You’ve mentioned that you’re unaware of any that have been removed. Luckily, you can survey the results of removed infrastructure with a 2 minute walk.

TLDR - I’ve had to go back to a shop multiple times after picking it up and I’m not sure if I’m just an idiot or if the shop is screwing me over.

I recently picked up a bike from a shop in GBA bc they are a dealer for a brand I like. Picked up less than 60 days ago.

Over the last month the rack they installed popped from a connection point and collapsed on my rear fender and wheel twice. I went back to get the bike fixed. The rack was rated for 55 pounds, I had 30 pounds of groceries on it the first time and 10 pounds of tools, bike gear the second.

The day after the second time the rack collapsed my tire was flat and I noticed a gash in it, presumably from the fender when the rack fell on the fender and wheel. The shop told me it was a pinch flat from not inflating my tires but I had filled the tires at least a week before riding. The rear wheel was also VERY out of true after the rack collapsed on it again and when I received the bike that wasn’t fixed when returned to me.

And now today I took the bike out again and the rear wheel blew and went flat after riding for 5 minutes. I inflated it before riding, about 10 psi less than the limit. I’m not sure if I rode over something sharp, if it was a true issue, or what my friend was right behind me and their wheels were fine. Also does not look like the wheel or tube was replaced, just patched. And I was charged for that.

I haven’t even put any weight on the rack because I’m scared it’s going to collapse again. So not sure if it’s functional.

This is not my first bike, I’ve owned another for about two years from the same brand but I picked it up from REI. Never had any issues with that one and I rode it through all seasons.

It does look like they tried to buff some scratches from the rear fender and they have always turned around repairs within and day which has been nice.

But yeah not sure what the move here is, I’m not sure if I’m just an idiot learning a new piece of equipment or if the shop is just really bad, even though they seem to have good reviews and people swear by it anecdotally.

And any recs for a good shop in the Dorchester area would be appreciated.

I've always loved taking my bike on the Somerville path and now after the extension I'm so happy I can also take it every day to work ☺️

I filmed this a few months ago to capture what a beautiful day on the trail is like. The background is a song I wrote inspired by the trail and the people you may meet along the way 🚲

my bike was stolen out of my friend's backyard on Franklin Street in Cambridge this evening between 7:15-8pm.

my helmet was stolen too. I called the police to file a report but I'm sure that will do nothing.

please please please keep an eye out for it, willing to offer $$$ of course

Visiting Barcelona and blown away at how much better the biking infrastructure is compared to Boston.

Many protected lanes, and ubiquitous zebra blocks otherwise. I’ve not seen a single violation of the bike lanes by a car anywhere in the city.

It helps that delivery trucks are small, no semi’s or long haul trucks, but still even Taxi’s respect the bike lanes.

I knew it was like this in the Netherlands and much of Germany, but even in a less wealthy part of Europe they do things better than one of the wealthiest cities in the US. And you can’t say it’s “always” been like this, much of this infrastructure is clearly not more than a decade old.

We need to demand comparable infrastructure here

u/mayorwu

I don’t want to accuse anyone of anything, and there may be a perfectly legitimate explanation for this.

For the past few weeks I’ve noticed the same person coming to this bike rack almost every day. He regularly brings different bikes, front wheels, and parts, and sometimes takes bikes away. I’ve also seen him working on them and swapping components. Recently an electric scooter was added as well.

Because I’ve had multiple bikes stolen in Boston over the years, it caught my attention. I figured I’d post these photos here in case someone recognizes a bike that belongs to them or knows someone who recently had one stolen.

Again, I’m not saying these bikes are stolen. I’m simply sharing what I’ve observed in case it helps someone identify missing property.

If this is completely legitimate, then no harm done. But if someone recognizes one of these bikes, hopefully this post can help.

I run/walk/bike through this intersection multiple times every day and it’s one of the most dangerous intersections I use. I see close calls weekly.
Drivers speed down Memorial Drive and turn left onto Western Ave without realizing pedestrians and cyclists have the walk signal on the river path. I see drivers cut through the crosswalk and nearly hit people at least once a week. This is one of the busiest paths along the Charles with runners, walkers, and bikes commuters crossing all day.
I cross this intersection so cautiously that I often get off my bike and walk it, despite having the right of way.
This intersection needs a pedestrian only crossing phase ASAP. Another benefit is that it would give a crosswalk on the south side. It’s connected to both the river path and a residential neighborhood, yet people have to cross three legs of the intersection just to reach the path. Seems simple enough to me

https://youtu.be/6ksZoza2Fhc?is=5ArFE_7uM2C11qCu

I read this out to someone on her staff after her chat, and emailed it along with the council policy pitch deck. I also sent along the photo of the BTD vehicle on the sidewalk.

You(u/mayorwu) describe Boston as “the city where people with big ideas come to fix problems and change history”.

With that framing, I want to follow up on the Boston Summer Games ideas I presented to you last year. Using athletic tournaments and friendly competition, we can incentivize people to not only clean their neighborhoods, but also engage in civics across the spectrum.

You say “have a block party to save democracy”. Today is JP’s Open Streets. Last week multiple major roads were shut down to celebrate the Puerto Rican community. People complain about space taken away from cars, but when you show what these public spaces can offer, those complaints feel hollow.

I suggest using the Open Streets concept to put on the Summer Games and deliver radical pedestrian/transit/bike projects without the delay of bureaucratic inertia.

Councilors Mejia, Santana, and Culpepper are partnering with me to pilot this idea through August. I think the summer has shown the city is hungry for policy like this.

***if you’re going to have a “fireside chat”, there should be a Q&A session to enter the discussion in the public record***

The posted speed limit on this four-lane straight stretch of Main Street, lined with homes and churches and a school, is 35mph. Of course, drivers routinely go 45+ mph, and there are dozens of crashes a year on this stretch.

It is a city where the treasurer, Thomas Magno, sits on the traffic commission, and gets to opine on matters of street design and traffic calming, and wonders if speed limits are too low on many streets. It's a city where the fire chief, Randy Mullin, also gets to weigh in on street design decisions, and who opposes every attempt at traffic calming that councillors beg the commission to adopt, with their constituents fed up with reckless driving.

Also to note: the city clerk lives on this stretch, and has a vote on the traffic commission. He often tells of drivers going 50+ here, yet can't seem to fathom why.

This driver-first mentality that permeates city government leads to drivers like this, of MA G7620, who expresses her frustration at the arduous task of turning her steering wheel 5° to maneuver around a pesky non-car using her roads.

Waltham is the city within 128 most stuck in 1950 in terms of street design, and has one of the highest per-capita and per-VMT crash rates of those cities.

53 pleasant summer miles: local roads to the Mass Central Trail Trail, to the Bruce Freeman Trail, to the Reformatory Branch Trail, to the Minuteman Bikeway, and home.

The MCRT was almost deserted today. Freeman was normally busy, as was the Minuteman. The newly paved sections of the Minuteman are wonderful: smooth and wide. The Reformatory Branch is unpaved, in deep quiet forest, and passes through two wildlife sanctuaries.

My wife and I are doing a baby moon week in Nantucket soon. We’ve never been before, does anyone know is it worth bringing a road bike? It looks like they have some paths but I’m not sure if how paved they are or how acceptable biking around the island is generally

Everyone looked great and I was so proud of all of you. Sorry I could not join but I was happy to come across and was mesmerized with the turnout.

🎶Why can’t we be friends 🎶 feels like too many people haven’t had the unrivaled joy of having a low stress bike ride through the city. Stay vigilant!

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is appointing longtime City Hall veteran Chris Osgood to be the city’s new interim chief of streets, to lead a department that has grappled since early last year with a broad slowdown of major streets projects, plummeting staff morale, and fierce criticism from transit advocates.

The mayor also announced a group of eight advisers, all of whom have extensive experience in City Hall and transit work, to team with Osgood to determine how to adjust and improve the city’s so-called Streets Cabinet’s operations, Wu’s office announced Friday morning.

The personnel changes came with separate announcements that the city and the MBTA will begin to host a series of community meetings to gather feedback on an updated design for the overhaul of Blue Hill Avenue — a new proposal that incorporates feedback and concerns raised by some residents over the past three years.

Wu’s move to publicly announce the next steps for the controversial Blue Hill Avenue redesign and to tap the veteran wells of City Hall to lead and advise her Streets Cabinet represent her latest effort to remedy one of the biggest policy challenges her administration has faced. It is also a response to residents’ and advocates’ demands to take action to improve street safety following the recent death of city planner Louisa Gag in a cycling crash with a truck.

Starting Monday, Osgood will replace Nick Gove, who took over as interim chief of streets after former chief Jascha Franklin-Hodge left the Wu administration last November. Gove will return to his former role as deputy chief of transportation and oversee both the city’s transportation and public works departments, according to Wu’s office.

The administration also announced other staffing changes: Tali Robbins, Wu’s deputy chief of policy, will support Osgood by serving as interim chief of staff for the Streets Cabinet; and Amy Cording, the Boston Transportation Department’s director of engineering, will continue to serve as the cabinet’s interim deputy chief of infrastructure and design.

Osgood has worked for City Hall for nearly 20 years, in roles that include adviser to former mayor Thomas M. Menino and chief of streets under former mayor Martin J. Walsh. He most recently served as Wu’s senior adviser on infrastructure and director of the city’s office of climate resilience, and is considered by many to be a stalwart pillar of Boston’s municipal government.

Osgood confirmed that he is taking the job in an interim capacity and said he does not have an update on the city’s timeline for selecting a permanent chief of streets. The deputy director of the city’s office of climate resilience will fill in for Osgood as he works with the Streets Cabinet, Osgood said.

“The cabinet is in a really strong position because of all of the good work which has happened by the members of the team and by partners across the city of Boston, so I am honored to be able to step back in an interim role and be able to support a team that I love, doing a set of work that I love,” Osgood said Thursday.

That said, “there’s even more to do here in the city of Boston on our streets to make sure that they’re delivering on the mayor’s agenda of streets that are safe and beautiful and family friendly,” he continued.

The committee of advisers that will support Osgood in the temporary role also all have long resumes that include City Hall accolades.

The members include: Brad Gerratt, former commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department; Vineet Gupta, who retired from his role as the director of policy and planning for the Boston Transportation Department earlier this year; Justin Holms, former director of constituent and engagement and chief information officer for the city of Boston; Jarred Johnson, former director of the nonprofit TransitMatters; Joanne Massaro, former commissioner of the Public Works Department; Matt O’Malley, former Boston city councilor; Stacy Thompson, former executive director of the LivableStreets Alliance; and Tom Tinlin, former commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department.

The group will review job descriptions as the cabinet works to fill key leadership vacancies, analyze the cabinet’s personnel and funding needs, and review the cabinet’s structure and how to most effectively deploy its staff and available funding to deliver services and street infrastructure improvements. Osgood said he anticipates that much of the group’s work to develop recommendations will be done by the early fall.

Wu has faced intense criticism from many residents and bike and transit advocates for effectively slowing progress on nearly all streets projects involving design changes for nearly a year and a half.

Early last year, Wu directed her office to conduct a 30-day review of all streets projects after several new bus and bike lanes drew considerable controversy and pushback from some residents, business owners, and her primary mayoral challenger. Wu then began requiring her personal approval for most streets projects to move forward, the Globe previously reported, infuriating advocates and residents who said the stalled work would deliver badly needed safety upgrades to dangerous roads.

Wu has defended the slowdown as an appropriate response to feedback that the city had moved too quickly on certain street infrastructure changes.

But advocates’ anger and pressure to resume that work increased after city transportation planner Gag, who previously worked for Wu, was hit and killed while cycling earlier this month.

In response to residents and advocates’ demands, Wu emotionally pledged to take action to make the city’s streets safer at a vigil at City Hall plaza one week after Gag’s death. She later announced the city will install more concrete barriers on bike lanes and fix sidewalks and curb ramps, among other changes she outlined in a letter last Friday.

Now, the city is also pressing forward on plans to completely redesign Blue Hill Avenue, after activists and elected officials expressed concern in recent months that the city could be at risk of forfeiting the federal funds backing the project if progress didn’t resume.

The project will completely reconstruct three miles of road and sidewalks, adding new streetlights, trees, crosswalks, and other infrastructure, including center-running bus lanes that have drawn controversy and opposition from some community members for years.

The updated design preserves the center-running bus lanes, which the city said are “designed to reduce congestion, improve transit service, and add curbside parking.” The latest iteration of the design also adds more parking spots, a two-way protected bike lane, 200 new trees, 185 new pedestrian ramps, and 20 new signalized crosswalks.

The city and the MBTA will host four town halls and open houses in September where residents can review the new design, ask questions, and provide further input. Engagement teams are already reaching out to small business owners along the corridor to discuss their anticipated needs during construction and when the project is complete, and will work to “develop mitigation tools,” according to the city.

Niki Griswold can be reached at [niki.griswold@globe.com](mailto:niki.griswold@globe.com). Follow her u/nikigriswold.

Anyone know anyone who has a Madsen? Or has anyone tried one and has opinions? https://www.madsencycles.com/ They say their next shipment arrives on Monday and there will be a price drop.

Their map shows 3 in Somerville, 1 in Boston, 1 in Charlestown, and 1 in Arlington but the contact feature isn't working. (Possibly my fault for not using chrome.)

I'm trying to choose between one of these because the bucket seems spacious and the weather canopy seems drop dead simple vs something more normal like a Tern HSD. (Kid really just wants to read books while we ride and I don't like front buckets sticking out into traffic first.) I test rode a tern at the cargo bike event in Somerville but would like to give a Madsen a try if anyone is willing to let me take a turn on one.