On the morning of May 13, bike enthusiasts and City employees and officials gathered for a ribbon cutting to celebrate the opening of the Two-Way Bike Facility on the Carriage Road paralleling Commonwealth Avenue. As Jane Hanser noted, this achievement is the result of work started in 2011 to improve bike safety along the Carriage Road and elsewhere in Newton.
Jane Hanser outlined accomplishments by all: overgrown bushes being cut back for visibility, laws being changed to allow eastbound travel on the Carriage Road, stop signs and bike-lane signs installed, fruit trees planted, cobbles removed, crosswalks and bike lanes striped, pavements repaved, Massachusetts Bicycle/Pedestrian priority roadways designated, and funding approved. Along the way, she learned new terms that would come in handy: Complete Streets and Linear Park.
Fueled by coffee, cookies, and bagels, the speakers acknowledged the efforts and collaborations of Jane Hanser, Mayors David Cohen, Setti Warren, and Ruthanne Fuller, Ed Olhava of Bike Newton along with founders Lois Levin and Helen Rittenberg, John Pelletier of the Bicycle Advisory Committee, Public Works Commissioner Jim McGonagle, Parks and Recreation Commissioner Bob DeRubeis, Councilor Andreae Downs, former Councilor Emily Norton, former Councilor Greg Schwartz, former Councilor Alicia Bowman, David Koses, Nina Wang, Director of Transportation Jason Sobel, Planning Department Director Barney Heath, Josh Ostroff, Nicole Freedman, Jenn Martin, Scott Oran, MassDOT Manager of Highway Safety Programs Bonnie Polin-Pomper, Traffic Engineers Isaac Prizant and Adrian Ayala, Ned Codd, City Forester Marc Welch, DPW’s former Director of Streets Shane Mark, Chief Operating Officer Jonathan Yeo, Peter Sutton from the MassDOT Office of Transportation Planning, Mike Halle of the Transportation Advisory Group, and the Newton Police Department.
The celebration was sponsored by the Heartbreak Hill Running Company, Roasted Spoke Bicycle Shop, Rosenfeld Bagels, and Blackers Bakeshop.
