Biking in Boston

jbray said:
-City gets federal money to upgrade Melnea Cass to a quasi-highway
-Opposition rejects the proposal
-City, not wanting to lose 25 million comes back with a plan to rebuild MC with protected bike lanes, cycle tracks around bus stops, raised pedestrian and bike crossings, tidal flooding infrastructure, and the removal of 124 trees (including 25 labelled as "dead") to be replaced by 205 trees.
-Conservation law foundation comes in and says the tree wardens of the city are required to have held a hearing especially as this is a social justice neighborhood and that mature trees are more environmentally sound than saplings/will the new trees actually be maintained to full maturity/rising temperatures and loss of canopy.
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Unfortunately Ive yet to find an American city that takes trees seriously, so yeah, I wouldnt trust them either,

205 new trees sounds great, but 3 years from project finish date, how many of those will still be alive? 10 years from now, how many will be of significant size and provide coverage?

As long as cities keep buying the cheapest sticks they can find, and calling them trees, insisting that a 4x4 well is enough to support a tree, and then not caring for them so they immediatly die...the residents have a point.

Bonus: Cities place no restriction on the amount of salt/chemicals used on sidewalks in the winter, which in turn kills all the trees.
 
jass said:
Bonus: Cities place no restriction on the amount of salt/chemicals used on sidewalks in the winter, which in turn kills all the trees.
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Many do. Burligton famously (at the time) became the first town in the nation to ban the sale and use of all chlorides on public and private ways in 1972 in order to protect its water supply. The bylaw was later amended to allow for the sale and use of tree and water supply-safer calcium chloride townwide and for a 1:4 sodium chloride:sand mix to be used only on public ways outside of the aquifer district (Basically the southwest quadrant of town). After the bylaw was passed, members of the Conservation Commission, which submitted the bylaw article to the warrant, got calls and letters from other places in northern climates seeking advice on how to implement their own ban. My father, who was on the Conservation Commission at the time, remembers having to give a primer on the intricacies of New England town government to a visitor from Germany who was the member of his local Gemeinderat and wanted to enact a salt ban in his town.

From the General Bylaws:
"4.4 Use of Chlorides Within the Town The use of sodium chloride is prohibited on private or public ways or parking lots in the Town of Burlington, with the exception of public ways outside of the Aquifer and Water Resource Districts, where a mixture of sodium chloride to sand not to exceed 1:4 may be used. The use of calcium chloride is allowed throughout the Town. Note: Adopted Art. 35 TM 12/18/72. App. A.G. 1/29/73. Pub. BTU 2/8, 2/15, 2/22/73. Amended Art. 5 TM 1/13/93. App. A.G. 3/2/93. Pub. Burl. News 3/17, 3/24/93."
 
Meanwhile, two deaths of cyclists is what its taken to get Cambridge to narrow Mass Ave so as to better channelize motorized traffic through Harvard Sq.

mass.streetsblog.org

Responding to Recent Killings, Cambridge Fast-Tracks Traffic Calming Through Harvard Square

The installation of a separated bike lane on the northbound side of Massachusetts Ave. will be implemented within the next two weeks, and the lane reduction on Brattle Street, in front of the Harva…
mass.streetsblog.org

My sense is that these fatalities happened when (somehow) the rearmost wheels of the truck "took the inside lane"--which happened to be the bike lane.

I'd say they need to specifically design the outbound through lane that will remain with tractor-trailers in mind --where the trailer "trails" and whether the operator can see bikes on the truck's right side.
 
Arlington said:
Meanwhile, two deaths of cyclists is what its taken to get Cambridge to narrow Mass Ave so as to better channelize motorized traffic through Harvard Sq.

mass.streetsblog.org

Responding to Recent Killings, Cambridge Fast-Tracks Traffic Calming Through Harvard Square

The installation of a separated bike lane on the northbound side of Massachusetts Ave. will be implemented within the next two weeks, and the lane reduction on Brattle Street, in front of the Harva…
mass.streetsblog.org

My sense is that these fatalities happened when (somehow) the rearmost wheels of the truck "took the inside lane"--which happened to be the bike lane.

I'd say they need to specifically design the outbound through lane that will remain with tractor-trailers in mind --where the trailer "trails" and whether the operator can see bikes on the truck's right side.
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This was actually already designed as part of the kiosk renovation, but they figured out how to make it an early action item (the kiosk project itself just went out to bid last week). It seems the single lane will be 16-18ft wide so that it can accommodate the truck swings. The bike lane will be flex post protected with a buffer.
 
HenryAlan said:
Flex posts are inadequate for this location. A truck trailer swinging in to that space will simply cross over the posts. What is needed is a hard physical separation.
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No, it won't need that much space.
 
Does anyone know if there have been talks about adding bike lanes to the rest of Lowell St. in Somerville (the only one is the single direction up hill from Somerville Ave to Summer St.)? Seems like this could a pretty significant link for the Cambridge/Somerville/Medford area:
  • The starting/end point for the Somerville Community Path is at Lowell making Lowell an ideal outlet/entry point.
  • It's a near direct link between Porter and Magoun and provides pretty solid connections via existing bike infrastructure to Union Square, Inman, and Harvard as well as Ball Square and Tufts.
  • It's connected to Beacon/Hampshire via the Sacramento St. Underpass. Beacon/Hampshire is, in my opinion, the best link to Kendall and Downtown for cycle commuters.
  • The Magoun GLX stop will be directly accessible from Lowell when it opens.
  • The Community Path will extend from Lowell St. as part of the GLX - Lowell would be an ideal perpendicular connection for Cambridge/Somerville/Medford.
 
Lrfox said:
Does anyone know if there have been talks about adding bike lanes to the rest of Lowell St. in Somerville (the only one is the single direction up hill from Somerville Ave to Summer St.)?
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Probably not a current priority given they recently did some lane modifications around Maxwell's Green. But if you ever have questions about bike infrastructure projects the Somerville Bicycle Committee is very active and tight with city planners (many of whom are cyclists). https://www.facebook.com/SomervilleBikes

In short, every one of the city's major cross streets that clear the Lowell line tracks should have major bike infrastructure and little to no on-street parking--Cedar, Lowell, Central, School, Walnut.

The city's answer is, uniformly
1. Yes, you're right.
2. People like their parking.
3. We're working on it.
 
kjdonovan said:
Probably not a current priority given they recently did some lane modifications around Maxwell's Green. But if you ever have questions about bike infrastructure projects the Somerville Bicycle Committee is very active and tight with city planners (many of whom are cyclists). https://www.facebook.com/SomervilleBikes

In short, every one of the city's major cross streets that clear the Lowell line tracks should have major bike infrastructure and little to no on-street parking--Cedar, Lowell, Central, School, Walnut.

The city's answer is, uniformly
1. Yes, you're right.
2. People like their parking.
3. We're working on it.
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Thanks! I'm still relatively new to anything other than recreational riding around here and I just "liked" the group.
 
HenryAlan said:
Flex posts are inadequate for this location. A truck trailer swinging in to that space will simply cross over the posts. What is needed is a hard physical separation.
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I want the truck to get more feedback than flex posts can give:
1) Visual feedback that their truck will experience a physical barrier that they shouldn't mess with*
2) A tactile feedback that things have gone out of bounds (mountable curb...or NON mountable one)

* even though, like a mountable curb, it needn't cripple the truck
 
I'm not sure if it is part of the process of making them permanent, but the bike lanes around the common and public garden are gone.
 
BuilditDenser said:
I'm not sure if it is part of the process of making them permanent, but the bike lanes around the common and public garden are gone.
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No, unfortunately BTD seems to think that bike lanes and protests can't possibly coexist. What I find very amusing about that choice is the two protests I can find for this weekend are one small anti- mandatory vaccine protest and then the ride for black lives protest which is literally on bikes...

https://twitter.com/x/status/1299075268485828608
 
From another thread here (thank you, DBM) I stumbled upon Kris Carter's Vimeo page. I found this video of the May-July 2020 difference in biking experience on same streets to be illustrative:

 
Nice video recap. Interested to see what if anything will happen before the end of construction season in the process of making this permanent
 
ra84970 said:
Nice video recap. Interested to see what if anything will happen before the end of construction season in the process of making this permanent
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I'm expecting/hoping green pavement lanes and the plastic mini barrier poles.

In the meantime, that video documents a 2 month time difference between the left and right screens. The genie is out of the bottle.

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Saw folks going way out the Minuteman on Blue Bikes on Sunday (I wonder if they understood how much extra they were going to pay?)
 
Arlington said:
Saw folks going way out the Minuteman on Blue Bikes on Sunday (I wonder if they understood how much extra they were going to pay?)
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I feel like it's lesser known/used, but the $10 adventure pass allows for 2-hour rides. Pretty good deal (imo) if you're looking to do some exploring for a day and don't want to be too concerned about time.
 
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