Biking in Boston

dennismulder said:
on the flip side, i have a class 3 ebike. i love being able to whip around an open road at 30mph. but when i commute to work on a shared use path, i set it at class 2 level and tend to ride at the 15-20 range. there’s absolutely no reason to ban that on shared use paths, and doing so would be harmful.

operating at a class 2 level should absolutely positively not be treated like a motorcycle w/licensing and insurance. and there should never ever be a prohibition against riding any bike on a sidewalk unless a fully protected bike lane exists next to it
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Broadly agree, I just want to clarify that Massachusetts does not recognize a class 3 as most other states do. If your bike is providing throttle or pedal assist at 30mph you are, per the state, no longer riding a bicycle.
 
KCasiglio said:
Broadly agree, I just want to clarify that Massachusetts does not recognize a class 3 as most other states do. If your bike is providing throttle or pedal assist at 30mph you are, per the state, no longer riding a bicycle.
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That’s true. If you are on bike that uses a throttle at 30 mph, that’s not a bicycle. That’s an electric motorcycle.

To be clear: the world would be a better place if people switched automobile trips for electric motorcycle trips more often.
 
bigeman312 said:
Let’s learn from countries who are further ahead of the US when it comes to best biking practices. Places like the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany emphasize that access to bike paths and shared-use paths should be based on the design speed and capability of the vehicle, not just rider behavior. This is a fairly logical approach.
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I agree that design speed/capability are what matter - the challenge is then how do you actually enforce these regulations? It's not obvious, the way that differentiating modes has always in the past been, when you're looking at a class1/2/3+ e-bike. If I or @dennismulder are abiding by a 15mph speed limit on a shared use path, is it important that our bikes are capable of going faster?

I think this is where stuff like licensing and registration might be appropriate, alongside limiting access to minors. Makes enforcement based on behavior more realistic when spot enforcement based on the vehicle itself is so difficult.
 
KCasiglio said:
I agree that design speed/capability are what matter - the challenge is then how do you actually enforce these regulations? It's not obvious, the way that differentiating modes has always in the past been, when you're looking at a class1/2/3+ e-bike. If I or @dennismulder are abiding by a 15mph speed limit on a shared use path, is it important that our bikes are capable of going faster?

I think this is where stuff like licensing and registration might be appropriate, alongside limiting access to minors. Makes enforcement based on behavior more realistic when spot enforcement based on the vehicle itself is so difficult.
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Good point! Design speed matters, as does does making rules easy to enforce. In places like the Netherlands and Denmark, fast e-bikes (like Massachusetts’ Class 3) need plates and registration. This not because the rider is speeding, but because the bike is capable of going fast. That way, police can spot and regulate them more easily, especially on shared paths where pedestrians and slower riders need to feel safe. These countries also often limit fast e-bike use by minors and require basic licensing. Again, this is not to punish riders, but to keep things safe and clear as more fast, motorized bikes hit the streets.
 
Yeah, it's a very tough nut to crack. I think basically we need better operator education. As @KCasiglio points out, it's quite easy to not operate a more powerful pedal assist at full speed if conditions don't allow for safely doing so. I'm not clear on design principles that would work for a place like the GLX community path extension, but we definitely don't want people seeing it as a space for 25 mph cruising speeds.
 
KCasiglio said:
Broadly agree, I just want to clarify that Massachusetts does not recognize a class 3 as most other states do. If your bike is providing throttle or pedal assist at 30mph you are, per the state, no longer riding a bicycle.
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To clarify on my end, if I set it on [what i think of as class 3] it provides pedal assist up to 27 or 28mph. I only hit 30 with a dose of adrenaline on top and maybe a little decline. But again, I almost always have it on [what I think of as class 2] level assist at most, because there’s no reason to go above that on a busy SUP or a city block.

Agree with you that there needs to be a hefty dose of policy consideration given to the operator’s choice not to operate at top speed. It seems too obvious to have to note the outrage that would occur if we required drivers to only operate vehicles capable of reaching highway speeds, on highways
 
dennismulder said:
To clarify on my end, if I set it on [what i think of as class 3] it provides pedal assist up to 27 or 28mph. I only hit 30 with a dose of adrenaline on top and maybe a little decline. But again, I almost always have it on [what I think of as class 2] level assist at most, because there’s no reason to go above that on a busy SUP or a city block.

Agree with you that there needs to be a hefty dose of policy consideration given to the operator’s choice not to operate at top speed. It seems too obvious to have to note the outrage that would occur if we required drivers to only operate vehicles capable of reaching highway speeds, on highways
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Its funny, because I think there's a very clear case for governing motor vehicles that way (I argue an 80mph speed governor) because there is no plausible circumstance for ever needing it to go above that. I'm fully ok with requiring 15mph on MUPs...but that shouldn't require a bike be limited to those speeds when it's also very likely to have to share lanes with vehicles operating far beyond that.
 
How do you solve for the gig delivery guy on a moped running down the community at full speed and honking instead of taking the parallel streets?
 
RandomWalk said:
How do you solve for the gig delivery guy on a moped running down the community at full speed and honking instead of taking the parallel streets?
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First, recognize that multi-use paths are protected spaces, not default through-routes for motorized vehicles. The emphasis should always be on prioritizing the most vulnerable users (pedestrians, followed by those on human powered vehicles), through a combination of design, policy, regulation, and enforcement.

Then, once that's understood, to proactively regulate by vehicle type and infrastructure design, not just rider behavior. That means banning mopeds, motorbikes, and other microvehicles (capable of >20 mph) from multi-use paths, regardless of how fast they’re going, and routing them onto adjacent routes instead.

Finally, once the regulation is in place, we need to enforce that regulation. This is enforced through signage, infrastructure (bollards, for example), police presence or camera enforcement, and crucially, actual penalties. These penalties could be fines, point deductions on delivery platforms, an impounding vehicles. Learning from other countries with better practices, enforcement doesn't stop at observation: violations are actively documented, offenders are held accountable, and local authorities often work directly with delivery companies to flag repeated offenders, adjust routing algorithms, or even suspend access for noncompliant users.
 
bigeman312 said:
and other microvehicles (capable of >20 mph) from multi-use paths
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This is where you lose me. Every muscle powered bike is capable of going 20mph+. (EDIT: As are every class I and II ebike under current MA regulations. I've hit 28+ going downhill.) Should we ban cars from residential side streets because they're capable of going above 25mph?

EDIT2: And then how do you actually enforce it, like practically? You don't know what an ebike is capable of by looking at it, you only know from its behavior.
 
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We have a hard enough time getting movement on red light cameras in MA. It’s going to be an even harder lift to get camera enforcement on multi-use paths.
 
RandomWalk said:
It’s going to be an even harder lift to get camera enforcement on multi-use paths.
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Actually, I disagree. I think people are much happier to allow cameras where "they" don't go, or if they do it's rarely and as a pedestrian. Cameras are hard to implement politically because almost all people are drivers and all drivers are scofflaws at some point. E-bikers don't even make up a majority of MUP users.
 
KCasiglio said:
Actually, I disagree. I think people are much happier to allow cameras where "they" don't go, or if they do it's rarely and as a pedestrian. Cameras are hard to implement politically because almost all people are drivers and all drivers are scofflaws at some point. E-bikers don't even make up a majority of MUP users.
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I 100% agree. This is why the best time to implement enforcement was before higher speed (>20 mph) vehicles became so commonplace on multi-use trails. But it’s only going to get harder the more normalized their presence becomes.
 
It’s not the traffic enforcement aspect. Cameras on a multi-use path will trip the surveillance fears for many pedestrians.
 
KCasiglio said:
Actually, I disagree. I think people are much happier to allow cameras where "they" don't go, or if they do it's rarely and as a pedestrian. Cameras are hard to implement politically because almost all people are drivers and all drivers are scofflaws at some point. E-bikers don't even make up a majority of MUP users.
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Enforcement cameras are also impossible to implement when the vehicle in question doesn't have any kind of highly visible, standardized identifying marks.

I do not see it as very likely that we are going to successfully mandate bicycle license plates and there is no visual identifier of an e-bike that is low-speed vs high-speed.

And even if we did, you run into problem #2 for the most problematic/intentional riders, which is that it is much easier to hide the plate while going past a camera/intentionally breaking the law when it is physically within your reach while in motion than it is in a car. I'm in no way condoning it, but there's many motorcyclists that have been known to reach back and cover the plate or have it set up to be able to flip it out of view.

Which is to say - I think camera enforcement for bikes/ebikes has a lot more issues than for cars and would be extremely difficult to implement in the real world.
 
www.bostonglobe.com

Readers weigh in on motorized vehicles and bike lanes - The Boston Globe

What's a bike, really?
www.bostonglobe.com www.bostonglobe.com

The globe published several responses to yesterday's opinion piece. Highlighting my favorite:

The recent op-ed identifies a growing frustration and fear shared by many but jumps to the wrong solution. The problem: There are a number of transportation options that are smaller and slower than cars but faster and heavier than pedestrians. Right now, everything that isn’t a car or a person ends up in the few “bike” lanes that we have.

A parent with kids in a cargo bike should not be forced to fight for road space with Boston drivers just because their bike has e-assist. What if we designed micromobility lanes that work for all?

We have design precedent in spaces where cars and people are likely to share the road — speed bumps, raised crosswalks, and certain visual cues are proven to slow traffic. Implementing these tools in bike lanes would keep pedestrians and slower cyclists safer from all faster-moving traffic, whether it’s a delivery driver on a moped or an aspiring Tour de France rider.

Everyone in the gray area between pedestrian and car is fighting for scraps that pass for “bike lanes.” We shouldn’t be fighting each other, too.

Scott Istvan

Somerville

The writer is an at-large candidate for Somerville City Council.
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