Recent initiatives by both the City of Somerville and the Tufts community have worked to make the city more bike−friendly by increasing bike infrastructure and bike−share programs.
Somerville this year has added 11 miles of bike lanes to its streets in addition to the 10 miles created last year, according to Deputy Director of Communications for the City of Somerville Jackie Rossetti.
The city also hopes to extend the length of the Community Path, a pathway that runs through Somerville and Cambridge, into Boston, Michael Meehan, Somerville's director of communications said.
In addition to marking and constructing new bike lanes, Somerville has recently installed two new bicycle parking corrals in front of Diesel and Bloc 11 Cafes in Davis and Union Squares, respectively, Meehan said. The corrals can accommodate up to 12 bikes, he added.
Installing parking corrals in busy areas benefits bikers as well as pedestrians by reducing the number of bikes parked on the sidewalk.
"Sidewalk space is at a premium and to move a dozen bicycles into a dedicated bike parking spot certainly helps free up space for pedestrians," Meehan told the Daily.
The city hopes to add more bicycle parking if local businesses request it, Rossetti noted.
"Recently we submitted a call to businesses asking them to send applications to City Hall if they were interested in having a bike rack placed outside of their business," Rossetti told the Daily.
Somerville has also recently focused on upgrading street infrastructure and crosswalks for both cyclists and pedestrians, she noted.
The city conducts bike and pedestrian counts to ensure that a sufficient infrastructure exists to serve bicycle facilities throughout the city, Rossetti added.
Somerville also plans to participate in the New Balance Hubway, a bike−sharing program which was launched in Boston this past July, starting this spring, according to Meehan.
"Tufts students will be able to jump on a Hubway bike and swing into Boston," Meehan said. "You don't have to bring it back to the one where you rented it, you can bring it back to any kiosk in the system."
Until the spring, Tufts students without bikes can take advantage of Tufts Bikes, which provides free access to bicycles for members of the Tufts community.
"The program is very popular by observation," said sophomore Neil Aronson, president of Tufts Bikes. "On nice days you can see that almost all the bikes are gone."
Tufts Bikes is currently in the process of getting statistics on how many students use the program, according to Aronson.
Tufts Bikes this semester has encouraged biking culture through events such as a ride into Boston last Saturday, as well as participation in this Friday's Boston Critical Mass bike ride.
