Quincycles celebrates Quincy’s first bicycle lanes

Quincy – Saturday, December 14, 2013  With temperatures only in the mid-teens under gray overcast skies, and before the season’s first major winter storm could cover the roads with snow and ice, over twenty bicyclists and bicycle supporters gathered at Montilio’s Bakery to celebrate Quincy’s historic first bicycle lanes.  The lanes were installed a week earlier on the freshly repaved Adams Street.   A dozen of the attendees, wearing bright yellow Quincycles t-shirts over several layers of clothing, and cheered on by onlookers, biked together on a celebratory and inaugural loop on the lanes between Furnace Brook Parkway and Milton. 

“It was a fun day,” said Nathan Pipho, President of Quincycles.  “Though it was one of the coldest days of the year, the streets were clear and dry and many of the participants biked to the event.  It’s very exciting to see growing enthusiasm for bicycling in Quincy.”

All three citizen members of the Mayor’s Bicycle Commission – Joe Hern, Kris Locke, and Irene Lutts – attended.  “It’s great to see these lane marking,” said Hern, a bicycle commuter and lawyer who bikes to his Boston office from Quincy twelve months a year.  “It’s the first of what we hope to see throughout the city.”   Lutts, whose husband and two children rode together on a three-person family bicycle and also bike year round as a car-free family, echoed the sentiment.  “It’s nice to finally see some bicycle infrastructure on our streets.”

The lanes came about through the coordination and planning of the Mayor’s Bicycle Commission, the Quincy Department of Public Works, the Quincy Planning Department, and Quincycles – a resident run organization that promotes bicycling in Quincy and advocates for bicycle infrastructure.   

“We wish to publicly recognize and thank Mayor Koch for establishing the Bicycle Commission, Commissioner Dan Raymondi of the DPW for his leadership in making these lanes possible, Kristina Johnson of the Planning Department for her tireless advocacy, and City Councillors Doug Gutro and Kevin Coughlin for their consistent support,” said Rev. Pipho.  “These lanes were the result of teamwork between citizens and city officials working together which I believe is a hopeful sign of progress that we can make in the future.”

While these are Quincy’s first bike lanes, surrounding towns have invested heavily in bike lanes over the past several years.  According to the “State of the Hub” report from Boston Bikes presented in May 2013, Boston was planning to add 15 to 20 miles of bicycles lanes in 2013 to its existing network of 60 miles of lanes.  Bike lanes helped ridership in Boston increase 82% between 2007 and 2011.  The Cambridge Bicycle Committee also reports that the number of bicyclists in Cambridge has nearly tripled in the last decade after the city’s commitment to improving conditions for bicyclists.   “Bicycling is clearly the trend of the future,” said Pipho.  “We hope Quincy can catch up with the investments our neighbors have made in bicycling and begin reaping the health and economic benefits.”