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I live in Massachusetts. Sometimes that is somewhat awkward as I truly hate cold weather. I am an expert at hibernating. My car has heated seats. My house has two pellet stoves. Occasionally I do actually get warm.

Therefore, a story in yesterday’s Boston Herald caught my eye. The story reported that Massachusetts Avenue in Boston will lose about 70 parking spaces in order to make way for a new bicycle lane.

The article reports:

The 71 parking spaces on the northbound side of the busy thoroughfare will be eliminated by year’s end to make way for the new bike lane, with construction possibly starting as early as this week and stretching two-thirds of a mile from Symphony Hall to the Charles River bridge, officials said.

I learned to drive in New Jersey, so I will spare you my comments on Massachusetts drivers, but I will say that finding a parking space in Boston at any time of day or night is a major accomplishment. I understand the desire to get cars out of the city, but I am not sure a bike lane in New England is the answer. We have winters of snow, sleet, and freezing rain. I am not convinced that a bike is even safe in any of those conditions. Public transportation is not totally awful in Massachusetts–there are trains, subways and buses–all of which are used by the state residents. The federal government just financed the Big Dig (costing over over $14.6 billion), which provided more access to and through the city for cars. Why, after all that, are we taking away parking spaces–we should be putting up multiple-story parking lots!