Dear Bike Milton friends,
The weather has been a bit damp, but there have been some nice days out - we hope that you’re getting out and biking this spring.
 In case you hadn’t heard already, DCR opened the new Milton-Mattapan segment of the Neponset River Greenway trail on May 19 (see photo above, and more at MassPaths). The trail is wonderfully scenic, with great views of the river and the trolleys, and occasionally even some views of turkeys and deer. The new trail finally links the east and west ends of the Greenway, so now you can bike off-road all the way from Hyde Park, through Milton, Mattapan, Milton (again) and out to the Dorchester coast. To celebrate the new trail, we will co-host a casual-paced ride along the Neponset Greenway on Saturday, May 27. We will depart from the parking lot at the intersection of Brush Hill Road and Neponset Valley Parkway at 10 a.m., follow the trail to Castle Island for lunch, and return to the start, pointing out some of the history of the trail along the way. The full ride will be about 26 miles, but it will be at a slow, easy pace, and take about 4 hours, including lunch.
If you’re looking for other local rides, there are lots of great options:
- Weekly shop rides hosted by Ashmont Cycles (road, Wednesdays), JRA Cycles (mountain bike, Tuesdays), and Landry’s Bicycles in Braintree (road, Saturdays and womens' rides on Sundays)
- Many club rides hosted by the Blue Hills Cycling Club and the New England Mountain Bike Association In June, bike to the Milton Farmers Market, where we’ll sponsor $2 coupons to encourage people to bike the market instead of driving. And our friends at The Bike Infirmary will be at the Farmers Market, so stop by and see them if your bike needs some work.
In other bike news, the town has extended its bike safety education program to the Pierce Middle School, and DPW hopes to put bike lanes on Edge Hill Road later this year. There will soon be meetings about the East Milton deck, with an eye toward better traffic flow as well as pedestrian and bike safety improvements. The Town is also considering adopting a Complete Streets policy, which would qualify the town for state funds for better sidewalks, crosswalks and bike lanes.
If the Proposition 2 1/2 override passes on the June 20th election, then the town would have more enforcement of speeding, and more funds for road repairs and planning for smarter development, more commercial growth and hopefully also the development of a bicycle and pedestrian network master plan. You can find more information about the override online. Please read up and vote! Boston Globe pro and con - Milton4All (pro) On the state side, our discussions with DCR will result in radar speed limit signs to slow speeding drivers, and hopefully new crosswalks along the state part of Brush Hill Road. Safety improvements at the intersection of Brush Hill Road and Amor Road would require additional state funding. We also participated in meetings with MassDOT, and hope to develop plans for a bikeway beside Granite Avenue, connecting East Milton to the Neponset Greenway - but this would also require state funding. If you’d like to see these improvements move forward, please let your state legislators know.
If you have any questions or comments about biking in and around Milton, please let us know! For more information and other news, follow Bike Milton on Facebook, Twitter, or the web.
Lee Toma
On behalf of the Milton Bicycle Advisory Committee |
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