Bicyclists will gather Thursday evening to place a white "ghost bike" where Anita Kurmann died last week in a collision with a flatbed truck at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Beacon Street.
Kurmann, 38, was a Swiss doctor doing post-graduate work at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. She died at an intersection identified as the most dangerous one in the city for bicyclists.
The memorial begins at 6:30 p.m.
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478 Mass Ave Arlington
By Markk02474
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 7:21pm
Its an old building (1901) and the northwest corner is several inches over on the Mass Ave right of way. I learned that looking at the plans for the bike path crossing project, which oddly has not started yet.
That section
By ElizaLeila
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 11:18am
Is also linked to the exterior - from the main page from the public safety page.
How are you going to control which 3' someone is walking down? Do blind people and those in wheelchairs now have lanes they must adhere to?
Hey, look, guys!
By erik g
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 10:14am
Hey, look, guys... Markk is advocating for pedestrian safety! It is truly a joyous day, when one of UHub's most notorious car-loving curmudgeons reverses course and proves that--
What's that you say? It was a transparent attempt at concern-trolling, at the expense of bike-riders everywhere, and his principal motivation was derailing the conversation? Well color me flabbergasted.
I always advocate for safety
By Markk02474
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 2:41pm
Don't know where you have been. Pedestrians wearing conspicuous clothing instead of all black at night is safer. Looking both ways is safer. Putting away your phone is safer. Being protected in a car instead of unprotected on a bicycle is safer. Wearing a bike helmet is safer. Waiting at red lights is safer. Having a headlight on your bike at night is safer.
That was an intersection made more dangerous by putting bike lanes poorly on Mass Ave such that they terminated into a right turn lane and get shared with bus stops. Some bike advocates will say the solution is a take the lane strategy. Putting bike lanes on Mass Ave. lulled riders into not doing that and that's what killed one here while injuring others. The bike lanes were a mistake. NYC has taken away bike lanes in exactly this situation where they have proven dangerous. Better to have parking again than kill more people.
Like hell you do
By lbb
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 2:44pm
You don't "advocate for safety". You advocate for motor vehicles. Every time there's a conflict between motor vehicles and any other users of public spaces, your response is to lay some new constraint on the other users and call it a "safety" measure. I'm sure we'd all be perfectly safe if we just stayed in our houses, too, but it's called public space for a reason.
"It is not yours. You may use it. You may share it. If you will not share it, you may not use it."
If there was a smaller item...
By The Beer Guy
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 10:36am
I would urge you to shove it up your ass.
As a motorcycle rider
By dmcboston
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 8:29am
for many years, I can tell you the best advice I was given, right in the beginning was, "Consider yourself invisible."
1. Consider yourself invisible.
2. Everyone else is totally unpredictable.
Another, for motorcycles (nice shiny throttle for rocket acceleration), leave yourself a means of escape. Maybe.
You can call them accidents, collisions, Acts of God, manslaughter, whatever. Being in the right doesn't do you a lot of good when the responders are throwing a blue tarp over you and making cell phone calls.
A more aggressive version
By ElizaLeila
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 8:55am
We joke amongst ourselves that they ARE out to get us.
People in other cars say the
By anon
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 10:00am
People in other cars say the same thing. It's not like bucket seats, padded dashboards, seatbelts, airbags, antilock brakes, side impact curtains, steel safety cages, crumple zones, bumpers, and everything else were added to cars because they look cooler than tail-fins. Other drivers are unpredictable, there are blind spots, and accidents do happen, a lot.
True but I think misplaced, perhaps
By lbb
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 9:41am
This thread is about a memorial, not about bicycle and traffic safety -- a very worthy subject, but maybe best discussed elsewhere. The focus here is appropriately on remembering someone who was killed.
I would add a # 3 after "unpredictable"
By issacg
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 9:45am
3. presume that everyone around you is both distracted and an imbecile.
I apply these rules not only while cycling, but also while driving. It has worked out so far [knocks on wood].
I hope that the memorial brings at least some solace and closure for the many who knew and admired the victim.
Heck, you should assume that even if you're...
By UHub fan
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 4:25pm
...in another car!
Why do you want to hang this
By jo
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 9:23am
Why do you want to hang this driver so bad? Wasn't he cleared of all charges?
Because he killed someone and
By Steeve
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 9:57am
Because he killed someone and drove away from the scene of the crime.
What charges were those?
By lbb
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 12:31pm
I missed that part -- exactly what was he/she charged with? AFAIK the driver hasn't even been publicly identified, am I wrong about that?
Boston should have a broader
By Klaus
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 10:19am
Boston should have a broader conversation about out of town and out of state CDL drivers who get themselves into trouble driving big rigs into the city. We see this over and over again with trucks stuck on side streets, Storrowings, and various other very preventable and tragic incidents, like the death of Dr. Kurmann. At the very minimum the fines should increase so there is some monetary incentive to ensure that CDL drivers in the city are well-trained in urban traffic patterns. I didn't see the bridge/pedestrian/cyclist,etc should not be a valid excuse. Drivers of these big trucks need to be held accountable monetarily for the police time and traffic delays caused by their lack of skills in urban driving. Maybe then trucking companies will be more careful about hiring drivers who can safely and competently navigate our roads and urban environment.
We tried for decades to discourage
By Markk02474
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 2:40pm
out of towners with horrible signage from attempting to enter greater Boston. We made the roads as twisty and illogical as possible. We cherished rotaries. We took away slip lanes and places where trucks could turn around and recover from mistaken or missed turns. We ignored efforts by the FHA to improve and standardize signs.
Then came the disruptive technology - GPS. Out of town drivers are now emboldened to enter Boston without even realizing the perils they face.
Klaus,
By whyaduck
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 2:56pm
I understand your concern. But you are making assumptions galore in your post. For example, why do you think that truck drivers are not well-trained to drive in urban traffic?
And, as I have said, again and again and again and again, trucks and buses have blind spots where they can't see you, a bike, a car, anything. So, I know it might be difficult to believe, but the "excuse", I did not see him or her, could be a valid one (again, depending on the investigation). What frosts my ice-cubes are folks who automatically want to take the truck driver of this sad incident and hang him from a tree in the Common (acting as judge and jury). I am sure that he is not jumping for joy that he killed a young woman - ya think?
And drivers are held accountable if the investigation finds that they were at fault.
I did not intend to say that
By Klaus
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 7:09pm
I did not intend to say that all truck drivers or even this truck driver in particular are unfamiliar with driving in urban traffic. How can I be commenting on the truck driver involved? We don't even know who he is.
That said, I was speaking to the general laws involving CDL drivers on our urban streets. It is apparent to me that time and time again of truck drivers who are unfamiliar with their route get into trouble in Boston traffic. These incidents block major intersections and Storrow Drive on a regular basis taking up police hours and delaying drivers at a very large costs to the public (missed work, gas, clean up etc). In my opinion, the inconvenience caused to Boston residents isn't commensurate with the fines levied. For example, the fee for Storrowing your truck is only $200. If the fines were higher then it would be an economic imperative for the drivers hired by transportation companies to be knowledgeable of our roads and to drive very defensively. Professional drivers should be held to very high standards. When they make a mistake, even inadvertently, the cost can be very high.
Darren Wilson
By Neighbor2
Wed, 08/19/2015 - 3:35pm
Everyone wanted to hang Officer Darren Wilson in the days after Ferguson, too.
Then there was an investigation and grand jury, and he was not indicted.
And THEN the feds investigated, and I believe they also cleared him.
Moral: Things aren't always as they seem at first, and breaking out the pitchforks may be a bit premature.
PS- Has anyone seen any results of an investigation yet? Is there anything beyond pure conjecture regarding how this went down?
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