Bicycle industry lobby’s database missates length of cycle track

This page is a supporting document for my blog post about the Western Avenue cycle track in the Allston section of Boston.

An online database linked from a Peopleforbikes (bicycle industry lobby) Web page of “protected bike lanes” includes the information in the table below. (current as of August 8, 2014). The length of the bikeway is given as 0.58 mile. The actual length which meets the definitions of “protected” — barrier-separated — is approximately 0.2 mile. Neither the Boston Cyclists’ Union nor boston.com article, cited by PeopleforBikes as sources, states the length of the cycle track. The erroneous information, then, has to have come from the Mayor’s Office, or another source not listed in the database entry. Also, as indicated in my blog post, the cycle track was built in stages, and only 0.1 mile of it existed at any time before mid-2012.