Fed up with waiting for the city to clear a key stretch of Commonwealth Avenue, about 20 volunteers from the Boston Cyclists Union and the Boston University Urbanists Club grabbed shovels last Friday evening and did it themselves. For roughly two hours, they chipped away at consolidated snow and ice clogging the eastbound protected bike lane near Babcock Street, tackling snowbanks volunteers said reached up to five feet high. The goal was simple and urgent: reopen a protected lane that repeated plow passes had left unusable, forcing people on bikes to merge into car traffic.
Shovel Squad Stages Rapid Response
The ad hoc shovel crew came together after the Boston Cyclists Union urged members to file 311 reports and join a day-of-action to clear blocked lanes. The group framed the effort as an emergency safety fix when the city’s response lagged, while continuing its broader push for winter-ready maintenance and policy changes and encouraging residents to contact city officials, as outlined by Boston Cyclists Union. Volunteers said the turnout included a mix of regular union members and BU students who ride the corridor regularly.
The action followed documentation from Jerry Zhou, who photographed “giant snowbanks” swallowing protected lanes and piling snow at intersections. Streetsblog Massachusetts reported that volunteers cleared roughly two blocks of the eastbound bike lane near Babcock Street, only to watch city crews later plow fresh snow back into the path and effectively undo the work.
Local accounts put turnout at about 20 people and described the cleared stretch as somewhere between two and four blocks starting at Babcock Street, with neighbors and passersby stopping to thank the shovellers, according to Universal Hub. Some volunteers said city workers told them that traffic made it unsafe to send municipal crews into the lane that day. The exchange underscored how volunteer labor is a temporary fix once snowbanks have hardened into heavy ice.
On Comm Ave, Stakes Are High For Winter Biking
Commonwealth Avenue is one of Boston’s busiest bike corridors and has been the focus of long-running efforts to install protected cycletracks, which makes winter maintenance a recurring safety concern. The project’s history and goals have been detailed in city materials and earlier reporting. For riders, winter guidance and service request tools live on the city’s winter-biking and 311 platforms, per coverage from WBUR. Advocates say the recent shovel brigade is a vivid reminder that upgraded designs only work when they are backed by a solid plan to remove snow.
Leaders at the Boston Cyclists Union stressed that relying on volunteer shoveling is not sustainable and said they will keep pressing the city through 311 reports and outreach to elected officials. City Council President Liz Breadon told Streetsblog Massachusetts that she shares residents’ frustration and has spoken with the chief of streets about clearing Commonwealth Avenue and other bike lanes. For now, it was a line of residents with shovels that filled a gap advocates argue should never have opened in the first place.
