by Angie Schmitt, Streets Blog<\/p>\n
Bostonians making polite requests for a clear path on one of the city\u2019s key bike routes were met with disdain from the state agency responsible for maintaining the paths.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how one unnamed official from the Massachusetts\u2019 Department of Conservation and Recreation responded in an internal email thread to a message from a Boston resident asking for better snow removal on the Southwest Corridor, an important off-street bike path. The leaked email was published on the Boston site Universal Hub<\/a> (emphasis ours):<\/p>\n Frankly, I am tired of our dedicated team wasting valuable time addressing the less than .05% of all cyclists who choose to bike after a snow\/ice event\u2026 We should not spend time debating cyclists with poor judgement [sic] and unrealistic expectations<\/strong>, and stick with [the staffer]\u2018s recommendation that they find other transportation. If someone is completely depending on a bike for year-round transportation, they are living in the wrong city.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Bikes advocates in the Boston region didn\u2019t take those remarks lying down. The Boston Cyclists Union, working with Allston-Brighton Bikes and Southie Bikes, asked local cyclists to share photos of themselves on social media with the slogan \u201cI am the .05%\u201d to demonstrate their numbers and their normalcy. Local cyclists also took to tweeting under the hastag #winterbiker<\/a> to explain why biking in cold weather months is their best option.<\/p>\n Those efforts appear to have found their target. The Boston Cyclists Union<\/a> and MassBike<\/a> are reporting today that DCR has agreed to meet with local cyclists to discuss their concerns regarding snow and ice clearance on bike paths.<\/p>\n And, for the record, cold weather cities that put real effort into making it safe to bike see little drop-off in cycling during the winter. Copenhagen, for instance, retains 80 percent of its peak-season bike traffic<\/a> in the cold months<\/p>\n<\/p>\n\n