Pleasant Street Bike Lanes

A few supporters have written lately to ask if the completion of the resurfacing on Pleasant Street means bike lanes are on the horizon. Unfortunately, the Pleasant Street project followed a previous set of MassHighway design guidelines and wasn't required to include bike lanes. This is an example where some major road redesigns take more time to complete than it takes for standards to evolve.

As designed, there are several sections of Pleasant Street that have two 11 feet wide travel lanes, one 11 foot wide turning lane, and two 4 feet wide shoulders. This is arguably wide enough for many experienced cyclists to use safely, but not wide enough for official markings. For official bike lane markings, 5 feet is required in both directions.

The good news, though, is that Pleasant Street runs parallel to the Charles River Multi-use Path with numerous access points on both sides of the river. Except at night, that's arguably a more enjoyable ride anyway.