bostonbiker

Category: Crashes

  • About the Chris Weigl crash —

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    jsallen
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    Comments below are by Kirby Beck, who worked on the Weigl crash as an expert consultant. Beck is a retired police officer, avid recreational cyclist, co-founder and trainer #02 of the International Police Mountain Bike Association. I phoned Beck on January 7, 2025 to assure that I have permission to publish his comments. During the…

  • Meng Jin, and Charles River Dam Road

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    jsallen
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    MIT student Meng Jin died as he rode up to and past the corner in a bike lane on Museum Way, to the right of a truck that turned right onto Charles River Dam Road. That tragedy has led to a call for barrier-separated bike lanes on Charles River Dam Road, a non sequitur, in…

  • Seen in Lexington

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    jsallen
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    I have not yet ridden on the stretch of Massachusetts Avenue where bike lanes have been placed to the right of parked cars. I missed that opportunity when my bicycle had a flat tire and I couldn’t fix the inner tube — so I Ubered up to Ride Studio Café to buy and install a…

  • Fatal crash of November 9, 2018 in Cambridge, Massachusetts

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    jsallen
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    This morning’s fatal crash was reported by State Police as another in the string of tragic right-hook collisions which have become the largest cause of bicyclist fatalities in the Boston area. Once again, a bicyclist was crushed by a large truck which turned right.[ Update: the cyclist was Meng Jin, a male graduate student at…

  • My letter to the Globe about the Kurmann fatality

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    jsallen
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    The following is what I wrote. It was not published: I’ve read the Op-Ed piece by Andrew Fischer and Alan Wright, “Killing Bicyclists should be a crime” in the Sunday, January 28 (2018) Globe. I agree with Wright and Fischer that a charge of involuntary manslaughter against the trucker in the Anita Kurmann fatality is…

  • What’s wrong with this picture?

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    jsallen
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    As hunting seasons are introduced to control the deer population in Boston suburbs and nearby parklands, I’m reminded of an article which appeared in the alumni magazine of Middlebury College, one of my alma maters. The article told how Middlebury College sanctions students’ involvement in hunting, and described the usual controversy over hunting which occurs…

  • A British study clarifies the problem with trucks

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    jsallen
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    I thank Bob Shanteau, California traffic engineer and cyclist, for this link. The paper, from the U.K., puts numbers on the problem with bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities in collisions with large trucks. A quote: Lorries are involved in around 4,200 fatal accidents in Europe every year, according to the European Transport Safety Council. In Belgium,…

  • Columbus Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue Follow-Up

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    jsallen
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    [Note: this post has been updated thanks to Charlie Denison’s correct identification of the direction from which the bicyclist approached the intersection.] This post follows from my previous post about the right-hook collision of a garbage truck with a bicyclist at Columbus Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue in Boston. The image below is from a Boston…

  • Window dressing

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    jsallen
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    I have already described the side skirts on Boston garbage trucks as window dressing. Maybe I should concede a little ground on that, as the cyclist in the most recent right-hook crash merely had severe injuries instead of being killed. [Update, December 2024: I take it back. See photo and explanation below.] To prevent right-hook…

  • Is This Street Wide Enough?

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    jsallen
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    I have posted a video of a group of avid recreational cyclists riding on Hampshire Street in Cambridge, in the middle of the day. You may view it in glorious full-screen high definition here. Is This Two-Lane Street Wide Enough? from John Allen on Vimeo. The cyclists in this video are riding on a stretch…