Biking in Boston

The EGE said:
While this is great to see, it pretty much kills any chance of a dedicated bus lane for the foreseeable future. So the 15,000 people who ride the 1 and CT1 buses every day not only see no improvement in their service. In fact, as buses now have to weave around more bikers and wait for them to clear stops, bus travel times will increase.

Granted, a major safety upgrade for bikers is a huge deal. But "complete streets" that screws over transit users - who generally outnumber bikers at least 10:1 on most arterials - is not very complete at all.
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This is a great point. Ideally, Mass Ave would have been put on a road diet, with one lane of general travel in each direction, an exclusive busway, and adjacent cycle-tracks.
 
Looking at Google Maps, I do believe that everywhere on Mass Ave in Boston would be wide enough for 1 lane traffic + 1 lane bus + protected bike lane in each direction. However, I'm not sure whether there would always be enough room for bus islands (either with shoulder lanes or median lanes) to prevent buses from mixing with bikes, and almost certainly the bike lanes would have to be completely reconstructed. So the presence of bike lanes aren't a fatal blocker for bus lanes, but they might make it more difficult to add later.
 
bigeman312 said:
This is a great point. Ideally, Mass Ave would have been put on a road diet, with one lane of general travel in each direction, an exclusive busway, and adjacent cycle-tracks.
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While I fully agree, getting the city to prioritize transit is tough. At least the City did say that they are now counting people not vehicles when it comes to traffic planning. We still need to get them to understand that improving transit and biking can get people out of cars.

from last night:
2a7imoz.jpg
 
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The EGE said:
While this is great to see, it pretty much kills any chance of a dedicated bus lane for the foreseeable future. So the 15,000 people who ride the 1 and CT1 buses every day not only see no improvement in their service. In fact, as buses now have to weave around more bikers and wait for them to clear stops, bus travel times will increase.

Granted, a major safety upgrade for bikers is a huge deal. But "complete streets" that screws over transit users - who generally outnumber bikers at least 10:1 on most arterials - is not very complete at all.
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What about Bus+Bike lanes? Could that work on Mass Ave or is bus frequency too high?

Actually, I don't know what the conditions are for Bus+Bike to work well. Can anyone enlighten us?
 
fattony said:
What about Bus+Bike lanes?

Actually, I don't know what the conditions are for Bus+Bike to work well. Can anyone enlighten us?
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Most people on bikes don't feel comfortable sharing a lane with a bus. It's OK and can even be an improvement for people who don't mind riding in traffic, but you need to be able to ride relatively fast and be confident that the bus drivers are actually looking out for you. Also, especially when riding during peak travel times, it requires people to pass buses when they stop to pick up/discharge passengers and that mixing with other traffic is unpleasant and can be dangerous at times.

It isn't a facility that gets more people on bikes.
 
Buses and bikes tend to average about the same speeds - but bikes maintain that speed while buses have a higher top speed but make stops. So every single stop there's a possibility of a collision with a biker, and that makes them arguably less safe than riding nearer to regular traffic which is more consistently faster than bikes.
 
A little surprised at the low numbers for the 1/CT1. Figured it would be over 2,000 people per peak period. Anyway, there might be more all-day ridership on such a route, and that's what boosts its numbers.

Bus+bike lanes suck, best to avoid them as much as possible. The UK has bus lane mania so we'e got plenty of experience...

Funny thing is that over here I could guarantee you that with as much space as Mass Ave has, there would definitely be bus lanes. Very few corridors have any more than 1 lane of general motor traffic in each direction. There would be bus lanes, and separate cycle lanes as well. Probably no parking. Or maybe they'd do a bidirectional track on one side instead. Anyway...
 
JeffDowntown said:
^ I have to cringe at the Marlboro Market commentary. If you want to run your store like a suburban 7-11, pay for an off-street dedicated space. Don't expect the city to "give" you a space.

This is fundamentally a neighborhood walk (or bike) up market.
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Boston needs a study like SFMTA did on Van Ness Street. Merchants grossly over-estimated the amount of business arriving by car. I bet the same applies at Marlboro Market (and maybe what's really happened is that competitors have changed the landscape since 2011?)

Basically local storefront merchants overstated by a factor of 2.5 the number of arrivals by car and understated walk/bike arrivals by the same factor:


Most of what makes storefront retail work is serving the neighborhood. Selfishly, if "city people" want retail that works best for city people, they should be nipping as many parking spots as they can from the streetscape.

A classic example of "customers" != "my friends from the suburbs" == "my commute"
 
The 1 and CT1 have very strong all-day ridership. They're used for short node-to-node trips perhaps more than any route other than the 66. Dudley, BUMC, SL, OL, GL, GL, MIT, Central, Harvard. 95% of trips (as of an October dataset) start and/or end at one of those 8 locations. Demand actually isn't that much less through midday than it is at peak.
 
Given the width of the road and the high bus ridership, there really should be bus lanes along Mass Ave from Albany Street to Albany Street (Boston and Cambridge), with adjacent cycle-tracks the entire way.
 
Randomgear said:
Vision Zero Mass Ave presentation and plans available here:
http://www.visionzeroboston.org/massave
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Thanks for sharing, I left before the big documents came out at the end of the meeting.

The paint-and-post version of protected intersections is going to be really interesting to see in the flesh, I don't think I've ever seen an example of that. The one at Beacon looks good, the one at Comm doesn't look like it will slow down traffic as much as could be possible, and I doubt the paint-only one at Newbury will work. Hopefully they do actually work and we start to see this design pop up elsewhere for all the streets that aren't seeing complete reconstructions like the Commonwealth Avenue and the ongoing Beacon Street projects.

It's stark how much is changing at each of the intersections from Beacon to Huntington... then going screw it and more or less replicating the status quo on south. This is likely on the city not wanting to fight a parking battle in the more residential section? One very bright note south of Huntington is the post-protected bike lane at the most notorious double-parking zone in the city at Columbus outside of Dunks.

One question for others who went to the meeting: was I interpreting Vineet Gupta right that they're building this out this year, and then ripping it out and repaving next year?

Edit: the dates as I recall them:
2016:
  • Finish the design and then build #ProtectMassAve from Beacon Street to Harrison Street by the end of the year.
  • Finish study with MassDOT on Harrison Street through Melnea Cass. No construction date that I heard.

2017:
  • Repave Mass Ave, not sure the exact bounds. The presentation says they will be "evaluating and refining" after the 2016 construction, so this would be the chance to do it with any lessons learned. This is also the opportunity to advocate for more separation.
  • I heard some commitment to work on Cass to Edward Everett, but was not sure if that was design only, or if that included construction.
 
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Scipio said:
One question for others who went to the meeting: was I interpreting Vineet Gupta right that they're building this out this year, and then ripping it out and repaving next year?
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That was my understanding. It sounded like they need to coordinate with utilities and/or other construction projects for the paving, but don't want to wait on that for the lane changes. I'm hoping during the interim the city can gather data and consider upgrading infrastructure, like maybe use planters instead of posts.

Near the end I believe he also said they want to try a "demo". If this is anything like what Portland, OR did recently with "Better Broadway" (see http://bikeportland.org/2016/05/09/...unning-heres-what-it-looks-like-so-far-182953) then I think it's a good idea.

Incidentally, even if the city doesn't go with concrete planters I think it ought to consider stronger posts with a continuous base (another example from Portland: http://bikeportland.org/2016/05/12/...reate-physical-separation-for-bikeways-183363).
 
I didn't remember hearing Vineet say that. But, since, Public Works does the paving, I wouldn't be surprised if it's true. Anyways, it's just paint and flex posts, nothing difficult to replace - just have to keep pressure on both BTD and Public Works to make sure it gets replaced.

Yet another thing to push Public Works for: repaving Mass Ave this fall just before this project happens while oil is still cheap.
 
fattony said:
What about Bus+Bike lanes? Could that work on Mass Ave or is bus frequency too high?

Actually, I don't know what the conditions are for Bus+Bike to work well. Can anyone enlighten us?
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I was actually very cautious about them but then very surprised at how well they worked for cycling in Paris. In general, if ridership is high, a bus will not pass a cyclist. It will have to stop at either a light or a stop.

I agree that passing of buses is dangerous, but in my experience that didn't happen very often. Bottom line is someone should look at what other cities have done for buses/bikes and what works/doesn't. I was very surprised at how well biking works in Paris (and you can rent their Hubway alternative for the whole day for the cost of a single subway ride!) considering the traffic.
 
I thought he said they were going to repave and install the interim improvements in 2016, and in 2017 they plan to create a more transformational design for the entire corridor.
 
I didn't care much for the bus+bike lanes in Paris. Better than nothing, I suppose, but still pretty uncomfortable whenever a bus approached.
 
cden4 said:
I thought he said they were going to repave and install the interim improvements in 2016, and in 2017 they plan to create a more transformational design for the entire corridor.
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The interim condition is their "rapid response"

Which is apparently 12 months and only after threats of mass protest from multiple safe street organizations and activists.

meanwhile the city has taken 2 years to send a couple people out to "assess" the current state of existing bike lanes - which no one has bothered to repaint since Walsh took office.

These guys are only begrudgingly doing this because they're getting pressure from city council - who are completely united in pushing for vision zero - and are getting a lot of demand from their constituents. My city councilor had "push for protected bike infrastructure" in the flyers they handed out last election cycle. There is no "bold move" by the city - this is a case of the public moving a lot faster than public officials and forcing them to do something.

3 million a year for bike and pedestrian improvements is chump change.
 
Inman has long been a difficult and stressful spot and everybody knows this.

Cambridge voters selected bike fixes in Inman Square as one of their FY17 Participatory Budgeting projects, and several Inman area bike/ped projects are leading in the FY18 round, including this innovative proposal to rename the square after Cambridge city councilors each time somebody is hit and injured there. There's a litany of complaints and pleas for traffic enforcement at Inman Square on the city's 311 system. And the city has been working on an intersection redesign for a year now, with still months to go before even the design phase begins.

I'm not surprised that someone would be intimidated into riding in the door zone through there, but I will be surprised if Cambridge manages to make any improvements before the end of 2017.
 
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