bostonbiker

Tag: collision

  • Some Plain Talk about Plainville

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    jsallen
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    The town manager in Plainville, Massachusetts, has complained about a new bike lane which has been installed in connection with upgrading of a casino by the side of Washington Street, US Route 1. He thinks that the bike lane should be removed, because he considers it unsafe. You may hear about this in a news…

  • Commonwealth Avenue victory?

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    jsallen
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    I submitted the following comments in response to a Boston Globe article reporting on proposed bikeways on Commonwealth Avenue. [archived] Real solutions to bicycle and pedestrian mobility in the Commonwealth Avenue corridor can be found by connecting parallel streets, an initiative which ties in well with the proposed Allston Turnpike Interchange Project. I have commented…

  • Commonwealth Avenue and the BU campus

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    jsallen
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    The Boston Cyclists Union and Livable Streets are promoting cycle tracks for Commonwealth Avenue. The bicycle industry’s Astroturf advocacy organization, Peoplefor Bikes, is asking people to sign a petition in support of them. Not a good idea. Cycle tracks on Commonwealth Avenue won’t prevent the most common car-bike crashes (crossing and turning collisions, doorings —…

  • 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…

  • A Discussion of Massachusetts Rules on Crosswalks

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    jsallen
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    This appeared on the BostonAreaCycling e-mail list. It deserves repeating. On Jun 29, 2014, at 10:13 PM, David Wean  wrote: Vehicle operators are required to stop once pedestrians enter the crosswalk (or when they are, IIRC, within 10 feet of the lane the vehicle is in). A concern I have is that treating cyclists the…

  • Is This Street Wide Enough?

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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…

  • Truck-bicycle collision in Amherst kills Newton resident

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    jsallen
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    Another fatal turnng truck-bicycle collision, in Amherst, Massachusetts [archived]. The bicyclist, Livingston Pangburn, age 22, was a former student of my wife, who taught math at Newton (Massachusetts) North High School. This was a left cross collision. The cyclist was going downhill and the truck, uphill. I don’t know details of this particular crash, but…

  • About Beacon Street, Somerville

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    jsallen
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    I am writing in response to Alex Epstein’s letter [sorry, it’s gone — no archive and no search on the site], published as an article in the Somerville Patch, concerning the proposed cycle track treatment on Beacon Street. I write as one of the cyclists who suggested an alternative design at community meetings and a…