Category: Design
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People’s Pike or People’s Pillar to Post?
How would I like to think of the People’s Pike? I want to see a bicycle path and an adjacent footpath which avoid crossing and turning conflicts, passing under the ramps to the Turnpike and to the proposed West Station, with connections up to the overpasses to get to West Station and beyond, to Packard’s…
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A British study clarifies the problem with trucks
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,…
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Report on Route 9 reconstruction in Natick
On Sunday, August 24, Natick residents Dick and Jill Miller and I had a look at the Route 9 project, which extends either side of the Oak Street intersection. We drove the length of the project in both directions, and I shot video of it. We parked just west of Oak Street. I walked west…
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Columbus Avenue and Massachusetts Avenue Follow-Up
[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…
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Boston Chief Civil Engineer’s reply to my comments on Connect Historic Boston
I have discussed my comments on the Connect historic Boston project in an earlier post. Now Boston’s Chief Civil Engineer, Bill Egan, has replied — but actually, his reply is a non-reply. He doesn’t address the issues I raised about messing up — rather than improving — bus and taxi access to North Station. Or…
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Comments on the Charles River Basin Connectivity Study
[Note as of December 28, 2024: plans from 2021 and 2024 propose something very much like what I suggested for the rotatry at North Beacon street in Brighton. See project background page here [archived], and related documents. I have prepared extensive comments on the Charles River Basin Connectivity Study and submitted them for review. I…
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Is This Street Wide Enough?
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…
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Comments on Connect Historic Boston
I’ve posted extensive comments on the Connect Historic Boston project. I am concerned about: safety issues; increase in bicycle travel times and congestion of motor traffic; the project’s degrading rather than improving access to North Station; its being designed as if Boston were a tourist attraction rather than an urban center, while on the other…
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Close Encounter on Washington Street
Hmm, Bostonbiker stripped out the video I intended to embed here, and i had to link to it isntead, but now I have migrated content to my own site so here it is. The City of Boston created a deadly hazard for bicyclists at the entrance to the Downtown Crossing pedestrian mall. Shortly after noticing…