I'd like, as a perpetual pedestrian, to understand from cyclists more about their motives: they seem to feel they have a divine right to run red lights through signaled intersections, yell at pedestrians legally occupying crosswalks, and swerving erratically to continue to advance their own selfish movement through the city. I'm all about safe streets for all, but not that bikes trump everyone else.
Biking in Boston
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Cyclists are people. There is no well behaved mode of transportation* because they are all people. That's why it's important to design and set policy in such a way to account for that rather than assume people will obey traffic laws just because. Do you think pedestrians follow the rules and act polite any more so than cyclists or drivers or mopeds?
*Transit excluded because it's operated by professionals who actually have to be accountable to their employer.
Generally it is bad when people do this because they don't know what they're doing and sometimes the result is something counterintuitive or "too different" to be safe. However, this tape intervention actually looks pretty good. I wouldn't be surprised if the people who did it either have a background in traffic engineering and planning or are just familiar with these types of designs in general.
I would love if the city rushed out and just made it permanent in thermo to really stick it to the councilor lol. Aside from maybe the buffer hatching dimensions, I don't really see anything wrong with the layout.
I've said this many times on here, but Boston has an extremely severe behavior problem with respect to how people follow, or rather completely ignore, any and all traffic rules, and that applies equally to drivers, bikers, and pedestrians. Others have contested me when I have said this before, but there is absolutely no question to me on this. It is a general disrespect for any courtesy whatsoever toward anyone, combined with a strong scofflaw attitude. In most cities I have been to, pedestrians do not just fling themselves into the road—I have never seen it half as bad as here. I have never seen bikers running red lights the way they do here. And I have never seen drivers violate all of the 'minor' traffic laws like driving over lanes, right on reds, drifting and turning without signaling, the way people do here. And it comes down to a cultural allowance for this which is reflected in a total lack of enforcement. I grew up understanding that driving in Boston meant you could speed and blow yellow-reds to your heart's content and never be pulled over. People expect that cars will stop for them when they walk into the road, and they are largely actually correct. I'm not talking about aggressive transit related behaviors: people often compare to NYC, which certainly always feels both on foot and on the road that nobody is going to yield to you when they don't have to. But that does not mean that in NYC people go out of their way to spite you as one driver to another as they do here, and people absolutely obey crosswalk signals when on foot far more than Boston. When I lived in London for a year, I had to totally recalibrate my walking behavior since there, if you breeze through a crosswalk with a dont walk signal, cutting it close when cars are coming, they ain't slowing down the way they do in Boston. And many other cities—it does not feel as though you can "get away wait it" with respect to road walking behavior.
I really dont think any of this is going to change until rules start getting enforced, and I think the easiest rules to enforce are obviously drivers. If drivers can behave with impunity, it is a constant reminder to everyone else that basic rules do not matter.
With respect to bikes, I must admit that I am not infrequently guilty of blowing reds, but I'd like to think that in general, I do so safely, and I certainly don't shout or glower at pedestrians. However, the one thing I would say in defense of bikers specifically — and I know this is an excuse, but it is a factor — is that for driving and biking, there's zero physical capital expended by briefly stopping or slowing almost to a stop, whereas for biking, stopping is more of a pain in the ass (in a minor way, but nonetheless), because you have to expend more torque force every time you resume pedaling. As a pedestrian, I generally happily yield to a biker since I know this. If I pause and resume walking, it's just no extra energy for me, but for a biker, it's more work on the legs.
RandomWalk
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The bike path renewal in Cambridge is making agonizingly slow progress.
FormFollowsBudget
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It seems every project in Cambridge has been glacial:
- Bike Path Renewal
- River St rebuild
- Carl Barron Plaza
- Harvard Square Plaza
- Corcoran Playground
Though I didn't grow up in Boston, I only started to use a car when I moved here 20 years ago, and when I first drove to NYC after a couple of years of driving around here, I was amazed at how easy it was to drive there compared to Boston. I would add that it seems to me that enforcement of traffic laws in the Boston area seems to have gotten even more lax in the last 5 years or so, so of course nobody follows them.
RandomWalk
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There are times I wish MA mandated license plates with RFID and equipped every traffic light with readers. Blow a light and get a ticket. As a bonus, also equip entries to bike trails and ticket the mopeds that take them.
Unfortunately, the flock shenanigans show that such a setup would be instantly abused by various LEOs
Unfortunately, the flock shenanigans show that such a setup would be instantly abused by various LEOs
HenryAlan
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On the chance you aren't trolling, I'll simply point out that your perceptions do not fit actual data. Most bike riders do not flagrantly violate traffic laws. Many of us do, however, understand that rules designed for a different vehicle type (ie cars) aren't always what makes sense for the safety of a bike rider. I'll always pick safety over rigid adherence to a code that wasn't written for me in the first place. As for pedestrians, I have no idea what you are talking about, or how that is pertinent to any reasonable reading of the current discussion in this thread.
Charlie_mta
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I'm almost 77 years old, still an avid biker (on a manually powered peddle bike, not an e-bike), and I do about 15 miles per trip, observing the traffic laws. Except, I do keep going, after looking around, through a signalized or stop sign controlled intersection without stopping, if it's devoid of people or traffic. Every other biker I see is pretty good that way, certainly no worse than car drivers. With the price of gas going sky high, and probably never coming down very much, we all need to get used to increasing levels of bikes in traffic.
bigeman312
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I'll bite: As a cyclist, I stop at every single red light I encounter, but will proceed through slowly, yielding to pedestrians, if the pedestrian signal is indicating to cross, and there is no bicycle signal present. I can't speak to others, though, as I've seen the full spectrum of behaviors from cyclists, pedestrians, drivers, and everyone else.
Moving away from the individual, a complete lack of encorcement for all modes in Boston is leading to greater chaos on the streets.
I sincerely hope we are at the local minimum for this issue. I welcome the bus-lane and bus-stop cameras as a proof-of-concept.
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Koopzilla24
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I myself am a pedestrian first, transit rider second, e-biker third (I work in the suburbs and reverse commute), with 4,600miles on my bike odometer, and I theorize it stems from us being a drivers-first country. I'd imagine just about all of us were raised with bikes being only a recreational tool for hanging out with friends or driving to the bike trail to ride with the family. Then when we became teenagers it was all about getting your license so you could drive everywhere and gain "freedom." Then upon getting a license and becoming drivers we get imprinted with the American idea that the road is for us and anyone else not in a vehicle is in the way and doesnt belong there. That combined with childhood years of parents behind the wheel getting frustrated with cyclists and pedestrians. Fast-forward to moving towards a bike-centered lifestyle in the city and I don't think that brain wiring goes away. The bike replaces the car in our minds and becomes the fast-moving vehicle that rules the streets and pedestrians are just in the way and dont belong. Essentially those kind of cyclists are biking like theyre driving a car rather than a faster pedestrian/other vulnerable road user. And for this reason I think the way people get rewired into become behaved cyclists is by being a pedestrian more and seeing it from that other side. Futhermore, I'd guess that the cyclists who ride like that are most typically drivers when theyre not on the bike, whilst those who act better around pedestrians are pedestrians themselves most often when not on the bike.
Same. I am totally against camera enforcement as a principle (the buses I am fine with) but it would certainly fix things up pretty fast. I wonder whenever autonomous vehicles take over how this will change things. Probably a lot.
Cambridge has quietly watered down and delayed the Mass Ave improvement project from north of Harvard Sq to the Arlington town line. This was part of the CSO that was mandated to be complete by end of 2026, but they cited cost overruns/funding as a source of delays in a presentation this past April. The original approved design was a partial construction (remove center median + rebuild some curbs and floating curb bus stops) but it's now going to be only flex posts and shared bus stop/bike lane only (similar to all the other quick-build projects in cambridge). Given the high bike volume on this stretch (nearly equal bikes/cars during peak hours) DESPITE the currently unsafe road layout (two general traffic lanes + doorzone lane next to parking), I think its safe to assume Mass ave is possibly the most important corridor (even more so than broadway/cambridge st) to have protected and have fully built as soon as possible. Having a segment of that not complete until early 2029 seems to be a large blocker in getting more commuters (particularly from arlington and north/west cambridge) out of their cars. With the current configuration I personally avoid the section if possible (choosing difficult parallel routes like sherman st/garden st) and would definitely not let my kids ride on their own there.
For any cambridge residents on the forum, I suggest reaching out to your city councilor's and to CDOT to try and see if there's anything that can be done about A) restoring funding for the partial curb reconstruction and B) getting this timeline moved up more aggressively.
For any cambridge residents on the forum, I suggest reaching out to your city councilor's and to CDOT to try and see if there's anything that can be done about A) restoring funding for the partial curb reconstruction and B) getting this timeline moved up more aggressively.
Full disclosure, I live on the ABP- Dudley segment, and have since before the quick builds were announced - the reaction to ABP-Dudley is what got this the 5 year pause and move to partial construction. I'd point out that segment is already buffered, via bus lane and (part time) parking protected, so I understand why it's last on the priority pile - it's the better existing segment.
As for the rest of your statement... I might need you to cite your sources there. While yes, floating bus stops & some curb work was removed, and some pedestrian islands now paint, My understanding is that the median is still going to be removed along the entire stretch - what's now moving into construction once the utility work wraps up is that removal, and the median is getting replaced with striping and flexposts, and that impacts the pedestrian refuges most, rather than the bike lanes. Other than that, my understanding is that it remains almost entirely parking buffered outside of bus stops and a handful of handicap parking spots.