A conceptual plan made by Stantec could be used to redesign the Mass/Appleton corridor.

On March 13th, MassBike Executive Director, Galen Mook, and State Senator Will Brownsberger, hosted a webinar discussing the new vulnerable road users laws that will go into effect in Massachusetts on April 1, 2023.

The laws include a variety of measures that will increase roadway safety across the commonwealth. Senator Brownsberger noted that this legislative win has been in the works for the past ten years and was a testament to the collaborative efforts of legislators and advocates. Mook provided an overview of the new laws and fielded a robust Q&A from participants.

You can view the webinar on the MassBike YouTube Channel and check out the Vulnerable Road Users Laws webinar slides. Below you will find an excerpt from our Massachusetts Vulnerable Road Users Laws One-Pager and the most pertinent questions from our Q&A session.

Lexington LCI Seminar - October 2021

MassBike is hosting a League Cycling Instructor (LCI) Seminar in Worcester this April to increase the number of quality bicycling instructors in Massachusetts. We're seeking folks passionate about bicycling to join this intensive training program designed to prepare participants to facilitate bicycling education and get more folks riding. During the course, attendees will learn a variety of instruction techniques and practice on-bike skills to teach riders of all ages.

On February 25th, REI and MassBike for a free, social pace 10-mile bike ride, led by local members of the Boston cycling community. The ride will begin at the start of the Muddy River Pathway on the corner of Park Drive and Riverway road, right across the street from REI Boston, and follow a low-stress route suitable for riders of all levels.

We'll meet at 11am and depart at 11:30am. The ride will last approximately 90 minutes, including a few stops. Helmets are required and participants are encouraged to bring ride snacks, water, and a flat kit. If it is actively raining or snowing, the event will be postponed to Sunday, February 26 at the same time and place. Registration is required, use the link below to sign up!

After the ride, join REI bike techs at The Rink at 401 Park for a free basic bike tune-up and inspection. There will also be free bike lights available thanks to our Lights Brigade program. The Rink at 401 Park will be open for ice skating from 11 a.m. – 10 p.m. 

Register for the Winter Ride with REI & MassBike

The League of American Bicyclists is hosting its 23rd Annual National Bike Summit from Sunday, March 26 to Wednesday, March 29, 2023. This year will again feature in-person and virtual options for participants to engage in building a Bicycle Friendly America for everyone. Each year, advocates from Massachusetts have attended the Summit and learned from better-bicycling supporters from across the nation.

Thanks to your support, Governor Baker signed An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities into law! This critical traffic safety bill has a variety of components that will make our roadways safer for everyone across the commonwealth. Read the final text signed by Governor Baker here.

For the past 10 years, MassBike has been advocating for "An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities." We’ve worked closely with the Vision Zero Coalition on this important legislation to help end fatal crashes on our streets. This bill will support not only the safety of people walking and biking, but also the safety of people in wheelchairs, construction workers on their job sites, tow truck drivers and first responders stopped on the side of the road, and anyone out on our public ways without the protection of steel, seatbelts, and airbags.

We want to thank the champions of this bill and bike-friendly leaders on Beacon Hill and in Governor Baker’s Administration, Representative Mike Moran, Representative William Straus, and Senator William Brownsberger for supporting an Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities. Their leadership has brought us one step closer to eliminating fatal crashes on the roads throughout Massachusetts.

Bicycling education for all ages and abilities is core to MassBike's mission. This year, thanks to an AARP Community Challenge Grant, we were able to bring an intergenerational bicycling program to Worcester. The concept was to create bicycling workshops and community riders to bring older adults and youth together to foster intergenerational connections. From August through December, over 40 participants took part in our intergenerational events. These events included a variety of Worcester partners including Worcester Earn-A-Bike, 508 BikeLife, the Major Taylor Association, Seven Hills Wheelman, and our Worcester E-Bike Program participants.

In 2022, the MasBike staff kept busy supporting better bicycling initiatives across the Commonwealth. By working with coalition partners, we made progress through advocacy, education, legislation, and community building around better bicycling initiatives. We're proud of all we accomplished this year and took some time to reflect on our favorite MassBike moments, read on for some of the staff highlights from the past year.

Galen - Executive Director 

Charlie Proctor Memorial Ride 40-milers

Galen (center) at the State House E-Bike Demo Day

This year we ran the first annual Charlie Proctor Memorial Ride, in honor of Charlie who was killed in a crash in Arlington in 2020. Along with our advocacy to support the Town of Arlington redesigning the intersection where Charlie was killed, we honored Charlie’s memory by hosting a ride for his family, friends, and our fellow advocates around the Mystic Lakes and along the Minuteman pathway. Now, MassBike doesn’t run a lot of rides, and this one was particularly tricky with all the jurisdictions to manage (DCR and the three towns of the bikeway), but we got everyone in alignment and on a bright and warm late spring day we hosted over 80 folks for a ride and after party at the Tufts Sailing Pavilion. Not only was the ride an organizational success, but I was also heartened by the memories shared by Charlie’s friends and family recounting stories of Charlie’s bike rides, hiking treks, and sailing adventures.

This year, MassBike began our 2-year Worcester E-Bike Pilot Program thanks to funding provided by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s (MassCEC) new Accelerating Clean Transportation for All (ACT4All) Program. The program will provide 100 electric-assist bicycles to low-income participants from environmental justice communities who live and/or work in the City of Worcester. With the goal of tracking the participants' use of the e-bikes to identify the impacts on greenhouse gas reduction due to mode shift. MassBike is also interested in identifying barriers to riding and understanding the economic impact of bicycle use as the primary mode of transportation. In addition to providing e-bikes, as part of this initiative, MassBike is hosting educational events that encourage safe and regular riding. 

As of November 2022, we've deployed 89 e-bikes out of the 100 available. Our e-bike riders have taken part in educational bicycle trainings and community rides as part of the program. We're encouraged by the early data that shows that the e-bikes are being used as a reliable transportation method by our participants and are looking forward to the robust data we plan to collect over the next year. 

While we had hoped to distribute all 100 bicycles in 2022, the hands-on nature of our distribution approach took longer than expected. We have decided to wait and distribute the remaining 11 e-bikes in Spring 2023, to provide new participants with more favorable riding conditions for their first trips. Read on to learn about the first few months of this program and where we expected to go from here.