A concerned citizen minces no words:
GET THESE VALET JERKS OUT OF THE BIKE LANES.THESE CARS DO NOT BELONG HERE EVER EVER EVER! Enforce the law before somebody gets killed.
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Comments
Inadequate Education
By BlackKat
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 8:15am
Ah valets and cab drivers. If only there was some sort of way to ensure people knew the rules of the road before they were allowed to have a driver's license... oh wait there is. It's just that the written portion is only 10 questions. Driver's License, written tests should be harder than SATs, and the driving portion should be held on a track that looks like the Nurburgring.
education?
By Annoyed
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:38am
Hmm. Do people on bikes take any test? They want to share the road but they don't want to adhere to the rules of the road.
Hmm...a flat generalization
By Hill-of-Winta
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:05am
Hmm...a flat generalization about "people on bikes"...and how "they" don't want to adhere to the rules of the road. Every. Last. One. Of. "Them".
You sound like a first rate thinker.
Yeah. I think we should test all of the cyclists, especially the ones on training wheels.
and a flat generalization
By bosguy22
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:36am
about cab drivers and valets not knowing the rules of the road.
Willful Ignorance
By spin o rama
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:38am
They know the rules, they just choose not to follow them. Same can be said for anyone illegally operating a vehicle on the road, be it a cyclist, cab or driver. They know what they are doing.
at least most of the cars do
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 2:30pm
at least most of the cars do manage to stay on the road where they belong rather than flying down the occasional sidewalk.
except when they don't
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 6:16pm
Really? "Cars" (I think you mean drivers...) manage to stay off sidewalks? Not from what I see:
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&...
Funny how on a regular basis someone screams out their window "GET ON THE SIDEWALK!" to me...
Also funny how nobody seems to have noticed that the post came from someone riding in a car...
Because all drivers follow
By Anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:39am
Because all drivers follow all the rules of the road too. This is Boston, after all.
I've said it before and I'll say it again
By Michael
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:43pm
Drivers who complain about bikes not following the rules is like Yankee fans bitching about Baltimore's payroll.
Note
By Sally
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:18am
That the car is in the bike lane. This is not a picture of a cyclist speeding through a red light or riding on the sidewalk. But really--your "But Billy was playing ball in the house tooooooo!" line of argument is super effective.
>95% Have Drivers' Licenses
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:47pm
Although in MA that isn't exactly anything much of an achievement.
Only solution I've found
By Anonnnn Baby
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:57am
I have to bike by this all the time back and forth for work. Seems like the only way to rectify the problem is to enact some u-lock justice. I'm sure the valet will stop putting cars there if the side mirrors of their clients keep getting smashed.
and this is why drivers and
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:59am
and this is why drivers and pedestrians alike hate many cyclists - because they think vandalism and destruction of property are reasonable responses to anything that irks them. My apologies to the 5% of cyclists in Boston who actually stop at crosswalks as required (the rules are the same for bikes as they are for cars, buses, trucks and motorcycles).
Thats cute
By spin o rama
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:44am
Generalizations are fun, eh?! Please don't lump us into the very sparsely populated category of road operators that resort to vandalism and violence.
And my apologies
By Sally
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:20pm
To the 5% of drivers who aren't on their cellphones, eating, doing their makeup while stopped in the middle of the crosswalk, ignoring their signals, speeding, parked in the bike lane, opening their car door into the bike lane four feet in front of me...shall I go on?
Seriously. I have plenty of words for bikers who act like jerks but it is NOT 95% of them or anywhere near it. Nor does my list above actually apply to 95% of drivers but boy--sometimes it seems like it. The difference? Most of the time the biker who runs the red is endangering himself. The drivers who drive like idiots are much more likely to hurt or kill me or someone else.
Here is my criteria
By Anonnnn Baby
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 2:09pm
You make it sound like I do this to innocent people who are driving.
-If you are a cab/private car service and you're blocking the bike lane in traffic or cut me off, your side mirror is coming off.
-If you are in a car and turn left without looking while I'm in the bike lane next to you and you don't see me because you're staring at your phone, doing your makeup, or eating...your side mirror is coming off
-If you're one of those morons on the Mass Ave bridge that when you reach the end and try to turn without looking to see if anyone in the bike lane is coming...your mirror is coming off.
It's simple, really. There's a reason why it's called u-lock justice. If you drive like a moron and it puts me in danger, your car is going to pay.
How exactly does a vehicle blocking a bike lane
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 4:22pm
put you in such danger that you feel the need to resort to a criminal act (i.e. willful destruction of property)?
If the lane is blocked, move around the obstruction. After all, wasn't that the rationale the bike lobby used to prevent the Legislature from making it a legal requirement for cyclists to use bike lanes where they are provided?
When there is a steady stream
By Anonnnn Baby
Fri, 10/04/2013 - 11:05am
When there is a steady stream of traffic, and you are going full speed, and someone is blocking the bike lane, it is extremely dangerous trying to move around the 'obstruction' as it's highly possible to get clipped by a car in the next lane.
The point is, the lane shouldn't be blocked in the first place.
That is why liability
By kvn
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 5:18pm
That is why liability insurance and license plate id should be required. There are cameras all over the place,eventually you will be caught smacking mirrors. Then it will be time to pay the piper. Leaving the scene after causing property damage ect, ect.
Please educate me
By Bob Leponge
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 5:25pm
Could you 'splain how it is that I can back into a parking space without stopping in the bike lane?
Use common sense, if I see
By Anonnnn Baby
Fri, 10/04/2013 - 11:07am
Use common sense, if I see that you're trying to back into a parking space, you're cool with me. I'm talking about the people who just double park in the bike lanes since there is no other parking spot.
You sound like the douchebag
By Scratchie
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 7:05pm
You sound like the douchebag who decided that he should be able to ride his bike across Park Ave in the crosswalk (when I had a green light) and then broke my side-view mirror when I honked at him and didn't slam on my brakes.
Good generalization, but that
By Anonnnn Baby
Fri, 10/04/2013 - 11:08am
Good generalization, but that wasn't me. I don't know any cyclist who know what they're doing that would bike across the crosswalk.
I send my condolences to you and your side mirror.
Yet the sense of righteous
By Scratchie
Fri, 10/04/2013 - 1:12pm
Yet the sense of righteous anger and entitlement seems exactly the same. I'm sure he felt every bit as justified in breaking my mirror as you do.
Witnessed a cyclists flying
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:25pm
Witnessed a cyclists flying through the Comm. Ave Mall run over a dog's paw last week. The lady walking her dog was horrified as was everyone else who saw it. Poor dog was in serious pain. The guy never stopped or apologized. He wasn't supposed to be riding there and he didn't care that it was crowded with little kids playing -- it's cyclists like this guy and like you who don't give a f*ck about anyone else and who are a menace on the road that make so many pedestrians like me sick and tired of your constant bitching and moaning. Don't ride in the city if it makes you such a wretched person prone to angry violent outbursts. Don't advocate violence you idiot. Walk or take the T like the rest of us.
Well, then
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:49pm
This is so totally related to valets using bike lanes.
A cyclists. Okay.
Wow.
By Sally
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 1:15pm
I got bitten by a dog once outside of Whole Foods. Boy--dogs suck. Clearly they're all prone to violent outbursts and should be banned. Mine included. And yeah--Whole Foods sucks too. Arrghhh!!
Seriously. What does your Comm Ave jerk cyclist have to do with jerk valets in South Boston?
How would you like it if
By kvn
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 6:03pm
How would you like it if there was random damage to bikes locked up with this u-lock you mention?
No Excuses
By spin o rama
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:35am
Where are the road decals for the drivers of this city? We plastered "Wear a helmet, No excuses" to let bikers know that they should wear helmets for safety and are solely responsible for any injuries they suffer. Personally, I wear a helmet but its not required by law. I think encouraging helmet use is part of creating safer streets, even if the campaign reeks of victim blaming and fails to address the real issue, which is adherence to the actual laws of the road by both cyclists and drivers alike.
Why aren't we plastering the road with "Put your phone down, No excuses" or "Signal, check your blind spots and mirrors, No excuses." There are examples of things that are illegal under Mass. law because they create unsafe driver conditions and there are examples of things that are not illegal but still create unsafe driving conditions.
Why are we focusing on temporary enforcement of some laws but not other laws? I rode by one of the BPDs cyclist helmet/lights check points near Packard Corner, no less then two blocks back there was a delivery truck blocking the bike lane entirely. BPD couldn't be bothered to ticket them.
Grant mentality
By Markk02474
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:56pm
Local governments are getting conditioned to do little in many areas unless they get a grant for it. For police, they get state grants for bike safety, speed traps, and DUI checkpoints with quotas for high visibility stops. If a police officer is distracted by another type of violation, he could lose the funding for that hour of his pay under the grant terms.
Safe driving campaigns
By Nonymouse
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 2:55pm
Wasn't there a recent campaign against texting and driving? I remember seeing a profusion of TV commercials and billboards very recently. And there's nearly always an anti-drunk driving commercial in rotation. And those click-it or ticket spots are still pretty frequent. It's perception - you're going to notice spots aimed at you more than those aimed at other demographics. Personally, I can't remember seeing the helmet stickers recently but it's probably because my bike is in my part-time living place in the Midwest right now. Where, incidentally, biking to my white collar job at an arts organization is apparently a radical, possibly insane idea that I probably have because I'm from the radical, possibly insane Northeast. Or so I've been told. They don't seem to care whether you wear a helmet there or not - if your brains get scrambled, it's just one less commie pinko environmentalist to protest concealed carry permits.
Call Massport. HAHAHAHA.
By John Costello
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 8:23am
Reason #73,802 why BPD / City of Boston should have jurisdiction over their jodhpur clad friends in the Seaport. You think Massport has a complaint line or at least one that will get answered? Good luck with that one. Try asking an on duty Statie in the Seaport a question and try not to get an answer that makes you think they have been watching Dale Carnegie videos read by R. Lee Ermey.
As the seaport area grows and
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 8:36am
As the seaport area grows and with Eastie waterfront in development the Massport and BPD really need to work these jurisdiction issues. Massport should focus on the actual transportation aspect of safety and security and simply supplement the BPD. Just because they control a whole bunch of land does not mean BDP should give up control to them. As more residents move in they are going to start to demand more than massport can provide.
Why would they work on jurisdiction issues?
By Arborway
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 4:15pm
Massachusetts loves fiefdoms more than anything.
If you get mugged on a sidewalk on a bridge by a parkway, near the interstate in the City of Boston alongside a MassPort-owned lot, you might as well create an interagency task force to coordinate who gets to respond to your 911 call.
bike lanes are no better
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:18am
bike lanes are no better enforced when BPD is in charge.
Bike lanes
By Neil
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 8:54am
Are nothing but a nuisance. Cars are king and are here to stay.
You're a nuisance.
By MattyC
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:17am
You're a nuisance.
How old are you
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:40am
8?
How
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:24am
Do you thing your stupid bike parts get into the city, via unicycle?
Probably not by a car parked
By MattyC
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:15pm
Probably not by a car parked by a valet.
You
By sup3rmark
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:21am
are nothing but an idiot.
Cars have no rights
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:50pm
People do. Deal with it.
Enjoy sitting in traffic ... maybe we'll send a crane to extract you when you get there, obese as you must be.
Parking and driving laws should be inforced
By WannaKnow
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:11am
The BPD should have full jurisdiction of the area. As others have said, the valet parking, is a major safety issue. Bicycles are forced to weave in and out of traffic. In addition, many motorcycles do the same thing.
unfortunately, it doesn't
By sup3rmark
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:23am
unfortunately, it doesn't seem like the city actually cares about the bike lanes they've installed. it's almost like they just painted some lines on the ground to try to appease cyclists and make it look like they're doing something to make boston "a world-class biking city." the bike lane on Mass Ave by Huntington is often full of buses or trucks, and repeated complaints to the city have returned responses of "yeah, we told them to park there. ride in the street."
Nobody cares
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:28am
only a small group of crying bikers. Get over yourselves.
Attributed to Stewie
By BlackKat
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:54am
If I pounded a metal pole into the middle of a traffic lane on Atlantic Ave and locked my bike to it you can bet car drivers would be pissed and vocal.
That must be why ...
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:43pm
There is so much whining whenever a bike lane is put in and makes people drive straight.
No, the whining is because
By anon
Fri, 10/04/2013 - 8:33am
creating bike lanes, which is normally done by converting a street with two general purpose lanes into a street with one travel lane and one bike lane, actually reduces the effective capacity of that street for everyone without a significant improvement in safety. And the worst part is that, unlike proposed improvements for drivers, the cycling lobby doesn't even have to prove that the bike lanes are justified by the number of cyclists, will make a marked improvement in overall safety (unless you think permitting cyclists to travel even closer to parked cars than before or pass stopped or turning traffic on the right somehow improves safety).
IMHO, objecting to the imposition of bike lanes everywhere is not whining - it's a common sense reaction to an idiotic mandate that the bike lobby forced through the Legislature.
Um, no
By SwirlyGrrl
Fri, 10/04/2013 - 9:17am
Not in the Boston area, not in any city I can think of, has this been the case. I used to ride on the streets in Someville that now have bike lanes because they had unusually wide single car lanes (but not wide enough for a second lane) and they went somewhere I needed to go. The bike lanes have not obliterated a general travel lane on any street that I know of (and I've been cycling similar routes for 20+ years). The just formally declared a space for bikes and a space for cars.
Do you have any examples of a general travel lane being taken for a bike lane that you can share here? In any case, that is absolutely not the case on Seaport, which has two lanes AND a bike lane on each side by design.
Or do you just have a 3' wide car?
I suppose that I don't have to explain to you that the number of lanes doesn't govern the capacity of a roadway anyway if other rate controlling situations result in traffic that is held up for other reasons (like, with Mass Ave in Central Square, the road was already only one lane further down). This is one reason the Casey Overpass is coming down: it is an expensive high speed flyover between bottlenecks at either end that govern the true capacity of the road system.
(also note: when I lived in Arlington, I asked the town why they didn't stripe the lanes on Mass Ave. in East Arlington. The response was that the space available was too narrow for two full lanes along the full run of the section. I got this answer no matter who I asked - Mass Ave in East Arlington, during the 90s at least, was officially one lane wide in each direction. So they aren't even taking a legal travel lane there to put in a bike lane, even if drivers like to make and fake an unofficial second lane.)
Not terrible, but not great either.
By Craiggles
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:27am
I lead bike tours through here in the evenings, and the valets are always polite and considerate to cyclists and cars when we ride through. Traffic is usually moving so slow that if you just stay in line with the cars instead of splitting lanes, you can get through just fine.
Is it ideal? No. Should each and every car be ticketed? absolutely. Is the clientele that comes to this area snooty and uptight? You bet. But I say, whatever. This problem will likely go away when the development in the area is completed and opens up more parking facilities.
Do I have a better idea? Valet parking at the hubway station at the courthouse, ride a hubway down the street instead of driving right to the restaurant.
Parking
By Saul
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 9:43am
Right. Because the seaport area is surely lacking parking options today.
http://s17.postimg.org/78cz01isv/2013_10_03_09_36_...
So
By bosguy22
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:39am
Everyone that goes to the Seaport is snooty and uptight? I should have stopped reading your post there, as it's ignorant and moronic, but assuming that people who drive to the seaport are going to bike from their car to the restaurants is even dumber. How will that ride work in January?
So
By bosguy22
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:39am
Everyone that goes to the Seaport is snooty and uptight? I should have stopped reading your post there, as it's ignorant and moronic, but assuming that people who drive to the seaport are going to bike from their car to the restaurants is even dumber. How will that ride work in January?
So the elderly and disabled
By Patricia
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:19am
So the elderly and disabled that are unable to ride a bike can't go to the Seaport? Doesn't sound fair to me.
Not everyone is capable of riding a bike.
Because the elderly and
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 1:03pm
Because the elderly and disabled really have a valet double park illegally to allow them to exit into a travel lane. Real safe!
This site alone
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 10:24am
Shows the blatant arrogance and entitled attitude of bikers in Boston! Look at the site that get said on here, most of you have an elitist demeanor.
Most of us
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 12:46pm
... also use proper grammar and most of us have drivers licenses.
Also, WE ARE ENTITLED TO USE THE ROAD!
Sorry if your arrogant, pea brain can't deal with that.
Entitled?
By Aunt M
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 1:27pm
Not until we make bike registration equivalent to car registration, institute a license to operate a bike, and charge you nitwits a tax to use the roads.
When drivers of cars pay the full cost of driving
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 1:48pm
I'll be happy to pay my $10 a year, less the rebate for having healthy habits that keep my medical and social safety net costs down.
I'll take my $500 in small bills, thanks.
Oh, and nobody here cares what people in Kansas think ;-)
What Part of Licenses Is Unclear to you?
By bengaliblitz
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 1:47pm
The point is most cyclists are also drivers, and have state issued drivers licenses, and also pay taxes for the road. My car registration is my car registration, my bike registration shouldn't be the equivalent. P.S. I also have a city issued license on my bike. Does that blow your tiny little pea brained mind?
So most
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 2:52pm
Motorcycle riders own a car, however they also go through a separate licensing process. But the entitle bikers of UHub are above that right! In fact you should be made to proof you carry liability coverage.
Say it with me...MOTOR.
By bengaliblitz
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 3:26pm
What part of the word Motor is lost on you?
So i should
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 4:18pm
get my lawnmower, leafblow and snowblower registed
Are you driving any of them through the streets of Boston?
By Sally
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 8:19pm
Then yes.
Jesus H--the level of idiocy is really unbelievable.
Liable For What?
By BlackKat
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 4:13pm
Commercial cyclists do have liability insurance. But that is mostly due to a myopic law passed after an influential jaywalker was hit by a courier when he stepped out into the street [in the middle of a block] and when he fell hit his head on the curb.
The reason cyclists don't need liability insurance and cars do is because a car can do more damage when it hits something than a bike can. Generally if a car was to hit another vehicle or pedestrian there would be thousands of dollars in damages and injuries. Generally if a bicycle was to hit another vehicle or pedestrian the cyclist would be worst off than what or whom was hit. Also bicycles hit things a lot less often than motor vehicles do.
Also calling cyclists entitled is not that dissimilar from the Republican tactics used to attack affirmative action.
Entitlement
By tblade
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 4:53pm
It's the law.
Cyclists are, in fact, entitled and this entitlement is codified by law. Sorry if you feel abiding by the law is "elitist".
Occasional Inconvenience
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:07am
Yes, it's occasionally inconvenient when a car or truck is in the bike lane. We have to slow down, stop, and/or ride around them. It's also occassionally inconvenient when a bike is in the travel lane going significantly slower than the cars behind it. Cars have to stop, slow, down, and/or drive around us. No one has an absolute right to go as fast as they want, everywhere, all the time, and everyone needs to come to grips with this simple fact that shouldn't even have to be made explicit.
Something tells me it's not "occasional" in this case
By Sarcastic Sam
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:27am
If the example at hand is valet parking for the restaurants at Liberty Wharf (if I'm not mistaken), then it's not "occasional" that a car pulls into the bike lane. I'm willing to bet it's constant during all dining hours.
If the valet drivers need that space
By anon
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 4:30pm
to conduct legitimate business, then perhaps we ought to rethink the need for the bike lanes, or at least put a time restriction on when the bikes can use the lane and when the valets can (akin to the peak-hour breakdown lane travel on some highways). Too bad providing valet spaces that benefit the business customers isn't mandated under law, but providing bike lanes that provide a sight convenience to cyclists (who should really learn now to ride in general purpose lanes with others) while reducing the overall capacity of streets are.
Very good point, Anon.
By whyaduck
Thu, 10/03/2013 - 11:54am
In a perfect world, nothing but bikes would be in a bike lane. The city of Boston is old, small with narrow streets and, like many cities, chock full of traffic: taxi's delivering passengers, trucks making deliveries, city worker's making repairs to the city's infrastructure. All of these vehicles need to pull over to deposit humans, food to restaurants, et.al. And, at times, this means that they will be in a bike lane, albeit temporarily.
There is a an idea, held by some members of the bike community, that bike lane's, just because of the virture of being a bike lane, should be free of anything but bikes. They don't seem to understand that the lanes were created by taking a section of the road, generally used by cars, trucks and busses. They don't seem to understand that some vehicles will still need to pull over, and that usually means into a bike lane, whether to drop off a fare, et. al.
As the world is far from perfect, just go with the flow. You can type IN ALL CAPS all you want but that will not change the fact that Boston is what it is, small winding roads and all. Valet's and the rest are just trying to do their job. Most of the time, you on your bike will have smooth and clear sailing in a bike lane. And this also means, at times, you might run into an obstacle or obstacles because you are riding in a city and not upstate Vermont.
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