A new dedicated, separated bike lane has been unveiled on the connector road between Sweetser Circle and Santilli Highway – a bike connection that helps to offer a seamless bike connection to Wellington Station.
The bike lane has taken up a portion of the road, which is more than 40-feet wide, for a two-lane bike path separated by caution signs and weights.
Transportation Director Jay Monty said it was a great accomplishment for the City’s efforts to prioritize transportation other than vehicles.
“It connects everyone to Wellington,” he said. “When you connect all the dots, you’ve created a very high quality bike path from downtown Everett to Wellington, especially in the morning when you have the dedicated bus and bike lane on Broadway…Everett residents, meaning about two-thirds of the City, are now within a five minute ride of the station. I hope it catches on and takes hold.”
One more important victory is the fact that bicyclists have wrestled away some of the street from automobiles – and without having compromised traffic flow or volumes.
“It’s planting a big flag in the air,” he said. “It signals we have taken space from cars and didn’t reduce vehicle capacity either. It was a great combination of interests coming together.”
Monty said he has already ridden the new bike lane several times, and he has reached the station in five minutes from the City Hall area.
“You could also do that before, but you had to weave through several streets and into some dangerous intersections,” he said. “This is flying a flag that we are prioritizing this stuff and it’s much better than to make people weave through the city.”
•BLUE BIKES TO LAUNCH IN JUNE
Monty also announced that the new docking Blue Bike system in Everett – which already operates in Boston, Brookline, Cambridge and Somerville – will arrive in mid-June, just ahead of the Encore casino opening.
That will give Everett the distinction of being the only city with Lime Bikes (dockless) and Blue Bikes (docking).
“We will be the only City with dockless and dock operated in the same space,” he said. “We’ll see how it goes. I’ve always said they would be complimentary and not competitive. We’ll see.”
The first phase of Blue Bikes will see 11 stations, and perhaps 12. The 12th station could be at Wellington Station, but that is in Medford and the City is still working out how that would play out – since Everett would own the docking system.
The other 11 stations are slated for:
*Encore Boston Harbor, on property.
*Encore Boston Harbor, on Broadway.
*Lower Broadway, McDonalds.
*Main Street/Carter Street.
*Main Street/Prescott Street.
*Broadway/Everett Square.
*Broadway/Maple, old EHS.
*Broadway/Ferry.
*Ferry/Chelsea.
*Ferry/Nichols.
*Norman Street/Breweries.