Bike Czar says Boston ready to celebrate Bike Week

By Nicole Freedman, Guest Columnist

National Bike Week begins this week and Boston is proudly doing its part to celebrate. The 2011 Bike Week calendar is packed with events all across the City and region. In all, there are 20 cycling events in Boston and more than 100 in the Greater Boston region. Statewide, the MassCommuter Challenge competition among businesses and organizations encourages cycling as a great way to commute. The big events this week include the Boston Bike Week Kickoff Party at Giant Cycling World in the Fenway today from 1-4 PM and Mayor Menino’s Bike Week Festival on Friday May 20th from 7-9 AM at City Hall Plaza.

This year, Boston has more than ever to celebrate. Mayor Menino announced last month that he will bring the New Balance Hubway bike share system to Boston, beginning this summer. This is incredibly exciting news for Boston, and not just for the cycling community. Bike Share mainstreams cycling by making it convenient, inexpensive, and hip. Users are residents, workers, tourists and students, as opposed to self-described “cyclists.”

Bike Share has met with unparalleled success in its ability to change transportation habits, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and promote physical activity. Paris, which launched its bike share program in June 2008, saw 54 million bike trips – that’s 75,000 bike trips each day – in the programs first two years. More trips by bike mean fewer by car. This amounts to a notable 10 million fewer car trips and a 5% percent reduction in car traffic citywide.

Cities closer to home have also embraced the concept. Montreal’s bike share program, launched in 2010, has seen 1 million bike trips and an estimated 3 million miles traveled by bike in the first 5 months since it’s launch. Mexico City’s system has 30,000 members, while Washington D.C.’s innovative Capital Bike Share just signed up its 12,000th member.

Boston’s New Balance Hubway will launch with 61 stations and 600 bicycles. With the help of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the system is poised to expand into neighboring cities including Brookline, Cambridge, and Somerville. At full size, the system could grow to up to 400 stations and 4,000 bicycles leading to nearly 2.5 million annual bike trips. It has the potential to completely transform how residents and visitors use transportation.

Mayor Menino has provided tremendous leadership over the last three years since Boston Bikes first launched, and he remains committed to making Boston a world class cycling city. The Mayor succeeded in transforming Boston from one of the worst cycling cities in the country to one of the best. In fact, the League of American Bicyclists most recently recognized the Mayor’s work by naming Boston as a silver level Bike Friendly Community – a designation that would have been unthinkable 3 years ago.

The dramatic increase in cycling does not come without challenges. How do we make sure cyclists are educated about and following the rules of the road? What can we do to encourage driver awareness? Are there enough bike lanes? How can we make sure people have access to helmets?

As we look forward to Bike Share, Boston Bikes is actively developing education and enforcement programs to ensure that cyclists and drivers follow the rules of the road and share the roads safely. We are launching a helmet safety initiative, making helmets accessible at low-cost to users. And, in conjunction with the work on Bike Share, Boston Bikes continues to add bike lanes on major Boston streets, particularly Mass Ave and the Greenway where bike ridership will be high.

The City is entering a defining period; a period in which cycling in Boston is no longer only about “cyclists.” Mayor Menino is dedicated to making cycling a viable, safe and attractive transportation option for all Bostonians. Drivers will soon choose to bike, while those on bikes will often double as drivers, public transit users or pedestrians. Together, we are moving past the dynamic of “us” versus “them.” We can all share responsibility for defining a new, positive experience on our streets, one that will ensure our safety, improve our health and environment, and make our city buzz.

Please join us on May 15 and May 20th for the Boston Bike Week Kickoff Party and Boston Bike Week Festival. Information can be found at www.BostonBikeWeek.org. For a full calendar of Bike Week events in the region, please see www.BayStateBikeWeek.org. For the MassCommuter Challenge, please visit: http://masscommuterchallenge.org/.

Nicole Freedman is the director of the city of Boston's bicycle program.