Brokers on bikes

For all the door zones, belligerent drivers, crazy streets and devastated pavement in the city, I still feel safer riding here than in the suburbs. As long as you never, ever trust anyone or anything but the laws of physics. If you can maintain that alert paranoia, riding in the city is fun. The suburbs are full of leadfooted, inattentive SUV drivers and there's no room to ride on the shoulder.

My husband and I both strongly prefer jobs we can bike commute to, which played into our living in Somerville (although there are a lot of other things we love about the place as well). But we did have a bikeable radius around likely employment sites in mind when we were househunting, and the fact that we can bike to all sorts of other things around here is a big plus.

The best place to bicycle...depends totally on the reason you're riding (recreation? transportation? meditation?) and your comfort level. I've had days when the best place to ride was Harvard Square (gliding through lane changes like a ninja, getting visual communication with truck drivers, flying through the underpass like I meant it all along) or a potholed late-winter road edged in with slush (because I'm *out* there when most people aren't, taking on the elements). I've had days when it's a wide-open, no-traffic stretch of road in the 'burbs, downhill over the speed limit drenched in summer sun. Or the first time I was brave enough to take on a rotary, and didn't die. (I learned to ride as an adult. If I can, risk-averse and unathletic me, just about anyone can. You work your way up to the worst of the roads.)

The best place for a bicyclist to live doesn't exist around here, because it would involve substantially more wide, well-maintained roads than greater Boston has. But there are lots of very good places for bicyclists to live around here; they're the places within a few miles of your job, your favorite things to do, and the wide-open roads of the western suburbs.

Without a doubt, there are three of the greatest bike paths in the Eastbay area. One is in Swansea, MA and the other is Warren and Bristol, RI.
Now, I know most of you aren't familiar with any of them because, after all, they aren't located in the greater Boston area (thank you Lord). But no matter what bike paths will be mentioned in these comments, the best is still either or all of the above.
Eat your hearts out with that one. Oh, and by the way, you won't be run down by a speeding car either.

biking totally factors into buying a place. both the length (and nature) of the commute - and more important perhaps, a good place to put the bike inside the house (or a shed). somewhere secure, but not in the basement. basement bike storage isn't really conducive to daily biking. this has been something we've been paying attention to for sure in our search. . .

I'm hoping that wasn't all for one client - if so, they may want to focus a bit...

I used to live right on the Menotomy bike path in Arlington that goes into Lexington, Bedford, etc, but I usually roller bladed instead of biked. I used to walk to the Red Line to get to work though, which was nice.

One of the nicest bike paths in Massachusetts for my money is the one in Falmouth that leads into Woods Hole. Not sure what kind of a job you'd be able to get down there, but if I could take that to work every day, I'd do that in a heartbeat. Passing great beaches and sea scapes, through tunnels of green canopies and into wonderful Woods Hole. I grew up biking that one and it's still probably my favorite.

Hi Charles,
Sunday, I saw open houses with four clients: one in Cambridge, one in Somerville, one in Lexington and Bedford and the last in Needham.

No one should have that widely-cast a net when househunting (pardon the slightly mixed metaphor.)

;-)

Rona