Comments on: Boston’s Plan To End Its Bike-Unfriendly Image? More Bikes

By: SO BOSTON. | a greener state of mind

SO BOSTON. | a greener state of mind — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 19:44:32 +0000

[...] We’re bike friendly…ish. Cambridge installed self-help bike stations to help you get your gear in… [...]

By: Sherbornpeddler

Sherbornpeddler — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:58:40 +0000

Governor Patrick has a rotating door appraoch to Transportation leadership. Scientific American article figures real progress happens when there is a woman in charge. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=getting-more-bicyclists-on-the-road

Carpe Diem Deval!

By: Keith

Keith — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:37:02 +0000

I think there’s a feedback loop going on: many drivers don’t think bikes belong on the road, so they don’t make room; then cyclists think that every driver is out to kill them, so they start acting as if there aren’t any rules.

But state law has given the same rights and responsibilities to cyclists for years, and in Jan 2009 the law was made more explicit. If police would enforce the existing laws, and hand out tickets equally — to motorists and cyclists alike — attitudes would eventually change.

By: rich

rich — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:13:12 +0000

I must say, I am sick and tired of the attitude of some bicyclists. They are just as bad as some of the bonehead drivers. Numerous times, I came close to be hit by some morons charging down at me as well as other pedestrians without regarding for our safety, and some even curse as if they own the walkway.

By: Lynda

Lynda — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 13:32:34 +0000

I got hit by a car last year in Cambridge while riding my bike. Not only did I have to deal with a huge hassle of bills and insurance claims (which only paid for a small part of my accident), but the driver of the car sent me a bill for her shattered windshield. I will never ride a bike in Boston again.

By: OldRoads.com

OldRoads.com — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 00:48:15 +0000

I have a used bike shop in Cambridge.
I tell my customers a cycle is the fastest way around the city and the most dangerous way around the city.
I do believe the more humans we get on cycles, the safer and more accepted it will be for everyone.
-Vinny

By: John Luke Mills

John Luke Mills — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 22:35:06 +0000

I used to commute on a bike years ago from Dorchester to Cambridge. I never got hurt but did have many close calls. What kept me safe was keeping in mind that, “I am in an obstacle course with moving obstacles that are trying to kill me”. My girlfriend had this strange idea that she had rights on the road. She got hit multiple times.

I finally gave up when they stopped fixing the streets. I just couldn’t keep a mental map of all the moving cars and likely future paths and have enough time left over to look for potholes. At lot has to change before biking in Boston isn’t an extreme sport.

By: Mark Lowenstein

Mark Lowenstein — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:50:04 +0000

It is all well and good to discuss fancy new bike sharing programs and all that. But let’s get the basics right first. For all those who complain about danger with traffic, the most dangerous biking is on some of our poorly maintained bike paths – anyone tried to bike on the Cambridge side of the river lately? The beautiful bike path from Watertown to Boston, except for some minor fixes lately, is in awful condition. Has not been repaved in about 20 years. Then there’s signage. Are there ANY signs along the Charles or Emerald Necklace bike paths, saying something like “downtown this way”, or X miles to major destination, or “best route to” (like we do for the airport). There are a little, not very expensive things we can do to make the city more bicycle friendly without having to put in all sorts of fancy programs. Like keeping the wonderful shoulders of roads like VFW Parkway and West Roxbury Parkway free of deep potholes, sand, gravel, broken glass, sewer ruts, etc – this stuff is WAY more dangerous than cars!

By: aquavitaua.com

aquavitaua.com — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 12:45:54 +0000

would never ride a bike in Boston=))

By: hans laubach

hans laubach — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:16:37 +0000

Boston and the bikes – I have been biking in Boston for over 4 years. It is a great way to commute and I embrace all the positives that come with it. However if I see the three bikes standing at City Hall it feels almost laughable. most major cities of Europe have now thousands of city bikes waiting to be picked up at every street corner. THis is all funded by the cities themselves however here you can really talk about safety in numbers. Three bikes in fron tof the city hall makes a nice photo though.

By: KLane

KLane — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 02:46:33 +0000

You are living in cloud-coo-coo land if you think Boston will ever be safe for cyclists. When Boston fixes its potholes (one caused me serious injury) and Boston enforces its traffic laws (note the trucks parked in the Comm Ave bike lanes in front of BU East) and Boston educates its drivers about cyclists, Boston may become a cycle-friendly city. Don’t talk about cycle-friendly until then. And don’t put the blame on renegade cyclists; their lawlessness is a defense mechanism.

By: Sam

Sam — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:36:23 +0000

Are you kidding me? This city’s streets are not even safe to walk, let alone biking on a regular basis.

The authorities should learn something from European cities which are much more pedestrian/biker friendly than our Boston e.g. dedicated Bike Lanes.

By: Will

Will — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:09:44 +0000

Getting more bikes on the road seems like a great idea. With enough bikers there would be a critical mass forcing traffic to notice bikers and showing decision makers that a greater percent of infrastructure should be geared towards bikes.

By: jamie

jamie — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:30:39 +0000

“Officer Scott Rocheville of the Boston University police says it happens all the time. He shakes his head as he watches a woman on a bike pedal diagonally across eight lanes of traffic on Commonwealth Avenue, go over the Green Line train tracks and blow though a red light.” And did nothing about it. If bicyclists got traffic tickets just as drivers do, then we’d be equal.

By: BethOnABike

BethOnABike — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:08:45 +0000

While greater awareness of cyclists by Boston drivers is a step forward for safe cyclinig, this is not going to be the solution to actually making cycling in Boston safer. The first step must be ensuring that cyclists actually have somewhere to ride. In particular, some of the downtown streets are so narrow that their two lanes of cars can barely fit, and only the most daring of cyclists would dare try to squeeze in. Dedicated bike lanes are THE first step to safe cycling. Personally, I always breathe a sigh of relief as I ride onto the Mass Ave Bridge towards Cambridge (1), knowing that I somehow survived the streets of Boston and can actually enjoy the rest of my ride. Unfortuantely, even there cyclists are not free of lanes riddled with potholes and bad patches (2), which are much more dangerous to cyclists than cars.

Cyclists also face dangers at intersections, particularly when trying to turn, or to go straight without a bike lane protected from right-turning traffic. On some low-traffic roads, I can declare myself a car, signal my direction and make eye contact to merge with drivers and turn, but in other busier streets, it feels safer to actually wait on the curb as a pedestrian to cross. Innovations like advance stop line “bike boxes” (3) and bike-specific traffic signals (4) (not to mention ensuring existing traffic signals actually detect bikes’ presence) are helping to alleviate such problems in other cities.

A related problem is that while cyclists are technically required to follow car-traffic laws, there are times when this is comical or even more dangerous than circumventing them. By having laws that compromise cyclists’ safety, it leads to a mindset where other traffic laws seem “easier” to break. As good as it sounds on paper, bikes are not cars (nor are they pedestrians), and should have their own set of bike traffic laws with regards to such situations. A good example of this is running red lights at pedestrian crossings. There’s a particular 5-way intersection on my commute that has a cycle of all red lights and all pedestrian crossings, before the light turns green. It’s much safer for me to zip carefully across the (unpopulated) intersection on my bike during the red-light-pedestrian-crossing cycle than to wait for the green and get beaned by a car turning right as I try to go straight, or cutting off my left turn.

Although I realize that Boston’s budgetary restrictions probably prevent actual improvements like bike lanes, increasing the number of cyclists riding unsafely is not the solution to Boston’s unsafe streets. Until there are reasonable spaces on the road for cyclists to travel in, and clear rules on which traffic laws it makes sense to apply to cyclists, Boston’s reputation as a bike-unfriendly city will be not only reputation but reality.

Links:
(1) Safety Benefits of Bike Lanes http://www.cambridgema.gov/~cdd/et/bike/bike_safety.html
(2) Road Patching Standards http://www.bikeplan.com/10quest.htm#anchor770158
(3) Bike Boxes http://www.livablestreets.com/streetswiki/bike-boxes
(4) Bike Traffic Signals http://current.com/items/89336069_san-francisco-gets-first-bicycle-traffic-signal.htm

By: Boston Knucklehead

Boston Knucklehead — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:02:07 +0000

This city is really not designed for people on bikes but it is time they try to make some changes. More and more people are really starting to ride their bikes to work everyday.

By: Steve D

Steve D — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:18:18 +0000

Bicycling is just one of the modes of transport, and is not going to meet the needs of all, just like cars, buses or trains/subway don’t. Bikes are going to be there, whether the facilities are there or not, so why not add the facilities (bike lanes, etc) to the streets where it makes sense? Motorists; you seem so negative toward bikes, but think if each one of those riders were added to the surrounding roads in cars? Would you be any happier? Not likely. You would just complain about that. Everyone needs to change there attitude around Boston. So grumpy and negative. I love to bike around the city, because when I get frustrated in traffic, I can just dismount, and walk my bike through the park or grab a snack. In a car, you need to sit there and deal. Where you going to park that big thing? Everyone; change your “you are doing something different than I, so you must suck” attitude, and simple solutions to these issues can be found.

By: Jemimah

Jemimah — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:14:36 +0000

I’ve been riding a bike around Boston for 25 years, having cut my city riding teeth with friends who were bike messengers. I don’t wear a helmet, I don’t sit at a stop light if the road is clear, I can occasionally be found on a sidewalk or a one-way street going the “wrong” direction. I’ve never been doored, never run into a person and never, ever, ever taken my mind off what I’m doing or forgotten the fact that I’m the vulnerable one when it comes to being injured or not being seen. I don’t ever go as fast as I could along a line of parked cars, I always announce that I’m “passing on your left/right” to pedestrians, I expect every car to do the silliest thing they could possibly do. I don’t gawk around, I don’t listen to my iPod and I do, whenever possible, make eye contact with drivers, smile at them, and say excuse me and thank you to those trying to be courteous on the road, be they walking or driving. I’m not the only one trying to make my way around the city, nor are they. We need to work together and even if we don’t like each other’s mode of transport, we need be as respectful as possible. I LOVE BIKING IN BOSTON. I don’t need bike lanes, but am happy to have some. I do think that if you’re afraid of biking in the city, you shouldn’t do it. You have to be really sure of yourself riding a bike, just as driving a car. Fearful drivers and riders are both hazards to everyone else. The one thing I’d like to say to drivers and pedestrians, is you do your thing and I’ll do mine. We can all coexist just fine.

By: SBGF

SBGF — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:56:48 +0000

I like Stan’s ideas.

By: SBGF

SBGF — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:52:01 +0000

I used to commute to work by bike, but what finally did me in was the number and height of the hills I have to go up on my commute, and there’s no way to solve that problem. The idea of having free bikes is nice, but wouldn’t work for me because I’m shorter than the average person and I’m sure most of the bikes would be for 6 ft tall men. Also, the problem with not having showers at work is not trivial for most people. And it’s impossible for working parents to pick up kids from school or the babysitter on a bike if you have more than 1 kid, and don’t get me started on the safety issue of parents/bikes/kids on the busy, narrow streets of New England. In theory, biking as a way to commute is great, and I loved it when I was young, had a shower at work and didn’t have kids, but it doesn’t seem feasible for large segments of the population.