City and state officials have expressed great interest in expanding bike paths and routes to both promote exercise and take gas-guzzling cars off the roads. But designing a massive network of paths can be a lengthy and costly process. That’s why Furth hopes the work he and his students have accomplished over the last several months can bridge the gap between envisioning that network and actually making it happen.
One Northeastern University professor has a vision of connecting all the bicycle paths throughout Boston to form a network miles long.
Friday morning, Peter Furth, a civil and environmental engineering professor, will present his plan at an event hosted by Move Massachusetts.
Furth said his research has shown “the current greenways that we have, while great, are all disconnected.” For instance, bicyclists have many choices of where to ride, including along the Charles River, around the Arboretum or on trails in South Boston. But the way the paths are currently designed, there are major gaps in between that force bicyclists to either turn around and ride the same route, or risk contending with Boston drivers, he said.
The cornerstones of the plan are: One, building a link between the Jamaica Way and Back Bay via a path from Ruggles and a “Charlesgate Path”; and two, connecting the Charles River and Esplanade with the Fort Point Channel via a route along Commercial Street and through the Rose Kennedy Greenway. His and his students’ designs call for widening bike paths along major roads, revamping intersections — connecting as far south as Dorchester and north and west as Revere and Watertown.
“We have potential if we connect up little pieces that we have here ... of providing the freeway network for bicycle travel,” Furth said.
