le TOUR de SOUTHIE

Join Planet Southie Bikes for a casual bicycle ride around the neighborhood. Nicole Freedman, Director of Boston Bikes, will be our special guest for the ride. Nicole will share with us the City's plans for bicycle lanes that may be in the works for Southie residents, and we will also have the opportunity to share our thoughts about what its like to ride here and where we'd like to see improvements.

Cyclists of all abilities are encouraged to attend. Please keep in mind that we'll be sharing the road with other vehicles. Helmets & smiles mandatory.

Wednesday, May 29, 2013 at 6:30pm
450 West Broadway - Parking lot

Facebook Event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/544095912299557/

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Tanya Connolly

September 17th, 2012 Tanya Connolly was killed riding her bicycle at the intersection of West Broadway & A-Street in South Boston.  Her brother Karl would like to share his painful story of loss & absence.

Tanya Connolly

Dear Planet Southie Bikes,

Over seven months have passed, and it’s still so hard for me to talk about Tanya in an abstract way. Writing this letter only reinforces the fact that she is no longer with us.

Tanya and I were very close. We were 14 months apart in age. Together, we grew up in Ireland and moved to Boston in the early 1990s. As early adults we lived close to Dublin; a city full of life and energy, and later Tanya lived in London England for a period before moving to Boston. Tanya was a lively and energetic person; one who broke down barriers, treated everyone with respect, and would enter a place a stranger but leave with a whole new circle of friends. When people die, they are often described as a loving, caring, full of life, etc. etc. In the case of my sister this is not some desired fabrication - it is quite simply the truth.

On Monday September 17th 2012, I was in the car leaving work heading to school when I got a frantic call from my wife who moments before had learned about the crash. I pulled over and got in touch with the police officer who was standing by. He put it simply on the phone when I asked - "Is she dead?" - "Yes" he replied. Those are words you never want to hear. That moment rushed in a sense of complete and utter surrealism. How could someone you've always known, someone you've always loved, and someone you always expected to be there suddenly be gone?

A & D Street Bike Lane Design Review

Jon Ramos, one of Planet Southie Bike Action Team's most active members, posted the below story.

Great news Southie Cyclists: we’ll soon be getting some bicycle infrastructure on A-Street & D-Street.  What does that mean exactly?  Well, the City’s current plan is a mixture of bike lanes, buffered bike lanes, sharrows, and perhaps even cycle-tracks making the crucial link between Dot Ave to the Seaport.

Overall the City’s plan is a great start, but there is room for further improvement and several ways to make the bike lanes safer… but we need your help if we want to see these improvements made. 

As the voice of cyclists in South Boston the City will listen to our feedback.  We need a good turnout at the next meeting to review the plans and come to a conclusion for which sections should be changed. 

To help us through this process Pete Stidman, director of The Boston Cyclists Union, will be attending our next meeting.  Pete has extensive knowledge of bike lane planning, and can help guide us through the process of discussing our conclusions with the City.  If you want to see positive change, and make cycling safer in South Boston then now is the time to act.

See you at the next Planet Southie meeting:

Thursday, February 28^th at 6:30pm

The Distillery Building
516 East Second Street, South Boston

(All are welcome and encouraged to attend)

Planet Southie Bikes goes to City Hall

Exciting update from the Planet Southie Bike Action Team!

It's been a just over two weeks since we listened to the extraordinary presentation that transportation engineer Mike Tremblay delivered to Planet Southie.  Mike's proposal for major improvements to our urban landscape along East & West Broadway, immediately caught the attention of Mayor Menino's Boston Bikes director Nicole Freedman who requested a face to face meeting with us to review his key concepts, and to hear about Planet Southie Bikes' overall goals.  

Mike's plan goes well beyond the inclusion of bicycle infrastructure, its a much broader improvement to Broadway for pedestrians, motorists, trees and more; however, since Nicole represents Boston Bikes the topic she is most interested in hearing about is of course bikes.

Next meeting: Thursday, November 15 and thank you!

Please mark you calendars to come together again to work on walk/bike/bus solutions on 
Thursday, November 15 from 6:30 - 7:30 pm 
at the Distillery Building, 516 E 2nd Street.

Last night's meeting was a smash! Over 25 people participated and worked together to create concrete action steps to improve bike, walking and bus/MBTA access and safety!

A longer meeting summary and next steps will be posted in the next few days, we just wanted to be sure to post the next meeting and say a big THANK YOU to all who participated!

Stay tuned!

The Bike team was one of the three Action Teams that met last night.