Bike Lane Changes In Roslindale

A reader David sent in the following report about bike lanes in Roslindale/JP Area:

In the October 2009, bike lanes were added to Washington Street between Ukraine Way (just south of Forest Hills) and Roslindale Square. They added some convenience, and (some people feel) safety to the ride, and were generally perceived to be a useful development – an example of the city bringing bike facilities out into the neighborhoods.

In June 2013, the city added a handful of parking spaces on either side of Washington Street, just south of Ukraine, where previously there was no parking and just the bike lanes. They routed the southbound lane (the one in the video) around the parking spaces (you can still see the remains of the original lane). The northbound bike lane was replaced by sharrows when they added parking spaces to that side.

As you can see, to avoid the bike lane, vehicles need to make a pretty sharp swerve into a pretty thin car-and-bus-lane, and in the video taken at the time, almost none of them do. Same is true today, two months later, so there doesn’t seem to be any progress along the learning curve among the car-and-bus-enthusiasts who use the road. (Some might argue that without actual parked cars, there’s no need to respect the bike lane, but at the least, it means the paint will soon be worn off.)

The two buildings that the parking spaces were added for were built on MBTA-owned land, and (I thought) were considered transit-oriented development. Both buildings already have off-street parking, so there should be no need to put parking on the street.

This decision was made, I’m told, a while back, during the time that Boston had only an interim bike coordinator. I’m not aware of anyone in the bike community who was consulted, nor any public discussion of the change before it was implemented. Rumor has it that the decision to trash the lanes will not be changed.

I am not familiar with any of the facts surrounding the changes made to these bike lanes, or the people involved with them. But it is clear from the video that motorists have not “responded well” to the changes, aka they are driving in the bike lanes. This is a clear sign of poor planning, enforcement, or both.

If the car is truly no longer kind in this town, why do we continue to put on-street parking in? Especially considering this location is about a 3 minute walk to the T.

Anyone else have any information on these lanes, or how they got into their current configuration?

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