Tag: bike lane
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What’s with Winter Street, Waltham?
Today I rode on Winter Street in Waltham, which runs around the south and west sides of the Cambridge Reservoir. A few years ago, bike lanes were installed on much of Winter Street, starting a quarter mile west of West Street in Waltham and extending (with a couple of interruptions) to the Lincoln town line.…
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Some questions about bicyclists’ rights in Massachusetts
The bicyclists’ advocacy organization Massbike has as of today, November 27, 2018, posted a quiz online and promoted it in an e-mail, and the first question is “True or false: Massachusetts law considers a bicycle to be a vehicle.” Massbike says true, and gives this explanation: It’s true! The law considers a bike a vehicle.…
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Fatal crash of November 9, 2018 in Cambridge, Massachusetts
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…
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Riding Lexington Street, Waltham, July 4, 2015
It should be noted that bike lanes have been installed on much of the stretch of Lexington Street shown in the videos. Videos showing the new conditions are in preparation. Two videos, for now: A demonstration of lane control in a slow, uphill bicycle ride on a suburban speedway, with light, fast traffic. How controlling…
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My e-mail in support of West Station
Alexander Strysky is the Massashusetts Environmental Protection Agency reviewer for the I-90 Interchange project in Allston. The Massachusetts Department of Transportation has backed off from plans for prompt construction of anew West Station on the Framingham-Worcester commuter-rail line, which is an essential element of the project. My comment e-mail to Mr. Strysky is below. ***********…
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Bicyclists always had the right, the Globe got it wrong
The Starts and Stops column in the Metro section of the Sunday, June 10 2012 Boston Globe, and in Boston.com, included a discussion of whether bicyclists are required to ride in bike lanes, under the subheading “Bikers get the right” and concluding that there is no such requirement in Massachusetts. The article quotes Boston Bikes…
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Harvard Bridge connection to the PDW path: proposed improvement
Let’s look at how well bicycle routes around the Boston end of the Harvard Bridge (Massachusetts Avenue bridge over the Charles River) might be improved. Here is a Google maps overview of the area. There are two special bicycle routes in the area: the Paul Dudley White bicycle path along the river, and the ramp…
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Sheet of ice draws praise from advocates
The headline of the Boston Globe article with this picture is “Snowbank becomes accidental hero for area cyclists”. The shiny area in the bikeway is meltwater from said snowbank. When the temperature drops below freezing, the meltwater becomes a sheet of black ice. This problem is unavoidable with a street-level barrier-separated bikeway. I discussed it…
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Vision realistic
From an e-mail about the 2016 Progress Report of the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition: Based on our assessment, the City has made progress, but the City will need to dedicate more capital resources and funding for staff in order to eliminate traffic fatalities in Boston by 2030. [Update, December 2024: The 2016 report was already…
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Pushback on Cambridge bicycle plans
Cambridge Civic Journal blogger Robert Winters has posted a thoroughgoing critique of a proposal for a great expansion in the number and mileage of on-street, barrier-separated bikeways. City Councillor Craig Kelley also has raised questions on his blog (and sent out the same message to an e-mail subscription list).