Lessons of the Vassar Street sidepaths

Introduction and Table of Contents

Vassar Street, a public street, passes through the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. In 2003, MIT and the City narrowed the roadway and installed bicycle sidepaths on one block of Vassar Street. These fly in the face of applicable engineering guidelines and safety research -- a rather unusual situation at a world-class engineering school. In these pages, you may learn about the sidepaths, and how to avoid their hazards.