Over the coming months, Lowell will further promote healthy transportation options by adding bike lanes and sharrows to 17 downtown and neighborhood streets. Sharrows refers to shared lanes refer to travel lanes shared by both bikes and cars and denoted by the painted symbol below. These improvements closely align with sustainable transportation policies at the statewide level which recently helped earn Massachusetts the rank of 3rd most “Bicycle Friendly State” in the nation.
This bike network was outlined in the Downtown Evolution Plan prepared by Jeff Speck for the Lowell Plan and the City of Lowell. Strong support for it has also been echoed strongly by community members through recent planning processes. “One of the major issues discussed during the sustainability and master planning process last Summer was the value of building amenities for bicyclists,” noted City Manager Bernie Lynch, “More than 2/3 of residents surveyed identified bicycle infrastructure as a key opportunity for improving the City’s transportation network. We believe that promoting bicycle mobility will not only lower our carbon footprint and reduce traffic congestion, but also supports the City’s economic development strategy grounded in continuing to enhance the quality of life for residents, employees, and visitors in the City.”
The bike network will cost approximately $70,000 and is being funded entirely through federal grants that the Department of Planning and Development was able to obtain. Work is expected to begin in July and be completed this summer.
Lowell’s newly established bike network also connects to larger regional cycling routes, including the BruceFreemanTrail and Bay Circuit Trail. As recommended in the Downtown Evolution Plan, it is also being planned in coordination with the design of the expanded trolley routes, so as to encourage use of an array of alternative transportation options throughout the city.
Lowell’s bike network is also complemented by UMass Lowell campus planning efforts. The University will expand their bike share program in the fall, shortly after the City’s bike lanes and sharrows are put in place. University officials hope that the combination of free bicycles and bicycle-friendly streets in the neighborhoods surrounding the campuses will reduce traffic associated with unnecessary students and faculty trips and will promote University economic activity in the Downtown by strengthening the connections between the campuses and Downtown.
The Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) also hopes to see residents utilizing the city’s new bike lanes during their 1st Annual RiverRide Bike-a-thon and Family Fun Ride, which will take place along with Lowell Riverfest (Sept 22nd) during the 2nd Annual Lowell Sustainability Week (Sept 22 – 29th). “By signing up for the Bike-a-thon, community members can raise funds for their non-profit or favorite local cause while enjoying some quality time with friends, family or colleagues,” says LZ Nunn, GLCF Development Director. More information on the Bike-a-thon route and registration are available at www.glcfoundation.org.
This is awesome news! As an occasional long-distance cycler, I love taking advantage of the beautiful rural areas surrounding Lowell in every direction. The most difficult parts of my rides tend to be getting from Middle St. where I live to these rural areas. This is going to make that a lot easier. Thanks, Bernie, for providing this great opportunity and for making Lowell even more hip. I love this city!
I am very happy to see this plan unfold. Next, I would like to the City of Lowell to stop issuing tickets to individuals that lock up their gas powered scooters downtown. We need to be promoting this kind of transportation, like they due in some of the hubs around Boston, not discouraging it by ticketing them.
This is wonderful!! I am constantly bicycling throughout this city and beyond. My bicycle is my chosen mode of transport, commute, and recreation. You are likely to see me anywhere in Lowell at anytime, especially now that I’m one week into retirement! Looking forward to seeing the lanes and sharrows appear beneath my wheels.
[...] on the way to becoming a more bike-friendly city! At the beginning of the summer, the city manager posted on his blog that bike lanes and sharrows would be coming to 17 local streets. About two weeks ago, a friend [...]
it doesn’t seem safe to encourage people to ride bicicles in the middle of some of these busy streets… just having a painted bike in the road and saying its safe doesn’t make it so.
sorry, but i live on westford st. and there’s no way i would encourage my kids or my friends to treat these main streets like bike paths. its DANGEROUS!!! are you people completely irresponsible? the idea is great, but the reality is NOT!
Gil, the idea is to indicate to drivers that bicycles will also be on this road, and they should be mindful. If you go on, say Chelmsford Street by the Lincoln School, where it is wide enough to allow this there is a marked lane for bicyclists. On other streets that don’t have the sufficient width to “save” room for bicycles, the sharrow is to just suggest watchfulness on the part of drivers. What may help is some way to educate all users of the road on the meaning of the sharrow (beyond the CIty Manager’s blog — perhaps in the newspaper, at schools, or signs posted here and there) and the regulations about where in the road it must be placed.
[...] and safer, Lowell will further promote healthy transportation options by adding bike lanes and sharrows to 17 downtown and neighborhood streets. Sharrows refers to shared lanes refer to travel lanes [...]
I’m with Gil on this one.
good morning……!
Excellent idea. Thank you Mayor’s office.
I think Gil is right. I see these white painted bicycles everywhere and there is no way this can be construed as a bike lane. I think it’s a great idea to be bike friendly, but not the way this was done. It’s ridiculous.
I also agree with Gil after living in this city and driving those same streets for many, many years!
As a Lowell Resident who has participated in bicycle education provided by Massbike, it is unfortunate that most drivers are uneducated as to the rules of the road when it comes to bicycles. As a two wheeled vehicle, a bicycle has the same legal right to the road as a car. It is unfortunate that drivers can sometimes be impatient and see bicycles as ridiculous nuisance instead of a valid means of transportation. I fully support the city’s efforts to make Lowell bike friendly. Residents need to understand that anything we can do to make the city more genteel is only going to improve it’s reputation, and resident’s property values. The time for much needed education is now, while the lanes and sharrows are new, and people are talking about them. I hope the city and it’s residents can capitalize on the opportunity to create more buzz about the bike lanes. I can’t wait until the next time I’m at a dinner party with my friends from the suburbs to brag about what my city is doing for it’s residents, and visitors.
I’d like to inquire if bike riders pay insurance? Although it has been a practice of riding bikes all along my feeling is more folks in this city will be injured which makes the insurance for auto drivers go up? I bikers should pay insurance.
I agree with Gil… I ride my bike everyday and to this day i still have near death experiences on these so called safe paths from irresponsible and negligent drivers… today some girl yelled at me to get on the sidewalk so I caught up to her and pointed out that the lil white guy painted on the floor means were sharing.
I’ve been very interested in riding my bike to work in the spring through fall when the snow is gone. I would be going along Gortham St to Andover St (3A to 110 to 133) to reach my workplace in Tewksbury. However, like Gil pointed out above, these ‘Sharrows’ offer no safety at all over riding on any other regular old street.
Frankly, drivers out here don’t care about a painted symbol on the ground and hell will freeze over before they slow down to 10-15 mph because a bike is on the road. No amount of education, unfortunately, will change people’s behavior in this. They already know, more or less, they just don’t care about anyone but themselves and how much of a burden it is for them to slow down for some “stupid bike”.
So because of that, you will always have cars squeezing past you going 30+ mph.
Roads need an actual lane for bikes to be effective, otherwise you accomplish nothing. Remove parking on one side of the street to squeeze in a bike lane. It will make those home owners angry, but that’s your only option if you want bike lanes. Otherwise you’ll have to pay to have police officers on the routes every single day issuing a mountain of tickets. You couldn’t do that for a week or two then stop, because the second you do stop enforcing it everyone will go right back to the way it was.