Biking in Boston

I was under the impression that there was also a similar path on the outbound side, but maybe the construction hasn't happened yet.
 
HenryAlan said:
I was under the impression that there was also a similar path on the outbound side, but maybe the construction hasn't happened yet.
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I live down the street--the space is there, but if I had to guess it looks like they're waiting for the Hilton to wrap up construction before finishing the path network up.
 
Looks like a couple of interesting bits of news for off street paths in the People's Republic

1. Watertown Cambridge Greenway is partially paved.

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2. Grand junction path design open house is posted online

Grand Junction Multi-use Path Virtual Open House

Harness the power of maps to tell stories that matter. ArcGIS StoryMaps has everything you need to create remarkable stories that give your maps meaning.
storymaps.arcgis.com
 
View attachment 8709
is Walnut street even needed as a thru street? Or: does this need both a right turn lane from High northbound to Wash eastbound *and* walnut street? Shouldnt they just force all rights from High to go via Walnut and reduce some conflicting movements?
 
George_Apley said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1339188431705022467

Well...

AFAIK there's no plan to replace them with a different barrier. Also that's pathetic verbiage; the barriers aren't causing any accidents 🙄
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Yep. It's the barriers that cause the accidents. Not the inattentive idiot drivers in this city...
I hear the complaints about them are their visibility, so maybe a less-hastily installed solution with vertical posts (something slightly more permanent...) would work. Commit to a better long-term solution and build an actual curb divider.
 
Bananarama said:
Yep. It's the barriers that cause the accidents. Not the inattentive idiot drivers in this city...
I hear the complaints about them are their visibility, so maybe a less-hastily installed solution with vertical posts (something slightly more permanent...) would work. Commit to a better long-term solution and build an actual curb divider.
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I could be completely wrong, but given the timing of that Twitter post (to which I replied with the very same argument), its seems to me that the city was removing the barriers in advance of the storm so that plows could clear the streets curb to curb.

I can't guarantee that those exact barriers will be put back, but something will be put there to physically separate the lanes at some point, presumably after winter.
 
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North Shore said:
I could be completely wrong, but given the timing of that Twitter post (to which I replied with their very same argument), its seems to me that the city was removing the barriers in advance of the storm so that plows could clear the streets curb to curb.

I can't guarantee that those exact barriers will be put back, but something will be put there to physically separate the lanes at some point, presumably after winter.
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Perhaps. I don't know if those curb barriers were taken away everywhere. The flex-posts weren't removed elsewhere in the city.
 
Arlington said:
View attachment 8709
is Walnut street even needed as a thru street? Or: does this need both a right turn lane from High northbound to Wash eastbound *and* walnut street? Shouldnt they just force all rights from High to go via Walnut and reduce some conflicting movements?
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It would be interesting to learn more about the pattern, but I think some of it might relate to managing traffic flow. High St. gets backed up, so Walnut serves as a relief valve of sorts.
 
HenryAlan said:
There is also no publicly available record of the 10 accidents. The whole thing is quite infuriating.
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Indeed. I should say that I can't vouch for the info LiveBoston put in the Tweet. At a glance the account seems to be cycling-skeptical. Maybe it is just a snow removal thing. But I'm not sure.
 
George_Apley said:
Indeed. I should say that I can't vouch for the info LiveBoston put in the Tweet. At a glance the account seems to be cycling-skeptical. Maybe it is just a snow removal thing. But I'm not sure.
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Not just snow, BTD confirmed it was related to the crashes.
 
Congrats to Peter Chung who is MassBike's Advocate of the Year! He's pretty prolific with organizing and calling out the city.

Meet Peter Cheung, MassBike's 'Advocate of the Year' - Streetsblog Massachusetts

If you ride a bike in the Boston area, odds are pretty good you’ve run into Peter Cheung: he’s often leading the pack for large group rides like the Ride for Black Lives and the Boston Bike Party, and he’s also the person behind many of the region’s ghost bike memorials to the victims of […]
mass.streetsblog.org
 
When do we think a re-config of the Mass Ave/Harvard Bridge will happen? I just started bike commuting on it every day and the current layout is jarring.

- no access from the Charles Bike Path ramp to the bridge's bike lane: you either have to go south and go around the concrete barrier or lift your bike over it with cars going past you at 50mph https://www.google.com/maps/@42.352...puovokucLyn3tCQ0uNUg!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?hl=en

- two lanes feels overbuilt given the car traffic, and encourages cars to go twice the speed limit. Bike lane is too narrow to pass slower riders

If we want to keep the sidewalks the same width (and not move bike lanes to the other side of the concrete barrier).. how about this:
- 1 car lane in each direction down the length of the bridge
- most car traffic backs up near the intersections exiting the bridge (memorial dr northbound, beacon st southbound). Maintain two lanes at the lights so the intersection throughput is unchanged.
- in the middle of the bridge, widen bike lanes to 6 feet + 2 feet striped buffer with a barrier (flexposts, etc)
- use remaining lane as a PM-rush bidirectional center-running bus-only lane.

Anyone know what's holding up this project from happening?
 
sneijder said:
When do we think a re-config of the Mass Ave/Harvard Bridge will happen?
Anyone know what's holding up this project from happening?
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But whose project would it be? I think it is a state facility, so MassDOT or DCR? Got a link?

One Idea: the whole bridge would have 3 general travel lanes (instead of 4), where northbound you'd start as 1 lane, but mid-bridge you'd widen to two. And southbound you'd start as 1 lane and mid-bridge you'd widen to two.

I don't think you could ever pull off a bus-and-bike lane given how long a bus could be "stuck behind" a cohort of cyclists (unless you purposely had bike refuges, say at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 of the bridge length
 
Arlington said:
One Idea: the whole bridge would have 3 general travel lanes (instead of 4), where northbound you'd start as 1 lane, but mid-bridge you'd widen to two. And southbound you'd start as 1 lane and mid-bridge you'd widen to two.
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This is the way to go, and I can't believe that after all the strides made over the past 15 years, this has not yet been entertained as an option. Although it's not a perfect analogue, I think this model has proved successful on the BU bridge (and I guess the Longfellow? I don't cross that one as much). The bottlenecks for auto traffic are not on the bridge itself, but based on the limitations of Mass Ave on either side of the bridge. Traffic calming on the main span would do wonders for the high volume of cyclist traffic.

On a side note, I really wish jurisdiction over the bridge was better established, cause there's this one awful expansion joint on the Boston-bound side that is, and has always been, a (literal) pain in the ass to bike over, and I have no idea who to gripe to. :/
 
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