Hacker News Reader

Comment by mikeocool | Hacker News Reader

As someone who spent a long time biking, driving, and taking public transit in Boston this is sort of laughable.

A bike sharing program is a neat idea, but actually riding bikes in Boston is a terrible experience. The roads are in bad shape, there are no bike lanes, and the drivers are homicidal.

Public transit in Boston certainly isn't bad, it's better than most cities I've lived in and it may very well be better than the valley. But the subway is generally only helpful if you're going to and from downtown. If you say live in Somerville and work in Allston, you're pretty much out of luck, unless you're willing to transfer between the bus and the subway a few times.

In general I found having a car was a pretty key part of living in Boston.

View on HN

Yes, the idea of biking in Boston scares me. About 90% of the people I know who ride bikes in Boston have gotten in at least one accident. The streets are very crowded.

"In general I found having a car was a pretty key part of living in Boston."

This is true for you, but not my experience. I moved to Boston in 2008 and got rid of my car. I've been living car-free for four years now. I thought I'd need zip cars or cabs every once in a while but I don't use either. I mostly walk everywhere (I live in Cambridge) and occasionally take the T.

The real story is not how bikable Boston is, but how walkable it is.

A few weeks ago I went to a talk by Nicole Freedman, the head of the Boston Bikes program, on the state of biking in Boston as of the end of 2011. She talked about the enormous changes Boston has been making, like going from 180 feet (!) of total bike lanes a few years ago to over 50 miles now [1]. For instance, they removed 70 parking spaces from Mass Ave to make a bike lane there.

Most of the people at the talk seemed to be hard-core cyclists, who tend to be a pretty tough crowd to please, but there were so many standing ovations that it could've been the State of the Union address. Have you ridden in Boston lately? I'm curious to see if the changes are as big as most of those people seemed to think.

As to getting around, there are certainly trips in the Boston area that are easy by public transit and others that aren't. I live in Somerville and getting to Allston is a pain (I'd probably use the 66 bus [2]). I generally only drive outbound from Somerville, since I find driving in Boston stressful and of course the parking is expensive.

[1] http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/Annual%20Report... [2] http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/bus/routes/?route=66

The rail lines (red and green respectively) go straight through Somerville and Allston. Obviously there are some places in both towns without nearby rail access, but it's sort of a stretch to claim "multiple transfers" for that ride.

The roads are in no worse shape than any other northeast city (potholes are a fact of life in that climate). The drivers are agressive but broadly competant. Maybe a better complaint would be lack of bike lanes, which is true: old streets don't always fit them.

I grew up in Boston; lived, studied and worked there until I was 27; and never once felt the need to own a car.

You simply don't take the Red Line to Park Street, change to the Green Line, and ride out to Allston. That's utterly moronic. As I recall, you would take the Red Line to Harvard Square and change to Bus 77 to Allston.

Sigh. I wasn't doing mikeocool's transit planning, I was responding to the assertion that you have "to transfer between the bus and subway a few times" to get between Somerville and Allston. Whether it is "utterly moronic" to take the subway into Boston seems to me to be situation dependent. If there's snow on the ground and the buses are all running late, that's certainly the first choice. If it's a nice day, you'd probably decide to just walk the half mile across the river from Harvard Square.

Look: if you don't like Boston don't live there. The Bay Area is really nice too and I liked it a lot. I'm currently really liking Portland. But flaming about transit options in what AFAIK is the densest city in north america is just dumb, sorry. Carless bostonians have absolutely no grounds for complaint.

Boston has changed quite a lot in the past couple of years in terms of biker friendliness. The mayor has made it a big deal to put in new bike lanes and the difference is obvious. For example, on Commonwealth Ave there was a difficult spot where the road goes under Mass Ave. Instead of two lanes now there is 1 lane for cars and 1 for bikes. Similar changes have been made in other parts of the city. Much of the city is flat and the distances between neighborhoods is small. Also because there are a lot more bikers on the road now drivers are becoming much more aware of bike traffic. Between your bike, Zipcar and Relay Rides, which is everywhere, you really don't need a car.

"In general I found having a car was a pretty key part of living in Boston". I would agree with that assuming that you live in and/or want to go out of Boston for whatever reason (work, visiting friends, etc.). I live in Beacon Hill without a car but need a cab/zipcar to visit friends in Watertown or go to the Cape for instance.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com