Massbike, root of all of Boston’s problems?

On an October 9, 2009 Dallas Observer newspaper Web posting of a news article about bicycling advocacy turmoil in Dallas [archived], Jason Eric Roberts, a Dallas-area bicycling activist, had posted a comment which attracted my attention.

On Mon, Oct 12, 2009, I e-mailed him, quoting the comment:

Jason, you made the following statement about Boston on a Dallas Observer blog:

Boston had the exact same problem that we did, with this small group of anti-bikelane cyclists that held the city completely hostage. We met with the city officials there and they said it was a nightmare and they were constantly ranked at the bottom for worst cities for cycling (until Dallas took their place). Now, after replacing their anti-lane bike coordinator, they’re beginning to lead the pack in creating bike friendly infrastructure, and in only a few short years. The Boston Globe wrote about the entire dilemma and how they overcame it here. [Go to this archive, accessible through Minuteman libraries, and search on <paths to safe cycling>.]

Having been active with the Boston Area Bicycle Coalition and Massbike on and off for the past 30 years, and having recently stepped down as the League of American Bicyclists Regional Director, I’m trying to figure out the history of all this and report on it fairly, and so it would be helpful if you would could answer these questions:

• Who were the small group of anti-bikelane activists?
• How did they hold the complete city hostage?
• When did they hold it hostage? For how long?
• Was it before replacing the anti-bikelane bicycle coordinator or did it continue past that time? (That’s Paul Schimek, I know who you mean.)
• What specific infrastructure projects did that affect, if you know?
• When did you first become aware of this history? Who told you about it — Boston City officials, (who?) or someone else (who?), or was it from your own personal experience living in Boston or visiting Boston?
• When did the meeting or meetings with Boston city officials occur?
• Who were the other people – “we” — who met with Boston City officials?
• Who paid for the travel to Boston?
• What was the purpose of the travel to Boston?
• Who were the city officials?
• Who else in the bicycling advocacy community knew about this trip? Nobody in the Boston advocacy community appears to have heard of it until we heard about your blog posting.
• How is Boston beginning to lead the pack in creating bicycle-friendly infrastructure? (Having visited a number of other U.S. cities over the past few years, but especially San Francisco, Albuquerque, Seattle, Portland, New York and Madison, I don’t see how Boston is anything but still way behind in what it is doing for bicycling. There are disagreements about what is bicycle-friendly, to be sure, but Boston is only just getting started on anything at all, in my opinion, compared with these other cities.)

I thank you for your attention. Please feel free to answer as few or as many of these questions as you wish to. You may rest assured that I will fairly report your answers, just as you express them to me. Or if you want to go public yourself with your answers, to avoid any question of my representing them inaccurately, you have my full permission to do that. Please in that case let me know where I may find your responses. Thanks again.

Jason had a rather jaundiced view of bicycling advocacy in Boston in my opinion and an even more jaundiced view of cycling in Boston. What was holding up Boston’s bicycle program was the city’s decades-long do-nothing policy, not “a small group of anti-bikelane cyclists”. Bicycle coordinator Paul Schimek was, in fact, anti-bikelane, but he couldn’t even get bike racks installed, Bicycling Magazine’s rating reflected the do-nothing policy, not actual riding conditions, which are better than in many other U.S. cities, and particularly the sprawling cities of the south and west.

I had been involved in bicycling advocacy in the Boston area for over 30 years, known and worked with people with many different interests and points of view. I attended the Mayor’s speech about bicycling in September 2007 and the Boston Bicycle Summit which followed a month later. I have heard firsthand accounts from inside City Hall about the organization of the Summit, but I never heard the name Jason Eric Roberts until I read his post.

What was I missing?