Ben and Melissa Bryant of Bellingham have started ‘Tour de Mass’, a 300-mile bike ride across the state, Provincetown to Williamstown. They started Aug 2nd and expect to finish Aug 11th. It’s pretty sad that the Globe isn’t covering it, did you know that the Guardian in the UK has an entire section dedicated to cycling?

Here’s the link to the Google map of their trip.

from The Boston Globe
By Alan Wirzbicki
April 14, 2009

WASHINGTON – Despite a recent declaration by Governor Deval Patrick that encouraging bicycling is a priority for his administration, Massachusetts ranks last in the nation among all states in requesting federal funds for bike lanes, rail-trails, and similar improvements and has failed to use more than $80 million set aside for the state.

Since 1991, the state has only spent about 37 percent of its share of the funding designated by Congress for such projects, a far lower rate than in any other state, according to federal statistics. By comparison, Connecticut and Rhode Island have spent 99 percent of their federal funding.

Massachusetts has been allocated $135 million for bike and pedestrian funding since 1991, and has used $51.1 million. Critics blame the gap on a cumbersome application process that requires cities and towns to pay for planning and engineering studies, submit applications to two state agencies, and then wait, sometimes for years.

(continue reading)

The 2007 Massachusetts Bicycle Transportation Plan is being prepared in cooperation with the U.S Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.

The primary purpose of the plan update is to develop a prioritized plan of on- and off-road bicycling improvements in order to implement a statewide bicycling network. The network will serve to improve multi-modal transportation generally and bicycle transportation specifically, as well as recreation, tourism, and economic vitality.

• Full Draft Masssachusetts Bicycle Plan with Links to Graphics. (2.2MB PDF), released: 10/19/07
• Executive Summary. (388KB PDF), released: 10/12/07
  
• Draft Report. (33MB PDF), released: 10/05/07
  
• Appendix. (19.6MB PDF), released: 10/12/07