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Hey, Martha, you won't believe the great parking space I found right downtown!
By adamg on Fri, 09/23/2016 - 12:29pm
The city has been installing bike lanes downtown that are marked off with bollards to keep cars out. But as P. Cheung discovered on Congress Street this morning, the bollards might be a bit too widely spaced.
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Comments
What??
I'm just gonna be here for a second. Geez, gimme a break.
Not just bike lanes, illegal parking is everywhere
Boston drivers double park and sometimes triple park (Broadway in Southie, for example) all the time. They also stop or park in no parking spots that are posted. Delivery trucks and people stopping to pick up a pizza or a six pack are seen double parking up and down Dot Ave every day, often totally blocking a lane of traffic.
The new bike lanes on Old Colony next to Moakley Park serve as convenient parking for cars, ice cream trucks, and police during baseball games. (I travel on Old Colony every day and have yet to see a bike)
There's a lot of concern on UHUB over abuse of bike lanes, many of them only occasionally used by bikes. Let's see some outrage over the other illegal parking that cause bigger and more frequent problems in this city.
I see this all the time
Its not just annoying to bikers
On congress between City Hall and State. 3 Lanes of traffic during rush hour get funneled down to two because some inconsiderate ass parks in the driving lane to wait for a pick up. Meanwhile the traffic backs up to to New Sudbury.
People suck!
I bike. I love seeing more of
I bike. I love seeing more of these protected lanes, which will get more people on bikes and hopefully reduce traffic jams. That said, there needs to be places for cars to pull over and pick up/drop off passengers, packages, etc. It's just the way cities work. Not excusing this jackass, who's probably from out of town and doesn't realize what he's doing, but there needs to be a place to pull over for 30 seconds - 2 minutes that's not a travel lane or bike lane.
So take out some travel lanes and build parking/loading zones
Its not a zero sum game, we can build good protected bike lanes and still provide parking and loading/unloading zones.
There are 3 lanes of traffic going in one direction here, take out one travel lane, make it parking and keep the protected bike lane.
The lack of proper loading zones is why we see cabs/ubers/trucks blocking up roads all over the city, not just in bike lanes but in regular travel lanes too. Take a look at Allston on any given evening, theres usually half a dozen delivery cars parked in the right hand lane and all traffic is forced to the left lane.
And as for people being from out of the city, yeah I guess thats an excuse for driving in a lane clearly marked for bikes but what about the Coca-Cola truck I saw parked there this morning? Why is a professional driver ignoring the laws? The signage and bollards are clear enough?
Delivery zones?
Where are the delivery zones for these buildings? Federal St?
Yep
That whole side of the street is commercial parking only actually. CVS and Dunkin Donuts both have doors to their storerooms on Federal St and get deliveries there all the time. The special snowflake couriers and some delivery trucks that don't know the area often end up parking on Congress instead of swinging around the block.
Bike Lane should be on the left side on Congress
Before the bollards, there were a lot of people driving in the bike lane. With the exception of very few (like in the picture) - few vehicles are in the bike lane now. However, traffic on Congress has become considerably worse with the bollards. A large majority of vehicles want to access the onramp to I-90 East & I-93 South at Congress and Purchase Street. So everyone is stacked in the right lane and it backs up to Gov't Center in the evening. The bike lane should be protected, but should placed on the left side instead of the right side so the lanes for the interstates and to Purchase St can be used in the 2 right lanes. The remaining left lane can be used for cars going to Atlantic and the Seaport. There are also less curb cuts, driveways, etc on the left side as well.
Left side!!
So much yes I agree!
"A large majority of vehicles
"A large majority of vehicles want to access the onramp to I-90 East & I-93 South at Congress and Purchase Street."
And to do that, they should be using the 3rd lane from the left. (The 4th lane, which begins at High St after the bike lane ends, is for turning right onto Purchase St heading towards South station.) The signs and markings are clear. But there are so many people who want to go to I-93 there, that when the correct (3rd) lane would back up, people would use the 4th lane and then cut in to the I-93 ramp.
Ya because
Minivans are never used by handicaps individuals, i mean i never seen a minivan retrofitted to accommodate individuals with disabilities
But you know your audience and this was an easy click-bait post.
huh?
So by your logic, if there was someone handicapped in the vehicle, the should also be able to drive right on the sidewalk, to get their passenger even close to their destination, right?
Wheelchair vans need to stop
Wheelchair vans need to stop at the curb.
not the OP here
But yeah, pretty much. I'm okay with momentary minor inconveniences to make things easier for the disabled.
HPV Parking
Maybe you should be advocating for HPV Parking spots, not obstructing bike lanes, or were you just being obstinate for the sake of it
HP mini vans
All you can buy today is mini vans converted for HP with lifts or ramps. Ford has discontinued making the large E series vans.
Saw the same thing last week
Saw the same thing last week when I was biking to the Dorchester Bike and Brew. Had to merge into traffic and then around the bollards to get past the car whose driver decided that's where they needed to park.
the bollards might be a bit
Not to mention that the bike lane was made too wide. Person on a bike doesn't need nearly the same amount of width as a passenger car.
Plus, where are the throngs of bikes that would allegedly be inconvenienced by this? Oh, that's right. Cyclists are not legally mandated to use bike lanes where they are provided.
Oh
Where are the throngs of auto drivers inconvenienced by the minivan waiting in the road? I see one other car and it's in the opposite lane.
Also, are cars legally mandated to use limited access highways? If you have 2+ people in your car are you required to use the HOV lane?
Bikes are not the problem you think they are.
Cars are legally limited to
Cars are legally limited to use of the roads built for them and disallowed from other public ways/surfaces. (Nice straw man redirecting the comment to "limited access" roads.) If a car drives up on the sidewalk or another pedestrian-only area, or a bike lane or bike/walking path, this is illegal. Yet the same isn't true for cyclists weaving into motor vehicle lanes and in many places, sidewalks.
Yet the same isn't true for
Yep, that's right. And there are may very good reasons for that.
Cars, on the other hand, are
Cars, on the other hand, are legally required to NOT use bike lanes, yet here we are.
There aren't any bikes in the
There aren't any bikes in the photo in the general lanes either.
This particular block got a protected bike lane because it was easy to put in, not because it's the place that needs one the most.
A photograph only captures
A photograph only captures one specific moment in time.
Let's ignore...
the fact that this photo was obviously taken by a person on a bicycle. Christ.
And
If you look ahead of the parked car there is another person on a bike, in the bike lane.
true
That's true. But the snow removal equipment does. When a road is retrofit like this, the width is determined not by the bike lane needs, but by a combination of (a) not having to repaint all the other lanes so that the right motor vehicle travel lane doesn't end up 14', inviting people to park in the roadway, and (b) making sure that the snow removal equipment already dispatched (big and little pickups with plows) can plow the bike lane.
And before you complain that people don't bike when there's snow, (a) people bike less, but not none, and (b) plowing the snow is essential to allow storm drains to be clear, so that the rest of the road's snowmelt has a place to go and doesn't make the entire road a skating pond.
But don't let a thoughtful management of budget and roadway maintenance get in your way.
Boston's Revolutionary Guard Bike patrol will
police these anti revolutionary antics of the four wheeled regime.
The Silver Line
There is a dedicated bus lane that has more double-parked cars and trucks blocking buses everyday with little or no enforcement.
This is my ride home from
This is my ride home from North Station every day. The markers were a welcome recent addition though the problem is not usually where this picture was taken (there are often cars parked in the bike lane, but at least I could ride in the place where the markers now are to go around without being in traffic. The real issue is the next block up after Franklin where idiots would pack the bike lane bumper to bumper to try to get to 93 in a couple of blocks (I've seen several BPD and State Police cars do this as well). I've almost been run over a few times by a car coming up to stopped traffic in the travel lane and deciding to whip right to the "open" bike lane as I am passing by on their right in the bike lane. These markers have helped that issue quite a bit and I'm glad to see them. Of course, there is a space between the markers for cars to pull out of a driveway and on Tuesday I saw an impatient driver weave into that wider gap to drive up the bike lane and cut left in front of the cars in the driving lane. Probably saved 30-40 seconds off his commute...
Never mind the bollards
Here's the sex pistols
Those things are bendy too! i
Those things are bendy too! i saw someone pull out of the kiss and ride on the Congress St side of the pregnant building and drive right over one! (they were very surprised!) The bollard popped right back up!
I work in Cambridge and there
I work in Cambridge and there are bike lanes everywhere. They still manage to run typos over on the sidewalk or in the crosswalk. I ride a bike and show way more respect and follow the lights.
While on the subject of bike
While on the subject of bike safety. There should be a law that bikers should have to abide by traffic lights similar to cars.
There already is such a law
From MGL, Chapter 85, Section 11B:
The problem is not the law, it's lack of enforcement.
In addition to the road test,
In addition to the road test, I think motorists should be required to bike in the city for 1 mile on the street of their choice. They wouldn't have to pass a test, they'd just need to experience firsthand the space (lack thereof) that cyclists are afforded.
This.
This.
Or perhaps we should require 6 months of biking in traffic as a condition of issuing a learner's permit.