By Dave Benoit
Special to the Reporter

As part of his plan to transform Boston into a bike haven, Mayor Thomas Menino sent out troops to gather up the public opinions this week. On Tuesday night, 15 Dorchester residents showed up at a community bike forum at Viet-AID's Great Hall in Fields Corner to talk about bikes and bike paths and, overwhelmingly, the underwhelming status of Dot's "death defying" streets.

"Boston really wants to be able to say it's the first to do something special," said host Andy Clarke, executive director of the League of American Bicyclists. "We are very keenly aware of the false fronts that came before us and we are hoping and praying we will go forward."

Clarke and Jennifer Toole, President of Toole Designs Group, were able to reference other cities they had worked in and made more bike friendly, like Seattle, Chicago, and Washington D.C. They utilized their experiences to help with the litany of ideas coming from the group, made up of almost entirely daily bicycle commuters.

Residents on hand took issue with Dorchester Avenue and its numerous potholes and reckless drivers. They discussed the treacherous conditions of Morrissey Boulevard and sidewalks there that turn to gravel. They wondered aloud about getting companies to donate 30,000 bicycles to Boston and chipping in to buy the Mayor a ticket to Paris to observe their bike ideas. But the general consensus was that the Mayor was not the problem but the solution, especially since, as rider David Duncan put it: "The Mayor found religion on a bicycle."

Rosanne Foley expressed frustration at the ability for community activists to grasp the strict zoning laws and the engineers' lack of explanations for how to move forward. The lack of communication led to trouble, but she thinks there is a way out.

"The engineers are the grumpy guys who put big red 'X's' through your good ideas," she lamented. "There needs to be a directive, from the Mayor, that says 'Ok, you guys that go like this [shaking her head no], you now need to start going like this [nods]."

Some of the more mainstream ideas expressed by these avid riders were simply painting Dot Ave. to reflect the presence of bicycles, thereby increasing awareness. A majority denied the need for specific bike paths, instead desiring the money be spent on fixing potholes &endash; their biggest complaint by far &endash; and at least creating the illusion of bikes on the Avenue. Two other suggestions were a city hotline to report problems and creating maps online where riders could rate or warn other riders about certain routes. One self-proclaimed "bike junky" said he would help get four votes and his own for any candidate he saw on a bike.

Another key was the differences between bikes, motorists, and pedestrians.

"I am not a pedestrian. I don't have any more interaction with pedestrians any more than cars do," Duncan said. "I would appreciate if the people doing this project don't think of us as nuisances but as another kind of transportation."

Most of the group agreed that enforcing bike and traffic laws came at the bottom of the list of enforcement issues in Dorchester. They all just wanted to be able to ride a little safer on their way to work.