Biking in Medford is scary. I don't do it much. Part of it is infrastructure, but it also doesn't seem to have many cyclists yet. The Northern Strand being fairly close to Medford might help this along.
Biking in Boston
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Biking in Medford is scary. I don't do it much. Part of it is infrastructure, but it also doesn't seem to have many cyclists yet. The Northern Strand being fairly close to Medford might help this along.
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Wicked Local reports that Spring 2015 is now your completion date for the Somerville Community Path between Cedar St and Lowell.
The perfect has been the enemy of the good here. All the doo-dads that there's not actual need for are visible through the fence, languishing along with the path they've bogged down. Absurd--borderline criminal--that they built the stadium seating but claim there was no time to actually connect the thing to Lowell St.
Cambridge Street:
As you can see, the future paint is supposed to guide the cars into a sharper turn. I doubt anyone will follow it. So while the cars are flowing it's a fairly scary merge still:
But you can just wait in the buffered space and then proceed when there's a gap in the traffic, which will come eventually:
As you can see, the future paint is supposed to guide the cars into a sharper turn. I doubt anyone will follow it. So while the cars are flowing it's a fairly scary merge still:
But you can just wait in the buffered space and then proceed when there's a gap in the traffic, which will come eventually:
I'll also note that the N. Harvard Street intersection (eastbound) is a clear case where a bicyclist is much, MUCH safer if they run the red light and get significantly ahead of the waiting cars before encountering the I-90 entrance ramp. Plus, there's no conflicting movement at all because the CSX yard parking lot is closed. Following the law would be significantly more dangerous to life and limb in this particular instance.
So true. If the end results were really nice I wouldn't mind so much (I'd rather have a great thing late than a mediocre thing on time), but this is a very bizarre quarter mile they've built here. The super-wide path and garishly colored rubber edges are just bizarre. It looks like they were going for a half-assed playground. What's even more bizarre is the big piling of playground-like blue rubber material at the Cedar entrance. Not too many parents will see that--five feet away from a busy road with no fence--and think Hey, I should tell my kids to play there.
fattony
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Thanks for the photos Matthew. Cambridge Street looks pretty good, but I predict many drivers will ignore the new striping for a while. It will take a few months or even a year for the herd to change their behavior fully.
Equilibria
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If that's the case, then give the cyclists a dedicated green, the same way you would with left-turning cars (who do something similar by sitting in the intersection after a green).
I've heard a rumor that they plan to get rid of that left-turn signal into the ex-parking lot. But I don't know if that work would easily extend to installation of another signal head with a bicycle symbol. Kind of expensive for something that's going to be torn up in a few years, and anyway could be accomplished with a static sign.
I asked about it a few months ago and was told they couldn't remove it because of the volume of u-turns.
Or in the case of Congress St downtown, never.
Those new lanes are practically begging for some flex posts. If there's one lesson Boston has taught me about bike lanes, it's that if they're wide enough for a car, people WILL drive in them.
JeffDowntown
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For Boston drivers, what you really need are Jersey barriers.
(But adding flex posts is still nice).
How will flex posts effect plowing? Will they plow the road and then the bike lane? Or just use the bike lane for snow storage?
If it's anything like the Western Ave cycle track they will
1) make huge piles of snow from the roadway in it
2) not plow it at all until 4-10 days after a storm
3) use a bobcat to "plow", leaving ice and piles of slush on the ground
4) unevenly throw down a patch of salt or two that become obstructions in their own right
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http://time.com/3594971/the-25-best-inventions-of-2014/
You can test ride them for free at the Cambridge office, https://orders.superpedestrian.com/demo_days.html
To be a cycle track it needs to be physically separated and that's why the City uses flex posts. When they use flex posts, the width of the lane and buffer zone needs to be wide enough for street sweeping and plowing. PWD is looking into buying narrower equipment going forward though and then the City will be able to better locate the posts. It's actually more expensive to remove and replace the posts, so they just replace them as needed or at the beginning of Spring.
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Hubway stations in Somerville, Brookline, and "outer" Boston (e.g. JP), have started to close for the season (to reopen in March or April depending on the weather).
Nearly-all of Cambridge's will remain open all winter (a few will be moved off the street to stay away from snow plows), and 60 Boston stations will have their season extended to Dec 31.
Details here: http://www.thehubway.com/news/2014/11/19/here-are-open-stations-winter-2014-15
This will be my first winter as a Hubway user. My "regular" stations are Cambridge Main Post Office and MicroCenter/Trader Joes, and I've appreciated being able to make "lunch runs" to TJ's on a Hubway on days I don't bike (or even when I do...Hubway's stations are more convenient than locking/unlocking or getting my bike in/out of my office).
Nearly-all of Cambridge's will remain open all winter (a few will be moved off the street to stay away from snow plows), and 60 Boston stations will have their season extended to Dec 31.
Details here: http://www.thehubway.com/news/2014/11/19/here-are-open-stations-winter-2014-15
This will be my first winter as a Hubway user. My "regular" stations are Cambridge Main Post Office and MicroCenter/Trader Joes, and I've appreciated being able to make "lunch runs" to TJ's on a Hubway on days I don't bike (or even when I do...Hubway's stations are more convenient than locking/unlocking or getting my bike in/out of my office).
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How many years is Cambridge going to "pilot" winter Hubway before it gets rolled out in other places?
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I have to believe it is a mixture of both tough economics and the cost/difficulty of snow.
Given "tourists" are the high-profit use (that's what we're told...they pay a lot and don't use it much), then the winter months serve a hard-core, year-round group of heavy users who are going to "subscribe" whether they're open in winter or not, but don't bring in much $.
Cambridge has to be doing this because they really want to keep folks on their bikes as a matter of promoting the mode. I suspect that the tough economics scare off any city that is any less committed to bikes (and, not surprisingly, that's everyone else)