Pro/con: Boylston Street bike lanes

What is this, Chicago?

Gone is the broad-shouldered appeal of a proud urban thoroughfare, replaced by something decidedly hunched.

Saying that McGrory argues is surmising that he has an argument beyond "I'm an old white guy and you hurted my feelings waaah." Someone at the Globe really needs to take away the keys, although since Jacoby is still around, there's precedent. (At least McGrory's kid hasn't run away yet.)

McGrory is really full of it. The most regal commercial street in the city? That would be one block over on Newbury (which really should be pedestrianized).

Boylston Street is a place to spread out, to think big, to feel what brings us together and know what sets Boston apart. It is — or was — a place of wide lanes and broad sidewalks that flow from the grittiness of Mass. Ave. to the cosmic beauty of the Boston Public Garden.

Okay, Brian. First, they didn't change the sidewalks, so really, this is about the lanes. Second, the lanes aren't any wider than they were (11) although they probably could be narrower. And what, can people riding bikes not think? Is thinking only allowed for those walking or driving (but really only driving; walking hasn't changed). Are we only allowed to dream big dreams on Boylston Street.

And right now, we are a city filled with Uber drivers and riders, with Amazon Prime vans, with DoorDash workers, and with regular old delivery trucks. On a place like Boylston, specifically on Boylston, they cause outsized havoc wherever they park — and they are not going away.

Downtown is a traffic jam, and McGrory has tried nothing and is all out of ideas.

What used to be this city’s grand boulevard can feel like a narrow path.

You know, Brian, if you ride a bike, it's the opposite.

Meg Mainzer-Cohen has run the Back Bay Association from her Boylston Street office for the past 24 years, and run it very well, but it’s only been this summer that the chaos — in the form of constantly beeping horns — has caused her to shut windows, mute calls, and even work more from home. “It’s completely dysfunctional,” she said.

Because of the, uh, bicycles, all honking their horns and causing traffic jams?

According to Mainzer-Cohen, the city no longer leaves enough time for pedestrians to cross Boylston at a pair of key intersections, at Dartmouth and Berkeley streets. The result: “Jaywalking abounds,” she said.

Jaywalking? In Boston? Good heavens! (But if there are short signal cycles, lengthen them. Which has nothing to do with bike lanes.)

We are all dumber for having read McGrory's screed.

I'm liking the way the new hunched Brian sprinkles these qualifiers in his latest bike-hate column:

Let’s stop here and understand what this isn’t. It’s not a screed against bicycles, because more and more, good, everyday people are cycling in Boston, which is a truly great development.

And this is not a shot at our mayor or her aides. They are trying to make Boston a more forward-looking city with better and cleaner transportation for all.

He is clearly making some kind of incremental progress from his old bike-hate columns:

Make Boston bicycle-free
9 years ago
By Brian McGrory
Boston.com Verified
As Mayor Tom Menino prepares to roll out an ambitious bicycle-sharing program on the streets of our great city this month, offering hundreds of bikes for short-term rental all across town, I might urge him to go in a slightly different direction. Ban them as in, here’s the city line, Lance, there’s a bike rack. Lock it up, and flag yourself a nice air-conditioned cab. Maybe you won’t be sweating so much when you walk into work.

Keep plugging away Brian! We are rooting for you to eventually catch up to the 21st century!

As long as they enforce the actual traffic laws on this street with the same force and zeal as they did with made up city ordinances on public alleys off it.

It’s the latter. A quid, pro quo with progressives and effort to de-Bostonize Boston. (Sure that may be responsive government, but is it responsible governing?) There is something afoot and the Boston Street Tsar was at the scene. I think McGrory is spot on as the Brits and hipsters say. (As is Flynn) I use bike lanes. There’s a lot of great biking in the Boston area. They save lives, but Boylston is a bit much, as is the Hammond Pond Parkway project. Four lanes to two lanes with un mountable curbs. How can emergency vehicles get through? No place to pull over in a breakdown and what about as a diversion or evacuation route? (When do they start work on the bridge?) Will people bike the HPP, or just couriers on gas and electric mopeds use it as a delivery route? On the happier side, I am over the moon for Gov. Walz!!! What a speech-giver. I’m a curmudgeon on the process, but I like the ticket! Plus, people had beed using the HPP recreationally as there were always multiple cars pulled on the grassy shoulders on both sides to hike and walk their dogs. Now, there’s only a limited cut out for a few cars far away from where most people pull over to recreate/ utilize the beautiful parkway. Plus, I just heard a promo on WGBH on yesterday’s morning commute where the Mayor was asked about curbing reckless scooters and she said the buck stopped with the companies to make our streets safer. What the what? I mean, yeah the companies suck big time and owe a safe working environment to their workforce and not to menace the people at large, but that’s not the sound bite you want circulating through the aether.

Was Boylston Street ever boulevard, grand or not? OED definition: A broad Street, promenade, or walk, planted with rows of trees.

I always thought that Comm Ave along Back Bay is Boston's grand boulevard? Menino didn't get the language correct and McGrory compounds the error. Referencing the Champs-Élysées should put the attention directly to Comm Ave and not just because bike lanes are not blocked off. Comm Avenue is a boulevard. But purply prose - which seems to be part of the reason for the opinion, should at least use accurate words.

McGrory sounds like a fellow who thinks he is smart but really isn't. One of the subtler aspects of reducing car lanes on major roads is that it can have the opposite effect of induced traffic. Create conditions that persuade folks to not drive down the street. Result: Less cars!

Now would that mean that Boylston Street businesses get less traffic? For those depending in vehicular traffic bringing in customers perhaps. On the other hand if through traffic diminishes then that might free up the street.

And if the bike lanes ultimately do not work well on Boyslton then that can be changed. But for the love of all that is asphalt, concrete and playing Frogger across several lanes, at least someone is trying something.