Bicycle Committee Continues to Urge City to Repair Beacon Street

The Somerville Bicycle Committee will continue to urge the city to smooth the uneven pavement on Beacon Street, according to minutes from the Oct. 18 meeting. 

The committee has sent a letter to the mayor, the Department of Public Works and the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure asking officials to repair the road, which is .

In the letter, the committee suggested that the city lay new pavement over the sections of the street that are in the worst condition, and it calculated that filling the potholes and flattening the patched ones would cost about $75,000.

However, the DPW doesn't have enough money to repair the road before 2013, when the city will receive money from the federal government to rebuild it.

Committee members will bring up what they call the "bicycle safety problem" during a from several of the city's departments. 

Public officials, including , realize that Beacon Street is in disrepair, and , committee members said. 

Plans for more corrals, Hubway stations and bike lanes 

• , in Ball Square, should receive a bicycle corral by late February to complement the in front of Union Square's and Davis Square's . The corrals, which replace one parking space in front of the businesses, offer enough space to park 14 bicycles. 
• The city now plans to install eight Hubway stations in the spring, instead of the six Hubway officials . It's part of the first phase of the bike-share program in Somerville.  
• The Department of Public Works recently laid new pavement along Bow Street and will soon paint a bike lane on the road. The city also plans to repaint the lanes on Temple Street. While officials would like to paint sharrows, which indicate that bicyclists and drivers should share the street, the Bicycle Committee has suggested that the DPW paint a bike lane for the uphill climb and a sharrow for the descent.