Cambridge Ordinance Committee Unanimously Advances Three Cycling Safety Ordinance Amendments

CAMBRIDGE -- December 3, 2024, Cambridge Ordinance Committee votes 9-0 to extend bike lane deadline and condition major corridor starts on parallel ordinance. The committee unanimously approved three amendments to the city's Cycling Safety Ordinance Tuesday, moving the overall project completion deadline from May 1, 2026, to November 1, 2026, and requiring that separated bike lane installation on Cambridge Street, Broadway, and Main Street not begin until the city's Parking and Transportation Demand Management ordinance amendments are passed or July 1, 2025, whichever comes first. Transportation Commissioner Brooke McKenna told the committee that the original May deadline was functionally equivalent to requiring all work done by the prior November, since cold weather precludes outdoor paving and marking. A third amendment adds school bus stops to the ordinance's definition of public transportation, allowing school buses to access the curb within protected lane corridors as a shared-use zone. Vice Mayor Marc McGovern, chairing, told the public that the PTDM ordinance passed a second reading unanimously the day before and is eligible for final ordainment on or after December 23, 2024, clearing the way for construction starts next summer. Eight public speakers, nearly all cyclists, urged the committee not to slow implementation; Cambridge Business Association Executive Director Jason Alves separately asked the committee to codify the Grand Junction multi-use path in the ordinance, calling it "a wildly important connection" that has been decades in the making.