BOSTON CAN BE BIKE CITY...IF YOU FIX THESE FIVE BIG PROBLEMS.

By Nina MacLaughlin

Much has been made of Boston’s reputation for being an exceptionally unwelcoming city for cyclists. In their March issue, Bicycling magazine again ranked it as one of the worst cities in the country to ride. (Cambridge, however, got an honorable mention nod for being among the best. They called it “Boston’s great hope.”) It’s not for no reason that Boston gets maligned for being anti-bike.

Below, the top five reasons Boston sucks for cycling, and reasons why there’s hope yet (besides Cambridge.)

1. Lack of bike lanes and paths

Look to any bike-friendly city, say Portland, Oregon, always touted as pedaling heaven, or Minneapolis, and you’ll find miles and miles of bike lanes and paths, sections of road designated, with lines and signs, as bike-only. “Bike lanes are the meat and potatoes of a bike-friendly city,” says Jeffrey Rosenblum, executive director of Livable Streets, an alliance working towards making Boston more habitable through urban transportation. Beyond making the streets safer for cyclists, bike lanes “send a message to would-be cyclists that there’s a place for them on the road.”

Mike Flanigan, who helped found custom frame builders Independent Fabrication and now runs Alternative Needs Transportation (A.N.T.), a one-person frame-building operation making bikes for city riding and com-muting, echoes Rosenblum. Having lanes “sets the mood in motion that cyclists do have a right to the road. And cars, over time, will recognize that.” Flanigan goes on to speak of the fear that established cyclists have that lanes will make drivers think that that’s the only place for bi-cycles. “It’s a fear cyclists need to get over. We need the lanes to make a statement that bikes belong on the road.”

And as of now, Boston’s not making that statement.

But there’s hope. In tandem with MassHighway, MassBike has been working on developing a bicycle-friendly roadway design manual. “It’s looked at as one of the most progressive design manuals in the country,” says Rosenblum. When building new roads, bike lanes will be part of the design process.

2. Crappy Roads

Anyone who’s been on two wheels around here knows the conditions of the streets suck. Cracks in the pavement, man-eating potholes, uneven streets, faded traffic lines. “Potholes are a big problem,” says Irving Kurki, a 61 year-old member of the Charles River Wheelmen who’s logged 64,236 miles on his bicycle since 1994. “The quality of the roads can be a jarring experience,” the Brookline resident says. “It’s tough on the bike.” And dangerous for the rider.

David Watson, the new executive director of MassBike, has a more optimistic take. “You’re right about potholes and general road conditions,” he concedes. “But as someone who cycles not only in Boston but in eastern Massachusetts and sometimes the rest of the state, when things get bad, eventually they do get repaired.” But response needs to be faster. “If there are hazards, egregious potholes, those need to be addressed as quickly as possible.”

3. Unforgiving, clueless, asshole drivers

Drivers in Boston are notoriously obnoxious and oblivious. But some bicycle advocates argue that it’s not an issue of peoples’ badittudes behind the wheel, but an issue of awareness, of knowing the rules of the road when it comes to dealing with cyclists. “It’s absolutely a problem of people not knowing the rules,” says Livable Streets’ Rosenblum. And again, it’s a question of drivers growing more accustomed and comfortable with bikes. The more riders there are, “the better cars learn how to negotiate around you,” Rosenblum says. “There’s a noticeable difference between Cambridge and Boston” in the way drivers respond to cyclists.

Kurki, who hasn’t owned a car since 1990, argues that the drivers here are “generally very considerate. People give a lot of room. It’s a tiny minority who are dangerous.” That said, he does cite “car culture” — people being tied to their automobiles — as the reason for the emergence of road rage. “Anger doesn’t build up on a bike. You’re getting exercise. You’re not being drawn by two-hundred to four-hundred horse power.”

4. Confusing city layout

The tangled, mangled web of Boston’s streets is a challenge to navigate for even lifelong residents. The layout makes no intuitive sense. Roads run this way, that way, one way, no way. “It’s an old city,” says

MassBike’s Watson, “and you can’t really blame anybody for that. It’s amazing how much of the street layout is exactly the same” as it was 350 years ago.

A.N.T.’s Flanigan sees the narrow, twisting roads as a plus for cyclists. “When the roads are narrow, the traffic is slow. It’s easier for a cyclist to ride through traffic. When roads are small, cars can’t get up to speed.”

“It’s a very compact city,” says Hub on Wheels executive director Steve Miller. “You can get almost anywhere quickly assuming you don’t get lost.”

5. Lack of support from the City

Many bike advocates feel that Boston has a long way to go as far as cycling infrastructure is concerned and decry the seeming hostility in City Hall for the concerns of anything but automobiles. A Boston bike coordinator was established, and then done away with, and as of now, there’s no bike committee. “What we need is a commitment from the city,” says Rosenblum. He points to the Hub on Wheels festival, a day long ride (this year taking place on October 1), which Mayor Menino actively supported, as indication that some strides are being taken. “It’s an expression of the Mayor’s openness,” says Miller.

MassBike’s Watson looks to a training curriculum that they implemented for police officers as an indication that things are moving in the right direction. The program will “make police officers more aware of cyclists rights and responsibilities and how motorists should be interacting,” he says.

Watson’s take on Boston bikability is optimistic. “On the face of it, things look a lot worse than they are. When you dig into the history of the city, and look at everything we and the city have been doing, the things that are in process right now, things start to look a lot more positive.”