BFOC is excited about this recent New York Times article highlighting Boston’s mega-strides forward to shed its longtime reputation as a bad city for cycling.  The city is creating bike lanes, installing bike racks, restoring bike paths, and there are also plans to link existing bike paths and to create a bike share program.

According to the new article:

“The grand plan is to change the culture, which is an incredible task,” said Nicole Freedman, a former Olympic cyclist who was hired as the city’s “bike czar” in 2007.

The city is not only making Boston more accessible by bike, but is passing legislature to protect cyclists from bad behavior from motorists:

City and state officials are also backing up their efforts to turn Boston into a bike-friendly city with a crackdown on bad behavior against cyclists. The legislature recently passed a law holding drivers liable if they open a car door in the path of an approaching cyclist and injure a cyclist. And the City Council is considering a fine for motorists who park in bike lanes. There are few legal penalties — at least so far — for cyclists who ride recklessly and do not obey traffic signals. But Ms. Freedman said city officials hoped more bike lanes would lead to more riders’ and drivers’ following the rules.

“Bike lanes will give cyclists a legitimate place to be, and behavior will improve,” she said.

Unfortunately, we all know that it is Dallas that replaced Boston at the top of the list for worst cycling cities.  Not too long ago we had the pleasure of interviewing Nicole Freedman.  You can read that interview here.  She had some advice for us to turn around Dallas’ reputation, including addressing challengers with hard facts and research, and tackling “the low-hanging fruit first as much can be done simply.”  We are thrilled with her progress in Boston and we hope it sets an example of what could be achieved in Dallas as well.