By adamg on Thu., 1/5/2017 - 10:04 am
The State House News Service reports on a bill approved by legislators.
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How are bike lanes which are
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 7:14pm
How are bike lanes which are in between parked cars and/ or bollards and sidewalk curbs going to be plowed? It's often too narrow of a path for even small snow plows.
It can be done.
By eherot
Fri, 01/06/2017 - 1:01am
It can be done.
[img]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2749/4183637813_afa...
Protected bike lanes in snowy
By DTP
Fri, 01/06/2017 - 10:31am
Protected bike lanes in snowy climates are not a new concept. Montreal has hundreds of miles of them. Boston even already has some.
A two-way cycle track is a minimum of 10 ft wide. That's usually wide enough for a truck with a plow. Especially on-street ones where next to that 10 ft is a painted buffer. Even if there are bollards in it, count on an extra foot+. For comparison, 11 ft is standard lane width on state highways. There are city streets around here with 9 ft lanes.
Plenty of room.
And for one-way cycle tracks, that's what bobcats are for! The city already has tons of them for sidewalks, parks, and other places you can't fit a truck.
Temp needs
By Elvea
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 3:51pm
Assuming there really is a genuine need to park illegally temporarily, then they should park in the regular lane and block cars not bikes.
Cambridge police tweetedthis morning
By lobster nanny
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 2:03pm
that they ticketed 3 cars for parking in a bike lane I think they're on it.
Cambridge
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 2:59pm
Cambridge has been generally on the ball about this, at least in certain areas.
JP at the Monument
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 10:49am
Nearly every Saturday and Sunday a large white unmarked (except for a mall hand painted truck number and company name sign) is parked in front of the Monument. Supposedly it is for a company in Dorchester. The truck always juts out to occupy half the bike lane. Sometimes the truck is closer to the turn lane from Centre to South blocking visibility of on coming traffic from Centre to South.
The traffic department doesn't work on weekends and so won't do anything about it. So it's left to local PD. But they have more important things to do than ticket illegally and dangerously parked vehicles.
So what is the solution here? Increasing a fine that is not applied doesn't solve the problem. So what can?
I keep a stack of these with
By erik g
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 1:48pm
I keep a stack of these with me all the time. If it's a repeat offender who doesn't get the message, can I suggest a stencil and fluorescent orange paint?
There's more to this story
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 10:54am
Currently, communities can make tickets up to $50 without State House oversight (and handicap and fire plug tickets are already allowed to be higher).
Brookline's ticket for blocking a bike lane is $50
Boston's is $100 (they got legislative approval)
Cambridge has a $100 fine though they say it's for "traveling in a bike lane" -- does (not!) traveling count too I wonder?
Sure
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 11:44am
As soon as police starts ticketing bikes for disobeying every traffic law imaginable - I mean, they are traffic after all, aren't they?
Okay!
By lbb
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 1:50pm
Oh, so the goal is to ticket vehicles of all kinds for all traffic violations? Sounds great! So, try this: as you commute home tonight, take note of every vehicle that violates a law. This includes: failure to come to a full stop at a stop signal. Rolling past the stop line. Turning or changing lanes without signaling. Speeding. Crossing the center line. Crossing the fog line. Following too closely. Failure to yield. Note the number, and then note how many are ticketed. Compare numbers of motor vehicles to number of bicycles. Compare the potential damage caused by the two different types of vehicles. Now ask yourself if the next, most important priority should be to vigorously enforce traffic regulations on cyclists.
Guess what
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 3:42pm
A car driver WILL get a ticket if a cop happens to be around and sees one doing any of the above. Same cannot be said about bikecritters - I've seeing plenty scurrying through a red light or stop sign right in front of a cop with no consequence whatsoever.
The Man in the High SUV
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:17pm
Someone slipped into an alternate dimension again.
What is the provision for those
By whyaduck
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 12:00pm
who need to make deliveries, such as UPS? Or those who need to pick up and drop off people, especially people with a disability that need to be near the curbside? What if you need to move - where to you park your moving truck? I'm all for not blocking the bike lane so folks can pedal merrily along but I would not want to make it more difficult for the aforementioned.
Loading zones
By spin_o_rama
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 12:18pm
If we don't have enough in certain areas, the city needs to look at removing parking to replace with loading zones that commercial vehicles can use for deliveries.
Ubers, cabs, Lyft, etc can also petition for more Cab Stands, again reducing parking. Zero reason that the bike lane should be a pick up/drop of zone for private businesses using public streets.
As for dropping someone off with a disability, I don't know, I guess a designated dropping off zone on each block? Maybe an exception that they can use both Loading and Cab Stand zones?
As a cyclist
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:19pm
I don't grudge handicap dropoffs in the bike lane, so long as they don't park there for several hours. Those are folks with minimal choices.
The lazy heffers can learn to hoof it like humans are meant to.
As a cyclist
By BostonDog
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:40pm
I generally don't care if someone stops for 5 seconds to let someone out of a car or someone to jump into a car. What's annoying is when the Uber driver sits there for 10 minutes putzing with their phone or when someone suddenly swerves into the bike lane without looking and abruptly stops when the find the address they were looking for.
There's not enough temporary
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 12:20pm
There's not enough temporary / drop off zone parking around. Cities need things to function - namely, people and goods. We can either have huge parking lots everywhere to accommodate this, or we can make room near building entrances, residences, offices, etc food UPS, food delivery, taxis & ride shares, etc. It shouldn't have to be at the expense of cyclist safety, but people in cities demand access to services like Amazon, Fedex, Instacart, Foodler, Lyft, etc, and it doesn't do anyone any favors to make it hostile toward the people working these jobs just trying to pay their rent.
It's called comercial parking and handicapped parking.
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 12:21pm
If the bike lane is at the curb then it is already an no standing zone (that means no "hot" parking" No parking tow zones are there to allow emergency vehicle access to buildings. it has nothing to do with bike lanes. If the bike lane is not at the curb, then you are double parking in a traffic lane. This is is dangerous for all,not just bicyclists
I see delivery drivers double
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 1:34pm
I see delivery drivers double-parking even when there are open and legal parking spaces on the same block. I'm sure they are in a rush, but so are we all in a rush... it comes down to arrogance and a
sense of entitlement when they block the lane instead of parking. Regardless of how many bike lanes with bollards, painted boxes and signage the city adds, cyclists will always be more at risk on the roads than auto drivers. If you don't have excellent city cycling skills, then you should stick to taking the T like the rest of us. Sorry!
Simple Answer
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:48pm
Get rid of all the dangerous motor vehicles. Drivers kill!
They need to find a way to do business legally
By me
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 11:04pm
If they operate in a city with limited parking, they need to use vans or bikes to make deliveries, or pay for a garage spot. The rest of us whose jobs involve travel around the city plan for these things.
And businesses without loading docks need to specify this and pay extra if needed to have the delivery done by van. Or hire a police detail if your delivery honestly requires a large truck right at the door (like something fucking huge being delivered.)
Everything would be a lot
By dvg
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 12:26pm
Everything would be a lot easier if at the end of each block there was a 50 foot zone (adjusted up or down depending on the actual needs) dedicated to 5 minute live parking for delivery trucks, Uber, cabs, people unloading cars or moving etc. It would make it easy to pull in and out, greatly reduce the need for parking on the bike lane and double parking, and give much less excuses to the people who do so. Then in the middle of that short term parking space, I would paint a huge sign on the asphalt saying "Always use your blinka and don't door the bikes".
People wouldn't use it
By lbb
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 1:51pm
End of the block? People wouldn't use it. They can't be arsed to walk half a block.
I wonder
By TiminCharlestown
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 12:29pm
if there is a much needed decision that allows bikers to ticket police who park in bike lanes.
I kid, I kid.
this guy will not be writing any tickets
By bostnkid
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 12:37pm
http://www.universalhub.com/2015/trooper-bicyclist...
I support this with a caveat:
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 1:43pm
Start ticketing cyclists (and yes, actually ticketing cars as well) for breaking traffic laws. Especially blowing stop signs and red lights, and riding the wrong way down one-way streets. I'm a supporter of bike lanes, bicycles as primary mode of transportation, and enhanced measures to ensure the safety of cyclists, but the latter is a two-way street.
Now before you write that angry response, stop, breathe, and think about it for a moment. You can't have it both ways. You can't have it both ways. Say it out loud: "I can't have it both ways."
This is speaking as someone who used to kick cab doors closed on occasion when riding through Central Sq. as a cyclist, drives regularly, and once suffered a sprained ankle as a pedestrian while avoiding a cyclist who ran a red light.
Yes, I can have it both ways
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 1:40pm
The important difference that you are ignoring: Drivers kill other people, suicyclists kill themselves.
Spirited "fair is fair" statements are nice - comparative data are nicer. I dare you to find a single instance where a cyclist in the Boston area has killed a pedestrian who wasn't jaywalking. I'll give you a five-year window to take a look.
Meanwhile, it would be nice if we could go a single week without a motorist killing or maiming a cyclist or pedestrian and driving off.
Seriously?
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 7:45pm
You're arguing that the laws shouldn't be enforced for one group, I'll assume your group, because the other is more likely to cause harm?
Masshole mentality at it's finest.
Consider this
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 10:58pm
If you had your choice between using a specific amount of resources to save 200 lives or 2 lives, which would you pick?
And, no, there is no world where you could save all 202.
By your "moral" arguments, you would save 101 lives.
But is that moral? Nope.
this disagreement is based on a lie.
By cinnamngrl
Sat, 01/07/2017 - 12:11pm
no one is willing to admit that cars disobey traffic laws more than bicyclists. It is dishonest to keep pretending it is an equal problem.
yes
By bshep
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 1:41pm
I'm a non-car-owning cyclist and I fully support this.
"start ticketing cyclists"
By lbb
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 1:54pm
Do you propose to ticket cyclists for violations that drivers routinely commit and aren't ticketed for? Because if you want to ticket cyclists for rolling through stop signs, you'll have to do the same for motor vehicles, and that isn't happening now. Or are you proposing selective enforcement?
Well considering
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 2:27pm
the first sentence in my comment was:
You tell me...
Furthermore, the "you don't do it to the other group" argument is bullshit. If you're going to advocate for enforcement of laws, you can't selectively advocate either.
Sense of proportion
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 2:34pm
Proportional to prevalence of road users or proportional to the body count by mode?
Idiot cyclists are dangerous to themselves. Idiot drivers are dangerous to everyone around them, including people inside buildings. From a public safety perspective, motor vehicle law enforcement is massively more important than anything cyclists do.
Disagree....
By Red
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 3:24pm
Despite your logic - I completely disagree with you and I say this primarily as a pedestrian, than a driver. I see the occasional car blast through a light just as it changed, but bikes seem completely unaccountable to anyone and do as they please. I see them as much as a danger to me (a ped) as a car (a neighbor's mom was killed by a cyclist when I was a kid - it CAN happen!) I am annoyed at the flagrance of the rules of the road by cyclists to stops signs, traffic lights, ped lights, one-ways, sidewalks - it's a freaking free-for-all with them. Plus - bike are not the majority of travelers in this city - they are the miniority - I have lots of traffic counts to prove it. (try 1% to 5% of all moving traffic in a given day). That said - I see the importance and health of cycling as a commuting option. But the rest of the public is one day going to not support bike lanes or cycle tracks and fight back politically if the disrespect and lack of enforcement continues. Don't believe me? See Trump.
It is unbelievable how poor traffic enforcement (all modes) is by cops in Boston and Massachusetts. You never see them. Yet, the minute there is a robbery, or, God forbid, a fallen officer - they are all over the place - more than I ever knew existed at one time. Where are they the rest of the time?
Newspaper article?
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:21pm
Sorry to hear it - got a press clipping for that? These things are so rare that they make national news.
What you see
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:27pm
And what the reality is are two different things.
One pedestrian killed himself by jaywalking in front of a cyclist in a 20 year period versus weekly hit and run pedestrian deaths (plus others when the perp stays around).
Not equivalent at all. Does not justify the use of resources.
statistics don't agree with you either
By cinnamngrl
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:31pm
Most accidents involving cyclists are the fault of the car. And if the cyclist is over the age of 25 the disparity is much wider. This is not an equal responsibility any way you look at it.
I disagree, if people want to
By Lmo
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:13pm
I disagree, if people want to be suic-cyclists, I don't want to be involved. I don't need someone t-boning me because they didn't feel like stopping at a stop sign. Don't want to see or deal with the aftermath or the guilt.
In what world
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:21pm
should laws be upheld and enforced based on any sort of proportions? Laws are laws, and all should be upheld equally.
The real world
By anon
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 4:28pm
You know, that place where people only want to pay so much in taxes?
Where impact and outcome matter when it comes to resources used?
Alright
By ChrisInEastie
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 5:28pm
then you can ride around cars parked in the bike lane and deal with it. They're most likely not stopping suddenly, and you have plenty of time to go around them, so it's not worth the resources compared to other, bigger issues.
Then no ticketing of anybody
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 01/05/2017 - 10:56pm
Until you pay more taxes to cover the costs.
You sound like you should be working for Baker with your attitude and aversion to facts.
Fact: cars parked in bike lanes endanger cyclists.
Fact: cars parked in bike lanes discourage cycling, which has a real consequences for the health of everyone in the area (encourages motor vehicle use with attendant pollution, congestion, ill-health due to sedentary lifestyle, and death toll - externalized consequences count and cost us all money, too!)
Fact: misbehavior by cyclists is no more prevalent than misbehavior by motorists (they come from the same pool of people)
Fact: misbehavior by motorists is vastly more dangerous than misbehavior by cyclists
so let's start ticketing everyone who drives 56mph in a 55 zone
By peter
Fri, 01/06/2017 - 12:19am
Also, a ticket for everyone who does a rolling stop. Also everyone who jaywalks, and everyone who spits on the sidewalk.
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