City Council Requests Update to Cambridge Bicycle Plan

The Cambridge City Council unanimously adopted a policy order on Monday to request that the city update the Cambridge Bicycle Plan, a report on cycling trends and policy affecting bike lane infrastructure, for the first time in four years.

The CBP, which outlined an agenda for bike lane policy in Cambridge, released in 2015 with the goal of updating its framework every five years. The 2o20 update, which detailed the Vision Zero and the Cycling Safety Ordinance initiatives, was delayed one year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The policy order asks the City to expand beyond Cambridge in its third iteration of the CBP and consider steps for a network of separated bike lanes that would connect those in Cambridge with “neighboring communities including Arlington, Somerville, Watertown, Belmont, Boston, and others.”

The updated CBP will provide residents insight into Cambridge’s future bike lane initiatives beyond the completion of the Cycling Safety Ordinance – a contentious mandate to construct a 25-mile bike lane network throughout the city. While the CSO has commandeered much of Cambridge’s bike lane policy debates since it was first passed in 2019, the ordinance is set to be completed in November 2026.

Concerns around bike safety in the city — a historically fraught issue — have heightened following the deaths of three cyclists from June to October, including Harvard parent John H. Corcoran ’84. With renewed energy, activists have demanded greater safety improvements.

The CBP also includes community engagement surveys and feedback to inform the Council’s decisions as it engages with future policy.

“I want us to make sure that we are assessing before we build, before we expand, to make sure that we are really on the right path and really wanting to address the fatalities that happen on streets with bike lanes,” Councilor Ayesha M. Wilson said.

“We want to make sure that we are doing this in the right capacity,” she added.

Councilor Patty M. Nolan ’80, the lead sponsor of the policy order, said that the CBP will have “a robust community process” that is in line with past updates.

Mayor E. Denise Simmons also stressed the importance of inclusivity throughout the community engagement process.

“Any time we have a meeting, we have to start asking ourselves who’s not in the room, whether it's bicycle safety, or new paving, a road, whatever it might be,” she said.

Nolan also said that she expects the CBP will address long-awaited additions to the city’s bike lane network.

“There’s still some elements of the network that have not been completed and were always on the docket for the future,” Nolan added. “Well, the future is now.”

—Staff writer Benjamin Isaac can be reached at benjamin.isaac@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @benjaminisaac_1.

—Staff writer Avani B. Rai can be reached at avani.rai@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @avaniiiirai.