Lost opportunities for bike transit

I JOIN cyclist Sean Hooley in his lament over the absence of bicycle accommodations on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway (Letters, Nov. 19).

For more than a decade, Boston bike and pedestrian advocates urged Central Artery planners to prioritize cycling along this parkway by reserving a portion of its width to link Charles River trails to the north with the proposed South Bay Harbor Trail to the south.

Such a link would have reached Frederick Law Olmsted's Emerald Necklace parks to the west, and resulted in a circumferential and radial path system reaching points well beyond the city's core. Alas, this simple, healthy, and inexpensive request went unaddressed.

Now, after spending billions in public funds to depress the Central Artery, and with gasoline prices likely to rise again, it seems inexcusable that cyclists (and pedestrians) must use the Greenway at their own risk.

Although this opportunity for sustainable transit seems lost, the potential to retrofit the Greenway for safe bicycle commuting and recreation remains. Thankfully, the city and state's recent announcement to support final design and construction of the South Bay Harbor Trail represents a beginning to a potentially broader process: the greening of the Greenway and similar roadways throughout our Commonwealth.

Michael J. Tyrrell
Founding planner
South Bay Harbor Trail
Boston