Air Quality Testing: What You Need to Know
In May 2010, DEHC began an Air Quality Project to study the effects of the Dorchester Avenue Transportation Improvement Project on air quality affecting travelers and residents on and near the Avenue. We have finished collecting preliminary air quality data (ultrafine particles) at locations along Dorchester Avenue, and we are now working with CHANGE (Consulting for Health, Air, Nature & Greener Environment) to analyze the data, which we will release on the dehc.org website. (Click here to view the presentation about air quality we created for Upward Bound and Elmhurst Street Park youth.)
This data will help identify local pollution hotspots, and may help guide other large-scale construction projects that could have air quality impacts in Boston’s neighborhoods.
In addition to DEHC’s air quality project, the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH), will begin a study of Dorchester’s air quality in September 2010. CAFEH is a project by Tufts University researchers and Continue Reading »
News from DotBike: New Bike Lanes on Dot Ave. and Talbot Ave.
Bike lanes and sharrows on Dorchester Avenue are expected to be installed by the end of July (you can see some of them on the road right now!). The lanes start at Broadway in South Boston and end at Hoyt St., which is part of the Glover’s Corner intersection that includes Freeport Street.
Click here to see a Google map of where the bike lanes and sharrows will be on Dorchester Ave.
There will be sharrows (markers that indicate bikes share the road with cars – see the photo at the right) instead of bike lanes around Andrew Square, and continuing from Hoyt St. south to where Dorchester Ave. ends in Lower Mills.
Plans for intersection redesigns, including bike boxes in Fields Corner at Centre, Park and Gibson streets, at Glover’s Corner and Savin Hill Ave. and in Andrew Square are in the works. On Talbot Avenue, bike lanes are going to be installed within 2 months.
The MBTA is using $4.8 million in federal funds to construct up to eight new bike cages (now called Pedal & Park), with one at Ashmont T station to open in Spring 2011.
The P&Ps can hold 300 bikes, are monitored by video cameras and require a special-coded Charlie Card to get inside. Bike CharlieCards are free of charge and obtainable from station staff where P&Ps are located.
It’s riding weather, but not all of the Dot Bike regulars ride on Dorchester Ave. daily. So if you see bike lanes painted, please let them know at dotbike@bostonbiker.org.
