Boston Bike Pictures

I made a recent trip north to Boston.  Bike culture was in full effect and the city seems very bike friendly.  Boston dwellers feel free to offer you own opinions with comments.  I was walking past this bike in Cambridge and it looks normal enough, but when I looked closer . . .

. . . I was reminded of the confusion I felt in Princeton.  

Princeton is one of the top universities in the world but readers might remember that I was dumbfounded that bike racks were labeled with their purpose.  Cambridge is home to Harvard, another top university, and yet Cambridge feels the need to make sure people know what these objects are for by writing the purpose on them.  So in case the intellectual elite from all over the world that descend upon Cambridge forget where they are and/or are confused by metal sticking out of the ground, the city has them covered =)

A few minutes later I did notice a rack that impressed me -

I had actually never seen a rack with a built in cable lock before.  The cable is not super impressive in terms of girth, but you have to give the creator credit for something different.  All a rider really needs is a padlock to keep a bike somewhat secure. 

I have never engaged in a casual conversation and heard a cyclist proclaim their support for nuclear weapons, however this cyclist wants to make it clear s/he does not believe in massive human destruction. 

I saw lots of pedicabs in Boston and one thing I noticed is that the drivers were all wearing helmets.  I have never seen a pedicab driver in NYC wear a helmet.  A Yankee hat yes, a helmet no. 

And a restaurant we ate at had this awesome sticker in the window. 

It is not clear if you have to wear your helmet while eating to secure your discount.  This is leaps and bounds ahead of NYC however.  Most business owners look at me like a freak when I walk in with my bike helmet - but I do have a helmet mirror so maybe that is why.  My helmet mirror has led to some interesting conversations.  For some reason many people think it is a camera. 

And it does seem wise to exclude alcohol when it comes to this particular incentive.  If people have Boston bike wisdom to share, we would love to hear it.

Comments

[Dominic]

My mind is blown that even though the circle says to "lock bicycle to post', the individual locked to the bolted-on circle, and not the post.

[Andrew]

I have some Cambridge bike wisdom for you: Cambridge is also home to MIT, and MIT students are bicycle-crazy. And MIT is one of the original homes of hacking, both in the computer sense and the sense of "doing interesting things in clever ways with apparently minimal or inappropriate materials".

[Brian]

Yep, Boston is in general much more into helmets than NYC is. The riding style is also a lot more lawless/dangerous. I'm not sure if there's a correlation. Great biking town, though -- you definitely don't want to drive a car there!

I wonder if I could get the discount if I walked in with the sticker stuck directly to my head...

[Seven]

Hello. Just found this blog. The first hitching post has been there so long that bicycles were not popular when the cement first dried. 'Course in NYC, it would've been stolen and hacked by now, I'm sure.

[John]

I think the first picture is referring to the actually post, like the post was already there and the ring was put on so you could lock it to the post with out someone just picking your bike up over it