Commercial Street has always been 2-way for people riding bikes. When it was changed to one-way for motor vehicles, the town continued to allow two-way bicycling. This has been enshrined in numerous votes by Town Meeting and special legislation passed by the state government.

This condition is unique here – there is no other street in Massachusetts where people on bikes are allowed to travel in both directions without a marked bike lane. As a result, it’s often a surprise to visitors to see that this is actually an accepted and expected practice.

June 2021

The signs are here and installation is underway. You can see the first “Except 🚲” under the Do Not Enter signs along Commercial Street

April 2021

The Bicycle Committee will meet on April 8 for the first time in over a year to discuss next steps to move this project forward.

Delays in 2020

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Select Board suspended all non-regulatory board meetings. The Bicycle Committee was not allowed to hold any public meetings in 2020. Committee budgets were also put on hold due to the postponement of Town Meeting.

November 2019: New Signage APPROVED

New signage was approved by the Board of Selectmen at the November 2019 annual Traffic Hearing.

The new signs are based on modern standards for contraflow bike lanes and adapted to the context of Provincetown.

The signage plan will update all of the one-way signs with an additional “except bicycles” plaque, add an “except bicycles” plaque to all “do not enter” signs along the street, and add a handful of yellow two-way bike caution signs along the street.

Designs were mocked up over the winter of 2019-2020 to check sizing and practical installation concerns.

Previous work

The Bicycle Committee has tried a number of different approaches to education and signage in the past. Shared lane markings (“sharrows”) were painted on Commercial Street in 2012, and green “Caution 2-Way Bike Traffic” signs were installed at key intersections. Rack cards were produced for distribution to tour operators and this information is also included in the committee’s Provincetown Bicycle Map & Safety Guide.

Despite these efforts, it’s still confusing to drivers since there are dozens of one-way signs and one-way pavement markings along the street.

In 2016, the committee proposed an overhaul to the one-way signage at the annual Traffic Hearing, but the proposal was not approved.

In 2019, a revised proposal was approved by the Select Board and is in the planning stages. The new plan included the removal of over 20 other outdated signs to help reduce sign clutter.