bostonbiker

Category: Design

  • A shared-lane marking placement

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    jsallen
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    Dorchester Avenue at Savin Hill Avenue, Boston, August, 2014, from a Google Street View: The door zone bike lane ends and then a shared-lane marking directs bicyclists to zigzag to the right where they are exposed to right-hook and left-cross risks. A right hook occurred here on May 21, 2012. More recently, the bike lane…

  • Hubway right-angle parking

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    jsallen
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    Note: Some conditions shown are as of 2014; article retrieved and revised in 2024. On Boylston Street just west of Massachusetts Avenue, Hubway bicycle users had to back the bicycles out into a traffic lane to release them from kiosks. By August 2024, the Hubway station had been moved and there was a new building…

  • Bike lane quiz

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    jsallen
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    How many hazards can you see for a bicyclist in the location shown in this Google Street view? A bicyclist in the bike lane in the camera location would just be appearing to the driver of the red car from concealment by parked cars (behind the camera), risking a motorist drive-out. A motorist behind the…

  • Massachusetts passing-on-right law

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    jsallen
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    We’ll start with a video where a motorist abruptly changed lanes to pass a vehicle on the right at speed and had to swerve left to avoid striking a bicyclist who had been concealed by the vehicle being passed. Here is a shortened version. The full video is on YouTube. I’ve also seen a YouTube…

  • Sparks Street

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    jsallen
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    Let’s have a look at Huron Avenue in Cambridge, Massachusetts as it crosses Sparks Street and Royal Avenue.This stretch is downhill right to left in the overhead view. The buffer is on the wrong side of the bike lane, placing it in the door zone. Faster bicyclists can travel as fast or nearly as fast…

  • Making Commonwealth Avenue work for everyone?

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    jsallen
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    The Barr Foundation has published an interview with Livable Streets Executive Director Jackie Douglas under the headline “Making Our Streets Work for Everyone”. The main point which Douglas makes is that progress, and a victory, as she describes it, were achieved by bringing groups with different interests onto the same page. The Boston Globe published…

  • MHD bicycle detection document

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    jsallen
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    The Massachusetts Highway Department published the document Bicycle Detection at Signalized Intersections in 1998. This includes the recommendations for quadrupole loops in the 1986 San Diego study, which is cited as a reference. The Massachusetts document reflects progress, in recognizing the importance of bicycle detection, but includes some recommendations which reflect an inadequate understanding of…

  • Connect Historic Boston complaint

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    jsallen
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    Charles Denison, who is generally in favor of infrastructure projects, expresses his dislike of the part of the Connect Historic Boston project on Causeway Street.

  • 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…

  • What is the authority for this sign?

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    jsallen
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    The sign in this photo, which I have copied from a Facebook post, is well-intentioned, but it arouses very mixed feelings in me. I have no sympathy for people who ride at unsafe speeds around other path users, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SD9u01lVxe8. There was a death on the Minuteman path in Lexington, Massachusetts this year resulting from…