The BPDA board this afternoon will vote on spending $100,000 for a consultant to recommend ways to turn Dartmouth Street between the BPL main library and the Copley Square park into a permanent mall for pedestrians and bicyclists - with space set aside for a lane for emergency vehicles. Read more.

Papa Wheelies Back Bay, which had been selling bicycles at 362 Comm. Ave., at Mass. Ave. since 1992, initially as Back Bay Bicycles, closed last month. Its Wellesley and Portsmouth, NH locations remain open.

H/t Lee.

The Scope examines the Boston area's growing bicycle culture.

Josh Bittker snapped the spiffy new lane near MGH yesterday: "The new Cambridge St. protected parking lane looks great!"

MassDOT told Hyde Park residents last night they're going to have to keep detouring around the bridge over the train tracks through Cleary Square until at least spring, 2025, which is the earliest officials say they can have a new River Street bridge built. Read more.

Mayor Wu and BTD today announced plans for 9.4 miles of new bike lanes to be marked out and built in Boston by December, 2023, part of a three-year plan to ensure that half of all Bostonians will be within a three-minute walk of a "a safe and connected bike route." Read more.

People trying to register for Bluebikes accounts right now are can't, because the app is dead, something about servers or something. Bluebikes reports it's aware of the problem (not surprising given that @RideBlueBikes on Twitter is being barraged with complaints) and is telling would-be riders:

We appreciate you reaching out to report this issue. Our engineers have already been notified and are working on a fix as we speak. Thanks for your patience and understanding.

Update: Work shortened to just three days, starting Thursday.

In the run up to Friday's month-long Orange Line shutdown, one of the alternatives touted by officials, at least for people south of downtown, was riding a bike up and down the Southwest Corridor. Read more.

The Boston Cyclists Union organized an ad-hoc people-protected bike lane along Charles Street on Beacon Hill this morning to press the city to add more bike lanes to downtown and adjacent areas.