Boston by Bike - best route from North End to Davis Square?

March 6, 2009 7:49 AM

What's the best bike route to take in order to get from the North End to Davis Square?

I'm officially fed up with commuting to work via the T. Now that the weather is starting to turn, I'd like to start biking to work. Any suggestions as to the best route to take? I'd like to be able to stick to bike paths and less-congested roads if possible.

Thanks.

posted by mgerstenblatt to Travel & Transportation (8 answers total)

It seems like Boston did an interesting project using google maps.

Users could sign in and trace the route they took on a given day; the city compiled the data and produced this map.

Of course I'm new around here so I haven't tried any of the routes, but it seems like a good place to start.
posted by nat at 8:03 AM on March 6, 2009

Here's a commute that I use to do from North Station to Somerville. The O'Brian Highway section is really bad.

google maps
posted by bdc34 at 8:27 AM on March 6, 2009

Bikely might have it, but I couldn't find one for your specific route.
You might get part of the ride though, through other peoples tags
posted by a womble is an active kind of sloth at 8:42 AM on March 6, 2009

The Northeast forum at bikeforums.net is a good resource as well. Make sure to search as someone probably asked about a similar route in the past. I got lots of good advice about routes when I was thinking about moving to JP.
posted by bobot at 8:54 AM on March 6, 2009

I don't think there's any great way to do this, but I'd recommend something like this. (The last bit is on a bike path, the rest is on reasonable, but not traffic-free, roads.)
posted by Fuzzy Dunlop at 9:44 AM on March 6, 2009

Someone asked a similar question in the Davis Square LJ community last year. They were looking for Davis Sq. to Copley, but you should be able to glean some good info about part of the trip at least.
posted by FreezBoy at 10:19 AM on March 6, 2009

I walk from Beacon and Tremont to Davis pretty frequently. The route I take is:

Down Cambridge street and across the Longfellow Bridge.
Once over the bridge, I head down Main until I hit Broadway, then go down Broadway towards Inman Square.
At Inman, I go across to Beacon Street until it his Somerville Ave.
From there, I either go up Cedar (wrong way on a bike) or cut through the Shaw's parking lot to hit Elm.
Then down Elm to Davis Square.

Google Maps has pedestrians walking down McGrath for some reason, even in walking mode. I'd avoid that route as the traffic is particularly lethal (and who'd want to die outside an AJ Wright, right?). The route I take has dedicated bike lanes for part of it.

So if you can come up past Gov't Center from the North End pretty easily, it shouldn't be too hard.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 11:22 AM on March 6, 2009 [1 favorite]

North End via Causeway, around the Tip O'Niell Federal Building to Science Park ( by the prison) Cross the river in front of the Science Museum. Run up Cambridge St to Inman Square, Beacon to Somerville Ave. Robocop has the rest. The difference is you wouldn't have to go down to Charles Circle and over the Longfellow.
posted by Gungho at 2:09 PM on March 6, 2009