Biking in Boston

[Balerion]

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.

The lack of infrastructure in Inman will become even more glaring when cyclists are dumped into it via the Beacon St cycle track just a block north of the intersection. Hopefully that contrast will be another catalyst for change.

 

[34f34f]

The lack of infrastructure in Inman will become even more glaring when cyclists are dumped into it via the Beacon St cycle track just a block north of the intersection. Hopefully that contrast will be another catalyst for change.

Unfortunately, Somerville's plan is to end the cycle track at Washington St, not bring it down to the Cambridge line (presumably because of the difficulty interfacing mid-block with Cambridge's non-cycletracked Hampshire St). I do hope that the Somerville reconstruction and this horrible collision will speed up both a Hampshire cycletrack as well as complete Inman Square reconstruction.

 

[Scipio]

Cambridge Day has a summary of short to medium term improvements proposed for Inman Square: http://www.cambridgeday.com/2016/06...after-bike-death-rattles-residents-officials/

Money will be available starting Friday as Cambridge rolls over into FY 17 for "small, short-term changes to better direct and restrict modes of traffic in the square", which might be the participatory budgeting project that I linked to above.

They're also accelerating the Inman Square reconfiguration project that was presented the night before Amanda Phillips was killed; this could break ground in Summer 2017 instead of 2018/2019.

More ambiguously, the city council passed a policy order last night that may accelerate protected bike lanes on Cambridge and Hampshire streets, which are on the city's bike nework plan but have no funding or date associated with them.

 

[BuilditDenser]

Any shot that Somerville coordinates with Camridge and extends the protected lane to the squre?

 

[cden4]

Somerville didn't include separated bike lanes east of Washington St in their plan because of, what else, PARKING! They did a study of existing parking utilization and determined that they couldn't remove it from one side of the street like they did for the western part of the project to make space for the separated bike lanes. Never mind that a lot of the parking usage is by people with Somerville resident permits who live elsewhere in Somerville parking as close they can to Cambridge and walking to their jobs at Harvard. Because of course there's no way to manage parking differently. Just provide lots of it cheap or free and then throw your hands in the air when you need some of the space to make a safer street...

 

[timsox6]

Second and final bike bridge was installed today on the extension of the Neponset River Greenway. I should have photos up tomorrow if I get my act together, but it was quite a project: a big, bikes-and-peds-only arch bridge over the river, lifted fully-formed into place by two cranes. Quite a show, though very slow. One of the guys on site with me said that it is probably among the nicest pedestrian bridges in the state.

 

[HenryAlan]

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.

I've been riding a bit on the South End Washington St. version of this lately. And while I felt uncomfortable at first, trying to ride hard to stay ahead of buses as they approached, I've now realized that the bus behind a slower bike is still faster than the bus stuck in traffic, so I just ride in the middle of the lane and figure a bus that needs to get ahead of me will pass to my left.

 

[FK4]

I've been riding a bit on the South End Washington St. version of this lately. And while I felt uncomfortable at first, trying to ride hard to stay ahead of buses as they approached, I've now realized that the bus behind a slower bike is still faster than the bus stuck in traffic, so I just ride in the middle of the lane and figure a bus that needs to get ahead of me will pass to my left.

I do this too on that stretch, but occasionally I get into a rhythm with the bus where the bus passes me, then pulls over and stops in the bus lane, then while the bus is stopped I pass the bus, then bus passes me and pulls over at next stop and I have to pass it again... Etc... And I'm always very wary when passing stopped buses, gives me the jitters.

 

[Scipio]

Odd little raised contraflow lane that popped up in Kendall Square recently. This can't be the final configuration, can it?

 

[34f34f]

Old Colony double buffered bike lanes:

(Linked from DCR thread)

This can't be anywhere close to best practice

 

[rinserepeat]

Odd little raised contraflow lane that popped up in Kendall Square recently. This can't be the final configuration, can it?

This is like those joke images about bike infrastructure in Eastern European countries. this is embarrassing.

 

[Matthew]

This is like those joke images about bike infrastructure in Eastern European countries. this is embarrassing.

Let's be fair -- this kind of bullshit occurs plenty in Western European countries too. Probably more so... the UK seems to suffer from a severe case of NIH syndrome when it comes to design.

The cycle superhighways in London are a remarkable exception to this general trend.

 

[Matthew]

Old Colony double buffered bike lanes:
(Linked from DCR thread)

This can't be anywhere close to best practice

It's telling that the one person on a bike in the picture is on the sidewalk.

Nice number of crosswalks on the block -- I wonder if anyone is crazy enough to use them. No visibility with parked cars blocking up the street, and highway-sized dual-carriageway.

DCR is a joke.

 

[biosmoothie]

This is like those joke images about bike infrastructure in Eastern European countries. this is embarrassing.

Why? It appears there is limited roadway width there. I am excited the City took an opportunity to provide a contraflow lane creating a filter to access 3rd street. The bike lane snakes around an immovable obstacle which many cities would cry "Can't Do It!" but Cambridge is the Little Engine that Could and did it. Bicyclists will have to slow down approaching the intersection which is actually considered best practice.

We should not be so dismissive or snobby about this sort of thing.

 

[elemenoh]

We should not be so dismissive or snobby about this sort of thing.

Of course we should! They would never do this with a car lane!

 

[Matthew]

Bicyclists will have to slow down approaching the intersection which is actually considered best practice.

Just to be clear about this point, independently from the current context: no, that's not considered best practice. Not in any place that's serious about cycling, anyway.

Best practice is to create facilities that everyone will find attractive to use. If you start inserting arbitrary slowing at every junction, then people won't want to use it. That's what's happened in the UK for many schemes: many separated cycle lanes require you to stop and give way at every road crossing, no matter how minor. It's impossible to safely use these types of lanes at any normal cycling speed or rhythm, and they simply serve to discourage people, while experienced riders stick to the carriageway where they enjoy the usual rules of right-of-way.

 

[sm89]

Why? It appears there is limited roadway width there. I am excited the City took an opportunity to provide a contraflow lane creating a filter to access 3rd street. The bike lane snakes around an immovable obstacle which many cities would cry "Can't Do It!" but Cambridge is the Little Engine that Could and did it. Bicyclists will have to slow down approaching the intersection which is actually considered best practice.

We should not be so dismissive or snobby about this sort of thing.

There's nothing "immovable" about that bench/wall. This was a fairly substantial reconstruction project at this intersection so it's not like someone can claim "we're only doing pavement markings right now" If that were the case I would agree with you, but this was a big project. Having a physical barrier partially obstructing the bike lane is not best practice. Would you put a telephone pole to the side of a vehicular travel lane to slow cars down? This is no different.

 

[cburns]

This arrangement of shared bus and bike lanes exists in the South End from Melnea Cass to Berkeley. They even fold in right-hand turns.

I think it works very well as a cyclist. That said, the traffic volume is lower on Washington than Mass Ave.

 

[cden4]

The earlier plans for the Third St intersection didn't have any contraflow lane from Main St. I'm guessing they shoe-horned this in at the last minute. Then, they realized they couldn't move that huge stone block very easily...

 

[Arlington]

Is there a plan for some kind of special signal protection here?

The pinch point might not be that bad. Since this countra-flow is going the "wrong way" through a signal-controlled intersection, it might be a good idea to not have people on bikes coming at it "at speed"