bostonbiker

Tag: crash

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Sheet of ice draws praise from advocates

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    jsallen
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    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…

  • Vision realistic

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    jsallen
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    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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • You too can prevent fatal truck-bicycle collisions

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    jsallen
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    I am sick at heart. Last December we lost Chris Weigl, graduate student in journalism at Boston University, a young man of great promise, killed when a semitrailer truck ran over him on Commonwealth Avenue near the BU campus. The green arrow approximates Weigl’s line of travel; the red arrow, the truck’s. (Also see larger…

  • 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…

  • Bicyclist falls under bus on Huntington Avenue, dies

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    jsallen
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    Tragic occurrence. Unfortunately, neither article gives enough detail to say why this happened. But according to several commenter eyewitnesses on the Herald blog, the bicyclist got a wheel caught in the trolley tracks in the street. The bicyclist and bus were eastbound according to the Globe. I got an e-mail passing along information from the…