North End cycle paths not finished but already suffering problems that city won't immediately fix

I agree that it's unfair to judge its usage at this point, and I'll agree that it's marginally safer than most bike lanes in Boston, but I disagree that it's a fantastic connector

I've begun using this cycle track to get between my office on State St and the Charlestown bridge. I was very excited to start using it instead of braving Congress/Sudbury/N Washington, even though it's a full half mile longer, but so far I'm pretty disappointed.

It's obnoxiously difficult to get to it from the financial district (at least if you're someone like me who doesn't want to get another ticket and thus actually follows traffic laws).

It begins and ends randomly with absolutely zero accommodation for bikes getting back into traffic (northbound dumping you onto the sidewalk at Charter St, in the middle of a sharp curve is a horrible decision - it's difficult to look over your shoulder to see if there's any traffic coming while also trying to dodge the various street furniture and line yourself up with the wheelchair ramp; I've never even seen another cyclist going southbound, since the cycle track is on the wrong side of the street).

Too many pedestrians walk on it instead of the sidewalk, and are either oblivious or unwilling to kindly move. This is not helped by the fact that in several places they narrowed the sidewalk so much that pedestrians have to use the cycle track to pass one another.

None of the signals on it are turned on yet, and the sightlines make it difficult to see the vehicular signal, so you have to approach each intersection more cautiously.

There isn't enough room between it and the travel lanes to fit a car waiting to turn, and if drivers wait behind it, they can't see oncoming traffic. So many just block the cycle track.

It doesn't actually connect to anything useful. Even once the N Washington St Bridge is replaced and includes cycle tracks, the official plan still calls for the Commercial St cycle track to end where it presently does at Charter St, with only sharrows (!) for the ~600 ft between there and the N Washington St cycle tracks.

This cycle track remains a solution in search of a problem. This money would have been better spent adding a cycle track down the greenway (where there should already be one! Come on, that was the perfect opportunity to add one years ago!), or down Congress/Washington. Both of them would have been more useful, easier to access, connected more people and places, and provided useful bike infrastructure where there presently is none.

As a novice bike rider in the city, I appreciate the track. It keeps me away from the cars that might accidentally hurt me and on a path that is fairly consistent in terms of flatness.

I did have to swerve around some people just standing in one of the lanes and then another group of people who were walking in a lane against the flow of bike traffic. There is a huge sidewalk next to it for them.

Will be great when it is done, I think

Have you ever driven Commercial St? Volumes are pretty low since it's not a through road. The only place it ever backs up is sometimes approaching N Washington St, but that direction was kept 2 lanes so the queue never really extends that far.

4 lanes was overkill for that road from the beginning. 3 is still plenty.