Tag: Massachusetts
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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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More comments on the I-90 Allston Interchange project.
Some important improvements: parkland along the Charles, an overpass over Soldiers Field Road and a better Franklin Street overpass, but also same old, same old, People’s Pillar to Post instead of a People’s Pike. My comments following the December 8 public meeting are online. More extensive earlier comments are in another post on this blog.
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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).
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My comments on the North Washington Street Bridge project
The comments below were addressed to Patricia Leavenworth, Chief Engineer at MassDOT. ATTN: Bridge Project Management, Project File No. 604173 Dear Ms. Leavenworth: I attended the 75% design about the North Washington Street bridge project on October 19, and I am commenting on that project. The quote below is on page 13 of the minutes…
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Forcing the right hook at Mass and Beacon
The installation of a separated bikeway on Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, leading from the Harvard Bridge to Beacon Street, forces motorists to turn right from the left lane — and establishes as the norm, bicyclists’ overtaking on the right, just as in the crash which killed 38 year-old medical researcher Anita Kurmann at that location…
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Gillooly’s presentation
Deputy Commissioner James Gillooly’s presentation about the planned separate bikeways on Commonwealth Avenue is online at the URL below. I have prespred a version synchronized to his talk about it at the 2015 Massachusetts Moving Together conference. Gillooly, J. (2015, 11 01). Commonwealth Avenue Phase 2A… Retrieved June 25, 2016, from http://www.movingtogetherma.org/Pdfs/2015presentations/Gillooly-Issued_Move%20Together%20-%20Session%202D.pdf — deleted by…
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The 2015-2016 crop of bills in the Massachusetts legislature
My opinion on these proposals, in general: all well-intentioned, but the the law of unintended consequences comes into play with some. S. 1117, sponsored by Sen. Brownsberger of Watertown, by striking out the words “16 years of age or younger”, would require bicyclists of all ages to wear a helmet, and would encourage bicyclists to…
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Arlington Center Safe Travel Project update
Arlington Center has presented a major problem for the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway (rail trail) since its opening. For people who are not familiar with the situation in Arlington Center, the rail line passed diagonally through the middle of town, crossing the two largest streets in Arlington within a couple hundred feet of their intersection. The…