Tag: Massachusetts
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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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Micromobility bills before the Massachusetts Legislature, 2019
I have prepared extensive comments on transportation bills currently in the Massachusetts legislature. Most bills are about micromobility devices, electric bicycles and various safety measures. My comments also include a slightly different version of the observations about Massachusetts traffic law in general which I have posted elsewhere.
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Massachusetts traffic law, the nation’s most disorganized and confusing
As my comments on Massachusetts traffic law may be of interest to people outside Massachusetts, I have posted the comment in a different blog.
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Centre Street, Jamaica Plain, Boston petition on Change.org
One Joshua Grolman has published a petition on Change. org asking for “protected bike lanes” on Centre Street, the main street through the Jamaica Plain neighborhood in Boston. Centre Street is two-way, narrowed by parallel parking on both sides everywhere except at special locations — bus stops, turn lanes, approaches to intersections etc. While the…
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Massachusetts Highway Department advice on bicycle detection
The Massachusetts Department of Transportation Project Development and Design Guide, published in 2006, is recognized as pioneering in its call for street design “from the outside in,” recognizing the need to provide for pedestrians and bicyclists. The Guide is explicit in its requirement that traffic signals work for bicyclists, but does not give detailed actuator…
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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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My letter to the Globe about the Kurmann fatality
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…