Bicyclist dies in collision with tractor-trailer on Comm. Ave.

They have narrow roads.

They have parking issues.

They have hub/spoke style street plans and not grids.

Why don't you do some googling on Amsterdam, Utrecht, Copenhagen, Tours, etc. and learn how it works.

Funny - we used to get the "but we're not California/Oregon etc." comments when these things were mentioned. Those criticisms were valid - grid systems can put bikes on alternate parallel roadways.

Now that planners are (rightly) looking at European adaptations for our rather European street plan, we get the same "but we don't have space" and "Boston is different and not California or Seattle or Portland" style of arguments. These criticisms are not valid, given the successful experience of European cities with similar limitations.

It's 200 feet wide. Brighton Ave corridor is 100 feet wide. Huntington is also wide. Why are we discussing "narrow" streets in this case? The only narrow streets in Boston are in the very old downtown areas (e.g. North End), and there's no reason for a car to be going faster than a bike (~15 mph) on any of them.

Secondly, free parking is detrimental to business. It encourages space hogging, which hurts turnover, which makes it more difficult for people to find a space. Parking should be priced at a rate which results in about 10-15% vacancy at any given time, eliminating cruising, and virtually guaranteeing that you can get a spot when you need it. That's a win-win.

Biketracks and public transit co-exist in many places. Let's learn from them.

This is a tragic event. I hope that people can come together in the meeting today and later to think about what we can do to prevent it in the future. Unfortunately I suspect we're going to see more victim blaming and whining from the usual suspects.

The road is too narrow and the sidewalk too wide: put the cycletrack on the sidewalk. There used to be diagonal parking on the sidewalks on that side of Comm Ave, its so wide.

A cycletrack still would not have prevented this crash. A cyclist riding too fast down a hill to stop in time not to strike a vehicle or pedestrian in a busy area will still hit a truck entering the side street. If this were Amsterdam, cyclists would not be riding too fast for conditions. I hope investigators test the bicycle's brakes if there were any.

Another solution is not have any motor vehicle or Green Line traffic near BU. That would then be safe, leaving just bicycle and pedestrians to injure each other.

They're called income and sales (and other) taxes, which go into the General Fund, out of which the funds for infrastructure improvements come. Gas and excise taxes go into that fund too, but don't come close to covering the subsidies provided to support the infrastructure required to allow automobiles to use the public ways.

I agree with the anti-cycle track position (in most cases) and I'm generally against bike lanes which run between parked cars and travel lanes. A driver making a right turn needs to completely cut over and cross most bike lanes, and by extension, right side cycle tracks. Anytime you have a larger vehicle cutting across another lane of traffic there is bound to be increase in accidents. (The fault is still squarely on the driver of the car/truck but that doesn't change much.)

Don't think of Bike Lanes/Tracks as separate, think of them as adding another lane to a road. On that part of Comm Ave there are three lanes. Due to poor planning, vehicles in the MIDDLE lane often need to turn right. Vehicles in the RIGHT lane (bikes) are going straight. If you think of it this way it isn't surprising that a vehicle in the right lane is hit by a turn vehicle in the middle lane. A cycle track is simply another lane, irrespective of what type of barrier there is between this lane and others. Worse, a cycle track isn't plowed as often and many pedestrians think it is just an extension of the sidewalk.

John Allen has a good discussion of bike tracks in Cambridge on his site: http://www.truewheelers.org/cases/vassarst/index.htm

Two better solutions:

1. Put the bike (third) lane on the left side of the road as they do along Comm Ave and the Mall. With no parked cars and only a few left sidestreets this is far safer. I enjoy riding in this lane.

2. Keep the road two-lane and make it very clear with signs and markers that the rightmost lane is shared between cars and bike. While this is already the law, increased signage on high traffic roads would help more then adding a third narrow bike.

Lets say the cycletrack was on part of the sidewalk. The tractor trailer truck needs to take the right turn from the left lane to make the narrow corner. Does he have to wait for a right arrow while stopped in the left lane, at which time the cyclist gets a red light, but the truck is blocked from turning right by a vehicle stopped in the right travel lane. Cycletracks are simply still problematic when there are many sidestreets and driveways to cross. The thing we need from Amsterdam are cyclists who ride more slowly, have working brakes, and can stop in time not to hit things.