Alewife Brook (Route 16) bike path is finished and open!

[ron_newman]

Yesterday, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation finished and opened the last missing link of the Alewife Brook bike path, alongside Route 16 in Somerville and Cambridge.

Instead of having to negotiate a narrow dirt path, you can now walk or bike on a beautiful new boardwalk, just north of the Henderson Street bridge (map here). The newly paved and widened path now runs continuously between Mass. Ave. in Cambridge and the Mystic Valley Parkway bridge.

I posted some photos to the Somerville Bicycle Committee's Facebook page, and have included one below, behind the lj-cut. Also, here'a a Google map showing all of the Alewife path sections in Arlington, Cambridge, and Somerville.

Comments

[42itous.livejournal.com]

Wow, looks really nice. Thanks for the photos.

[ceo]

Doesn't it go all the way to Alewife? They built a new boardwalk across the wetlands just north of Rte 2 earlier this year.

[ron_newman]

Yes, but that is on the Arlington side of the brook, not the Cambridge/Somerville side.

The paved path on the Cambridge/Somerville side goes from Mass. Ave. to Mystic Valley Parkway.

The path on the Arlington side is a mixture of unpaved (stone-dust) path and boardwalk. It goes from the Minuteman Bikeway (just on the other side of Route 2 from Aiewife station) to the Henderson Street bridge, where it is interrupted by St. Paul's cemetery. It starts up again at Broadway and goes north to Mystic Valley Parkway.

ETA: After receiving some Facebook comments asking for maps, I made a Google map showing all of the Alewife path sections in Arlington, Cambridge, and Somerville -- including the paved paths through St. Paul's Catholic Cemetery in Arlington.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

I recently noticed that DCR (I assume, since they maintain it) has illegally posted route 16 Eastbound at Mass Ave as "No Bicycles". Has anybody here been hassled while riding there?

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

I've ridden a few times on 16 and never got in trouble with cops or anything, but there was so much honking and aggressive driving around me that I felt it was too dangerous and found a different route. Didn't notice the signs until recently, but I'm not sure if they're new.

[ron_newman]

I entirely ignore the sound of car horns. You should, too ;-)

[ron_newman]

I may bring this subject up at next month's Somerville Bicycle Committee meeting. I've already taken photos of the signs (three in Cambridge, three in Somerville) and posted them to the Facebook pages of Mass Bike, Cambridge Bikes, and the Somerville Bicycle Committee.

Mass. General Laws Part 1, Title XIV, Chapter 85, Section 11b says, in part: "Every person operating a bicycle... shall have the right to use all public ways in the commonwealth except limited access or express state highways where signs specifically prohibiting bicycles have been posted".

This part of Alewife Brook Parkway certainly is not a "limited access" highway, since it contains numerous street intersections, traffic lights, rotaries, crosswalks, private driveways, parking lot entrances, and gas stations.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I was going to post the same thing.

MassBike knows about this issue, but I'm not sure what they've done about it so far.

I often ride on nearby parts of Route 16 which have poorly-designed bike sidepaths, but fortunately don't have "no bikes on roadway" signs (yet?). I don't want to have to worry about police harassment.

[ron_newman]

The DCR took these signs down in mid-September, after complaints from me and other cyclists:

Cambridge Day article

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

Ahh, I saw them building it the other day. Sooooooo glad it's done! Not that it helps all that much, since there's still no path between Mass Ave and Alewife :(

[ron_newman]

The path between Mass. Ave. and Alewife station is on the Arlington side of the brook. See the Google map that I posted.

As an alternative, you can ride on Columbus Avenue in Cambridge, which parallels Route 16.

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but that all involves so much street crossing and going multiple blocks out of the way that it becomes more time consuming than taking alternate paths. There's tons of empty space in that stretch that could easily be turned into sidewalks. Which, yeah, I've posted about here before and apparently there's some long-term plan to do that but it hasn't happened yet. And Columbus Ave is good for a while but the next street is one-way, and then becomes one-way in the opposite direction, so that there's no actual straight path along those side roads. Again, walking my bike makes the path become too time-consuming, and I don't ride the wrong way down one-ways, so that route doesn't work for me either.

[ron_newman]

I'll take another look on the ground to be sure, but from the Google map it appears that you can ride Columbus Avenue (one-way in the right direction), merging onto Seagrave Road to Whittemore Road, from which there are paths leading to the 'back' (Russell Field) entrance to Alewife Station.

The Google biking directions take you on the Arlington-side path, as I suggested earlier. This route doesn't cross any streets at all, once you get across Mass. Ave.

I think the main problem with continuing the paved path on the Cambridge side is, what do you do once you get to Route 2?

[littlecitynames.livejournal.com]

I'll try the Arlington side, but it's probably no faster than back roads unfortunately. What I'd like is a path that goes along the south/west side of the Parkway and connects Mass Ave to the Whittemore path. I believe Columbus and Seagrave are one-way in opposite directions, which means that going either way, I have to walk my bike or ride on the sidewalk part of the way, neither of which is a very good solution.

[ron_newman]

Columbus is two-way. Seagrave is one-way westbound. To go eastbound, you can ride Whittemore to Kimball to Columbus.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Seagrave has so little traffic that they could easily add a counterflow bike lane.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

While the Arlington path is useful for low-speed riding in dry weather, I'd be more interested in having them fix the terrible condition of the Minuteman path entrance at Thorndike Street. It's narrow and often flooded.

[ron_newman]

For that, you'll need to talk to the DPW or parks department of the Town of Arlington.