Eric Stratton photographed some of the thousands of bicyclists in town today for the annual Hub on Wheels.
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Eric Stratton photographed some of the thousands of bicyclists in town today for the annual Hub on Wheels.
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Comments
And speaking of bicycles... I
By anon
Sun, 09/23/2012 - 11:29am
And speaking of bicycles...
I was in my car signaling a right turn at the intersection of Melcher & Summer when, to my great surprise, a bicycle passed on the right, between my car and the curb,signaling a left turn. And luckily made his left turn across the front of my car before I turned. It was a close call and an accident avoided by luck only.
So I mentioned it to a friend who cycles alot. And here's what he told me. It is legal in Mass. for bicyclists to pass on the right, even when there is no bike lane. As for my experience, the cyclist was obeying the law and cars need to learn that they are required when turning right (from the right) to look behind them to see if there is a bicycle on their right. Also, if I had turned and the bicycle had hit my car (heaven forbid) I could have been ticketed for a moving violation... not yielding the right-of-way.
He said Mass. laws are unusual in allowing cyclists to pass on the right. The law is what it is, but it seems to me a wiser cyclist (is there such a being)wanting to turn left would just stay in the main travel lane and make the left as any car would.
I also think, this law, which didn't fall written this way from the sky, should be reworked over any objections from the bicycle lobby.
i'm fine with bikes not
By pierce
Sun, 09/23/2012 - 1:48pm
i'm fine with bikes not passing on the right as long as cars can't pass on the left-- you need to turn right, and we need to turn left.
Yes you need to turn left;
By anon
Sun, 09/23/2012 - 6:54pm
Yes you need to turn left; however in this situtation there are other safer ways for the cyclist to make the turn. That is, they could get in the same lane as the cars and turn left as the cars would. That would be the safer and less agressive way to handle the situation.
I wonder if the pass on the right law applies to other "vehicles" other than bikes... mopeds, segways.
The other issue with the laws is that any laws effecting bicyclists/cars are one-sided; via registration a car is held responsible; however a bicyclist, knowing that any ticket they receive cannot be collected can just ignore traffic laws and any resulting traffic tickets.
So any comment from cyclists about cars obeying traffic laws is really ironic.
I'd have to guess as accidents become more frequent the pass on the right law will be changed and Mass will do as most states do and make it illegal.
I just returned from my walk to Sorelle's and had to stand aside as a group of bicyclists rode the narrow sidewalk over the Congress street bridge.
For the love of heaven...
By Sally
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 6:42am
Can we have ONE post on bikes without some story about how someone got cut of or--God forbid--had to "stand aside" as people biked by you? If I commented on every story Involving a car on the last driver who cut me off, harassed me, or made me "stand aside", screech to a halt, etc. etc. so that he could roar by me uninterrupted, I'd never stop typing and it would be really, really boring.
My question--was t really a $45 fee to bike yesterday? I was shocked when I saw that on the web site. For a race that seems reasonable--for what I really thought of as a nice day out to let people explore Boston by bike with a little added calm and safety, $45 seems awfully high, especially if you wanted to go as a family. Was this really the case?
Hub on Wheels Fees
By swirlygrrl not ...
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 8:51am
Yes - it really is that expensive. One reason my family did the Tri-State Century instead. The GSW entry fee is only $35 and they support a variety of distances.
(My Baby's first full century ride - sniff!!)
We did do Hub on Wheels the first or second year and the kids loved riding on Storrow, but it really is pricey and kind of crowded and nuts and they don't do a good job guiding the ride in proportion to the number of participants. That's the other reason not to do it: it gets really crowded, but bikes are still expected to use sidewalks single file over certain overpasses, etc. Kind of ridiculous.
Yes, it's crowed and nuts...
By anonwheels
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 1:44pm
Yes, it's crowed and nuts... but there is no sidewalk riding unless you count the path around UMass Boston and Carson Beach.
Wow, 45 bucks?
By merlinmurph
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 12:34pm
I just looked at the website - no charity, no t-shirt, no nothing? For $45? Wow. Kinda tough for a family to do.
I did an organized century last weekend for $25 and at least they had food, drinks, etc.
45 bucks?
Tech Goes Home
By anonwheels
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 1:40pm
The Hub on Wheels registration fee supports the local charity Tech Goes Home. (source: http://activatesports.com/bostonbikes/tgh.html) From the TGH website:
http://www.techgoeshome.org/about
Please try not to jump to conclusions next time.
Thanks for the info
By merlinmurph
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 2:02pm
You might want to skip the semi-wise-ass remark next time, though.
Like I said, I went to the website and there is no mention on that page about any of the stuff you mentioned.
Just sayin'
First paragraph I agree with; second one--c'mon!
By thetrainmon
Tue, 09/25/2012 - 9:23pm
Out of the three major charity bike rides around Greater Boston every year, it is the cheapest registration:
Boston Bikes' Hub on Wheels (Late September): $45
BI Deaconess's A Reason to Ride (Early September): $50
Bikes-not-Bombs's Bike-a-Thon (Early June): A whopping $150
An 'accident' wasn't avoided
By anon
Sun, 09/23/2012 - 1:50pm
An 'accident' wasn't avoided by luck. You were being a responsible operator of a motor vehicle and paying attention to yield appropriately as legally required, and the cyclists was being responsible to signal a turn from what is considered a legal lane position in Massachusetts.
The bike lobby wrote those 2009 laws
By Markk02474
Sun, 09/23/2012 - 4:30pm
to give cyclists the most freedom and to make fines unenforceable. Any money collected, goes to the lobby via safety classes, its primary source of revenue, not paid memberships. MADD invented the scheme, however, getting its money from mandatory offender classes.
Couldn't have had better weather for a bike event than today. Beautiful.
Yawn
By anon
Sun, 09/23/2012 - 5:46pm
Yawn.
Just keep making stuff up....
By merlinmurph
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 10:46am
...
I only wish it were fiction
By Markk02474
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 10:53am
MassBike took credit when the Patrick signed the bike law. You can check MassBike's IRS 990 filings to see where the money comes from and goes. Same with MADD 990 filings.
Well, here you go.
By shiny_things_b
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 12:33pm
Well, here you go. Please point to the lines that support your statement.
MassBike Form 990
MADD Form 990
Read between the lines
By anon
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 3:48pm
There is WORLD DOMINATION, COMMUNISM, and DESTRUCTION OF TEH AMURKIN WAY OF LIFE written all over those documents!
Not to mention FULL EXPRESS INTENTION TO PISS OFF MARK K!!!
Can't you see it?
Thanks for noticing!
By Schwinn is the ...
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 1:01pm
Thanks for noticing!
yeah, really...
By anon
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 4:10pm
...the "bike lobby" "made fines unenforceable" by allowing the citation books to be updated to not require handwritten modification.
A bike passing on the right is fine ...
By Ron Newman
Sun, 09/23/2012 - 8:43pm
... but a bike turning left from the right lane is not. The bike should have gone to your left to make the left turn.
seems correct, I wouldn't do
By anon
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 11:16am
seems correct, I wouldn't do it and it's probably not legal
A car alarm woke me up the
By Eoin
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 10:24am
A car alarm woke me up the other night. It was inconvenient. Therefore, all cars should be banned everywhere.
As a bicyclist, it makes
By anon
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 11:16am
As a bicyclist, it makes sense for us to be able to pass on the right. It would worsen traffic congestion to have a bunch of bicyclists sitting in the middle of a single-lane, and there would be little incentive for bicyclists to allow cars to pass on the left. It feels a lot safer to ride in the middle of the road because it allows you to avoid getting doored. There's really no reason for a cyclist to confine themselves to the far right of the road if they can't pass cars on the right.
When passing on the right at an intersection, it makes sense to pay close attention to whether a driver has his turn signal on, and I probably wouldn't pass on the right and then immediately make a left turn.Usually when making a left turn, I do my best to get into the left-hand side of the lane, so that I'm visible to oncoming traffic.
THOSE BIKES AREN'T SHARING
By Crank from Arlington
Sun, 09/23/2012 - 12:24pm
THOSE BIKES AREN'T SHARING THE ROAD WITH CARS! ZOMG! THE POLLUTION AND TRAFFIC THEY ARE CREATING!!!111 ELEVENTY!
Hub on Wheels? More like
By chaosjake
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 12:59pm
Hell on Wheels. If they're going to have a bike race through a city, next time they need to close all the streets and pedestrian paths involved.
I was out for a long run on Sunday and got to see these jokers in action. In the Arboretum birds were chirping, children were playing, people were walking their dogs. And suddenly several hundred bicycles came bombing down the hill toward us without warning. People scrambled to get out of the way before the relentless riders ran them down. Numerous pedestrians and joggers were terrified by close encounters and a few were jostled by cyclists, but as far as I could tell there were no serious injuries.
Later on my run, I saw plenty more bad behavior, mostly in the form of ignoring inconvenient traffic laws (such as stopping at red lights to allow pedestrians to cross in the crosswalk with a walk signal), but none of it equals the chaos in Arnold Arboretum. In the future, I will try to share the road as well with bikes as they shared the PEDESTRIAN PATH with us that day.
Mistakes
By anon
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 2:33pm
Your first mistake: Hub on Wheels is not a race, it's a charity fun ride. The actual bike race took place on Saturday around Government Center (The Mayor's Cup). Please understand that "some people riding bikes" does not make it a race. There's a huge distinction between the two and this frequent misuse of the term "race" gets to the heart of why bicycling is poorly accepted in the US.
Second mistake: Assuming that because someone is riding a bicycle, they must be reckless and are bent on wonton destruction of everything in their path, including themselves, apparently.
Homer Simpson says:
By Alex_Toth
Tue, 09/25/2012 - 9:09am
Mmmmm, wonton destruction...
If bikes are allowed
By Sally
Mon, 09/24/2012 - 3:01pm
then why do you consider it a "pedestrian path?" And are you seriously claiming that people going downhill on bikes "jostled" pedestrians on foot (but that there were no injuries or actual collisions? "Terrified"--really? ) I just find this hard to believe. I also just get tired of this combative attitude. We all have to share paths with walkers, runners, rollerbladers, cyclists, people walking dogs. We've ALL had countless encounters with idiots from all spheres--wearing headphones, letting dogs meander, taking up both sides of the path (I had a runner scream at ME to get out of the way as he and his buddy jogged manfully down both lanes of a riverside path). Why the relentless negativity and generalizing? And, frankly, whining? It was a beautiful Sunday--did these folks really take the wind out of your sails that much?