As Cities Struggle to Implement Greener, Safer Bike Lanes, Cambridge's Unique Policy may Offer a Solution

Two-way protected bike lane in Cambridge, MA © Salud America

The transportation sector is the biggest contributor of greenhouse gases in the United States – responsible for 29% of all carbon emissions in 2022, with individual cars producing an estimated 1.5 million metric tons of carbon.

In addition, car crashes killed 42,514 Americans and critically injured 2,382,771 others in the same year.

To help mitigate both of these issues, more than 200 cities across the country have started to shift away from car infrastructure towards transportation systems that are safer and lower emissions. 

In particular, many cities want to make their streets safer for people biking, in part to encourage more people to choose this pollution-free form of travel.

While the desire to improve bicycle infrastructure is strong, many cities are struggling to navigate stakeholder opposition against further bike lane implementation. 

In Boulder, CO the most recent debate was centered around Boulder’s Iris Avenue, where from 2016 to 2023, there were 345 injuries due to collisions – 22 of which involved critical injuries to cyclists. 

Aware that changes were needed, the Boulder City Council introduced the Iris Avenue Transportation Improvements Project on July 28, 2023. The improvements would be part of the city’s larger Core Arterial Network (CAN) Initiative, and would see Iris Avenue cut down one car lane in place of a two-way protected bike lane. 

After numerous meetings, heated disagreement arose between proponents of safer, climate-friendly bike lanes and Boulder residents who feared car traffic spilling over into their neighborhood streets. 

“It’s ridiculous to think that 20,000 vehicles traveling every day on that street are going to disappear when they reduce it to smaller lanes,” said Mozelle Sutton, a Boulder resident who lives one street over from Iris Avenue in an interview with Denver7.

Boulder City Councilor Ryan Schuchard, a member of Run on Climate’s Local Climate Policy Network (LCPN) was a leading advocate in favor of the change. He believes that improvements on Iris Avenue would bring Boulder that much closer to accomplishing its CAN and climate goals.

“If you say you really care about climate action,” Schuchard said in an interview with Boulder Beat, “then you should care about having an ecosystem of transportation that allows people to move freely in a way that is the most resource-efficient.”

The Boulder City Council ultimately approved the Iris Avenue Transportation Improvements Project on September 19, 2024 – 14 months after the initial proposal. The project will take an estimated 18 months to complete, meaning the project will be completed three years after it was proposed if construction stays on schedule.  

The city has yet to approve of safety projects for other critical corridors like Baseline Road and Folsom Street. Baseline Road has also taken a year to see construction started, and Folsom Street’s project won’t even receive funding until the first quarter of 2025. These long timelines for individual streets are vastly incongruent with Boulder’s climate goals of net zero emissions by 2035.  

Similar challenges are occurring in Evanston, IL

Evanston city councilors are pushing to enact Envision Evanston 2045, a plan meant to guide the city towards its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050. The plan supports the construction of a bike path network on Chicago Avenue, Evanston main North-South corridor, and major activity hubs like Northwestern University, that would run the entire length of the city and connect to neighboring Chicago.

The proposal was introduced in December of 2020, but a decision of approval still hasn’t been made four years later. This is partly due to opposition by those concerned about the loss of on-street parking.

“We’ve already picked the low hanging fruit,” explained Evanston city councilor and Run on Climate LCPN member Jonathan Nieuwsma, referring to streets where added bike lanes didn’t remove highly used parking spaces. “It’s going to be increasingly difficult and more expensive to reduce our carbon footprint, and the climate argument doesn’t carry the day for adding more bike infrastructure.”

While turmoil between constituents continues to delay progress in cities nationwide, one city stands out as the gold standard for swiftly establishing a successful bike lane network: Cambridge, MA. 

A first of its kind legislation, Cambridge’s Cycling Safety Ordinance, passed in 2019, mandates that the city must install 25 miles of protected bike lanes by the year 2027.

So far, Cambridge has seen outstanding progress, ranking 2 out of 604 mid-size US cities in bikeability, according to a report from PeopleForBikes. Boulder and Evanston ranked 4 and 41 respectively. 

Quinton Zondervan, a former Cambridge city councilor and now policy director at Run on Climate, explained how like-minded advocates united under a common banner to push the issue in Cambridge city council.  

“We started a whole new organization called Cambridge Biking Safety,” explained Zondervan, “not to just get this law, but to make sure it’s actually followed, because if the city didn’t do it, then we were going to sue them.”

Indeed, the Cycling Safety Ordinance makes the issue of bike lane implementation not a question of “if” but a question of “how.” Cementing specific bike lane requirements into law allows Cambridge to approve new plans for bike lanes much quicker and more efficiently, without being delayed by pushback from residents or business owners. And if the city doesn’t move forward, they expose themself to litigation.

”As long as [the issue] is at the discretion of the mayor and the city manager, then they are subject to undue influence of opponents. If you make it the law, then they have to do it,” explained Zondervan. 

With the help of organizations like Run on Climate, Zondervan believes that the Cycling Safety Ordinance can become the standard for cities looking to achieve safer, more environmentally-friendly transportation.  

“Run on Climate can take Cambridge’s policy and turn it into a model, then work with some of these cities that are trying to adopt a similar law,” Zondervan said. 

Back in Evanston, In collaboration with City Councilor Jonathan Nieuwsma, Run on Climate interns are helping to collect data about Evanston's car emissions, crash rates, and number of parking spots, to better make the case for safe cycling infrastructure. Run On Climate Executive Director Jack Hanson, who recently moved back to Evanston, his hometown, is also advocating directly to the council to move forward.

And while cities around the country continue to grapple with opposition, advocates like Nieuwsma are still hopeful for the future. 

“We know what’s in front of us. We know what we have to do, and how we’re going to get there. We have our north star.”