Community and Resources

Events and Updates

Be Advised – The shoulder/bike lane at the intersection of Brookline Avenue and Pilgrim Road  (inbound) will be closed from 9:30AM to 3:30PM. Effective Monday, June 12th, and continuing through Wednesday, June 14th.

Past events

Buying a Bike

lma-cyclists-where-to-buy-a-bike

Biking Groups

  • Bike Harvard
    • A student group at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Bike Harvard is dedicated to the goal of making bicycling safe, fun, and accessible to everyone at Harvard, with a special focus on graduate students. They provide safety tutorials for students, organize activities to promote a supportive cycling community at Harvard, conduct outreach to local community groups, and promote advocacy aimed at making city streets safer for all users.
  • Boston Bike Party
    • A free monthly group bike ride that attracts hundreds of cyclists from around the city. It’s a slow-rolling dance party on wheels. BBP happens every second Friday of the month and departs from Copley Square in Back Bay at 7:30pm. Party attitude required; lights, bells, and costumes encouraged!
  • Boston Cyclists Union
    • We’re helping Bostonians lead healthier lives by promoting the everyday use of the bicycle for transportation. Among other things, we repair bikes, educate new riders, and organize neighborhood residents who would like to voice support for friendlier street designs, bike paths, and public spaces. Membership gives you discounts at Zipcar and small businesses throughout Boston, and guarantees that your bike commute will keep getting safer.
  • Femmechanics
    • Femmechanics is a group of FTW (femme/trans/women) people who bike in the Boston area. We build community, teach and learn from one another, and create safer, inclusive spaces for FTW folks to empower themselves within the bike world. We wrench, ride bikes, organize events, and more! We are a horizontally organized group so anyone and everyone can be a leader. We host an open-shop time, called Grrrease Time, for people to come learn more about working on their bikes, and to help others do the same. We try to promote an encouraging, supportive atmosphere for people to teach and learn from one another.
  • Harvard Longwood Bicyclists
  • Harvard University Cycling Association
    • We are dedicated to promoting cycling at Harvard as a life long sport. Student racers as well as cyclists from the community are welcome on our group rides and benefit from our excellent coaches. Many join the club as beginners, but all who truly dedicate themselves soon become strong athletes.
  • MassBike
    • The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition is the statewide advocate for bicyclists, delivering bicycle-friendly legislation and policies; better roads, bridges, and paths for biking; bicyclist access to transit; Bay State Bike Week; and community-based bicycle safety and advocacy education.

Want to add a group to the list? Email bikes@hsph.harvard.edu.

Academic Resources

2016

2013

2012

  • Route Infrastructure and the Risk of Injuries to Bicyclists: A Case-Crossover Study
    • Results. Of 14 route types, cycle tracks had the lowest risk (adjusted odds ratio [OR]?=?0.11; 95% confidence interval [CI]?=?0.02, 0.54), about one ninth the risk of the reference: major streets with parked cars and no bike infrastructure. Conclusions. The lower risks on quiet streets and with bike-specific infrastructure along busy streets support the route-design approach used in many northern European countries.

2011

  • Risk of injury for bicycling on cycle tracks versus in the street
    • There were 8.5 injuries and 10.5 crashes per million-bicycle kilometers respectively on cycle tracks compared to published injury rates ranging from 3.75 to 67 for bicycling on streets. The relative risk of injury on the cycle track was 0.72 (95%CI=0,60-0.85) compared with bicycling in the reference streets.
    • Cycle tracks lessen, or at least do not increase, crash and injury rates compared to bicycling in the street.

Employee Bike Benefits

If you’re an employee at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard Medical School or Harvard School of Dental Medicine who bikes, you may be eligible for several benefits:

CommuteFit

CommuteFit is an incentive program that rewards LMA commuters who incorporate walking, running, or biking into their daily commutes.

This program aims to reduce vehicle miles traveled and improve personal health by encouraging employees to use their muscle power through walking or biking any part of their daily commute. Employees who register for the program, keep track of their miles, and submit their monthly totals to CommuteWorks are eligible to win a $50 REI gift card. Three winners are chosen at random each month.

It doesn’t matter if you walk or bike one mile or twenty miles a day, or all the way to work or just to the nearest transit station. If you are walking or biking for any portion of your commute, you can register for CommuteFit and start keeping track of your miles.

Emergency Ride Home Program

MASCO offers an Emergency Ride Home (ERH) program so you can leave your bike at home and still have peace of mind knowing that if you have an unexpected personal emergency during the work day, CommuteWorks will pay to get you home.

As an employee of a MASCO member institution who walks, bikes, carpools, vanpools or takes public transportation to work, you are eligible to register for ERH and receive a free taxi ride or rental car to take you home in the event of an unexpected personal emergency. Once registered, you can use this service up to five times per year. Please note that students do not qualify for the ERH program.

Click here to register for the Emergency Ride Home program and to receive more information.

If you are already registered and need to use this service, contact CommuteWorks at (617) 632-2796 or commuteworks@masco.harvard.edu.

Bicycle Commuter Benefit

Full-time benefits-eligible employees who bike to work are eligible to receive up to $20/month in reimbursement (up to $240 per year) for costs associated with bicycle purchase, improvement, repair, and storage. Offered by Harvard University’s CommuterChoice program, these benefits are available only to those who do not already receive a University-subsidized monthly MBTA pass or an annual parking permit.

For more information, visit the Commuter Choice website.

Frequently asked questions

  • What kinds of expenses are allowed?
    • New or used bike purchased from a store or private party.
    • Bike parts and/or service used to improve or repair a bicycle as well as accessories (e.g., locks, racks).
    • Costs associated with parking or storing a bicycle anywhere from a day to a year.
    • Safety items (e.g., helmets, lights, bells, reflective items).
    • Purchase of apparel or Hubway memberships are not covered.
    • If you have specific questions about the eligibility of an item, please contact the CommuterChoice office via email or phone (617-384-7433) before purchase.
  • What if I purchase something that is $40? Can I spread that out across 2 months?
    • Yes, but only IF you participated for at least two months in the bicycle commuter benefit program (which means you did NOT enroll in any other commuting benefit for those two months – such as parking, mass transit, or carpooling). For $60 reimbursement, you would have needed to participate for at least three months, etc…
  • Let’s say I had a T pass from January-June, but I didn’t get any commuter benefits (e.g. T pass) from July-December. If I got a tune-up in May that cost $60, can I still get reimbursed?
    • Yes, the purchase date does NOT matter. The number of months within the calendar year in which you participated in the bicycle commuter benefit program (and no other commuter benefit program) is the only thing that matters.
  • Who can participate in this program
    • This is open to benefits-eligible employees who work 17.5 hours or more per week. The same eligibility guidelines exist for all of transportation benefits.

Useful links

Want to add a link to the list? Email bikes@hsph.harvard.edu.