THE AMERICA ONE NEWS
Jun 20, 2025  |  
0
 | Remer,MN
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET 
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge.
Sponsor:  QWIKET: Elevate your fantasy game! Interactive Sports Knowledge and Reasoning Support for Fantasy Sports and Betting Enthusiasts.
back  
topic
Boston Herald
Boston Herald
8 Aug 2024
Joe Battenfeld


NextImg:Battenfeld: Wu bike lanes, lax enforcement even baffling Boston’s Duck Boats

The Wu administration’s dramatic reconfiguration of Boston’s streets including adding new bike and bus lanes – combined with a lack of enforcement – is causing traffic headaches for businesses, tourists and residents.

Duck Boat tours that used to take 80 minutes are stretching to two hours this summer as the big rigs try to navigate through the clogged, narrowed city streets.

Major thoroughfares like Boylston Street were recently cut to two lanes and sometimes one by Wu, a strong advocate for bike lanes and new bus lanes. Even in neighborhoods like West Roxbury, the new bike lanes – rammed through despite community opposition – have caused gridlock during rush hour.

It’s all part of her grand plan to turn Boston into a car unfriendly, bike-riding, environmentally sustainable Wutopia. And right now it’s hurting Boston’s booming tourism business.

“The city has been tough to get around,” said Cindy Brown, CEO of Boston Duck Tours, an iconic Boston business which operates 28 of the land and water vehicles that transport thousands of tourists a day. “Traffic is really challenging.”

Brown said she’s contacted the mayor’s office to plead for better enforcement of parking and traffic rules to keep roads clear.

“We’re not against bike lanes and bus lanes but when you don’t have enforcement the best laid plans don’t work,” she said.

Customers have been showing up late for Duck Tours or missing them because of bad traffic and lack of parking, or complain of being forced to sit in the Duck Boats for up to two hours.

Double parked cars by delivery drivers, illegally operated scooters and failing to heed traffic rules on streets that used to have three lanes but now have just two are creating gridlock and mayhem for Duck Boat and Trolley drivers.

“If everyone followed the rules it would be much easier to get around the city,” Brown said. “Almost every street almost all the time has someone pulling over.”

Wu should be doing everything she can to support a great Boston business like Duck Tours, which just ferried around the Boston Celtics championship team in their parade celebration. The mayor’s office needs to lead a real crackdown on illegal scooters and illegally parked cars – not just for show once in a while.

But she should also be trying to make it easier for tourists and residents to get into the city to park and shop and spend money.

But if you’re not on a bike, you’re probably out of luck.