorchester Ave.

Please note the slightly earlier than usual time.
Tasty food will be available for purchase.  We’ll talk about the upcoming Hub on Wheels ride, the sustainable transportation student presentations, the Green energy transportation alternative festival, advocacy efforts and other upcoming rides and events.  More details on the agenda will be forthcoming to the list.
Dot2Dot is close to both Shawmut and Ashmont T-stations and with 2 new city bike racks located right nearby.

All are welcome and looking forward to seeing you.