When We Fight We Win! Support the Boston Cyclists Union In There Important Work!

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Action Alert: Two Opportunities This Week To Stand Up For Cyclists On DCR Roadways

Tell DCR: Protect cyclists on your roadways

Last Thursday, we sent a powerful message to the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) that we need more protected spaces for cyclists on our roads — and we need them now. Around 125 people stood ground on Fenway and Brookline Ave. to highlight the dangers of DCR’s unprotected bike lanes on those roads, proving in the process that even during rush hour cars can move just fine along Brookline Ave. with one less lane for vehicle traffic. Thank you to all of you who took time out of your day to be there! (If you missed it, here are some photo highlights.)

We urge you to now help us carry on our momentum from that demonstration with two actions this week aimed at convincing DCR to modernize its approach to bike safety and street design.

Images from last Thursday’s people-protected bike lane action (Images courtesy of Donrick Pond)
On Wednesday, a coalition of advocacy organizations called the Memorial Drive Alliance will rally to call attention to the need for a road diet along Memorial Drive as part of the redesign process currently underway there. Following the rally, there will be a critical mass-style ride along Memorial Drive, from JFK St east to the BU rotary, to show how the road could be transformed with one less lane for cars in each direction.

Despite overwhelming public comment in support of improving the corridor for walking and bicycling and expanding green space, at the last public meeting DCR presented a plan which retains four lanes of motor vehicle traffic for most of Memorial Drive, including the parts where these improvements are most needed.

Wednesday’s ride will be a highly visible way to try to change these plans before they are finalized.
Rally and Ride
Wednesday, July 17 starting at 5:30pm
Intersection of Memorial Drive and JFK Street
RSVP

As last week’s demonstration showed, if we speak up publicly we’ll be heard. Thursday’s action received significant favorable coverage in the press, got more elected officials at the state level engaging in the conversation, and renewed attention from the City of Boston to continue expediting new protected infrastructure on Boylston St and, together with DCR, at intersections with Park Drive.
In addition to attending the rally Wednesday, it is critically important to write to DCR – even if you previously wrote in – to ask them to change their plan. To submit comments, visit their website and choose “Memorial Drive Greenway Improvements Phase III”. Key points to include:

Replace 2 vehicle travel lanes with a protected bi-directional bike path. (Retain existing paths and sidewalks for pedestrians).
Protect existing trees and plant new trees wherever there are gaps.

The second activist opportunity this week is DCR’s Stewardship Council on Thursday morning, where you can share feedback directly to the Commissioner and members of the Council about Memorial Drive and Park Drive/Fenway, as well as the agency’s general unwillingness to implement physically separated bike lanes.

DCR Stewardship Council Meeting
Thursday, July 18 from 8:30 – 11am
Dillaway-Thomas House, 183 Roxbury Street
Roxbury, MA 02119

The public comment period is toward the beginning/middle (full agenda) of this meeting, and then the public can join a working group to continue to talk with council members. If you plan to speak and have something written, please bring 10 copies. Talking points you could include:

DCR roadways where you travel, and safety concerns that you have experienced on them (including crashes)
Positive experiences you have had traveling in protected bike lanes, and an ask to start using protected bike lanes on DCR roadways
In general, why it is important to you for DCR to prioritize walking/biking/green space on and along their roadways
Particular comments related to Fenway/Park Drive and their intersections, the Arborway in Jamaica Plain, or Memorial Drive

These meetings rarely happen in Boston, so this is a unique opportunity to address DCR directly. We hope you can join us!

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Action Alert: People-Protected Bike Lane on Fenway THIS THURSDAY

From the email:

Tell DCR: Protected Bike Lanes Save Lives

New bike lanes coming soon to the Fenway area will leave cyclists vulnerable unless the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) tweaks plans to include some form of physical separation. With lane striping set to begin any day now, we ask you to join us this Thursday for an urgent demonstration calling on DCR to protect these bike lanes and improve conditions throughout this busy corridor for people who bike.
People-Protected Bike Lane on Fenway

People-Protected Bike Lane on Fenway
Thursday, July 11
Intersection of Fenway and Brookline Ave. (see map here)

RSVP

An image from the first people-protected bike lane demonstration in Boston,
on Congress St in December 2017.

Protected bike lanes (PBLs) are nearly twice as effective as painted bike lanes, and are the accepted safety standard for roads like Fenway and Park Drive; the MassDOT Municipal Resource Guide for Bikeability recommends PBLs on any road with more than one lane of traffic in each direction. However, DCR has decided to leave new bike lanes on Park Drive and Fenway unprotected, and has neglected to improve the intersections between those roads and Brookline Ave.

The Park Drive bike lane will be between on-street parking and two lanes of fast-moving traffic. Putting cyclists in the door zone on busy Park Drive is putting them in danger. And while the unprotected bike lane on Fenway isn’t designed in a door zone too, DCR’s refusal to add a physical barrier to that paint-buffered bike lane — DCR claims that it gives bicyclists a “false sense of security” — is completely backwards. During Boston’s budget hearings this spring, a cyclist shared her story of being hit from behind on Park Drive — a problem that could still happen with DCR’s unsafe designs. February’s crash that killed Paula Sharaga as she biked through the intersection of Brookline Ave. and Park Drive made the need for protection painfully clear.

DCR’s design decisions are made more frustrating by the fact that the Boston Transportation Department has already begun building PBLs on Brookline Ave., and has committed to significantly expediting the timeline to add protected bike lanes to an abutting section of Boylston St.

Preliminary striping shows a paint-buffered bike lane on Fenway (top)
and a door-zone bike lane on Park Drive (bottom).

We need your help to convince DCR to change course now, before the unprotected infrastructure is implemented!

• Join the people-protected bike lane — This Thursday, stand in support of protected bike lanes on Park Dr. and Fenway. In addition to these roads, we are also calling on DCR to make PBLs the norm for similar areas; recent DCR projects, and plans for future ones, also include unprotected bike lanes.

• Make your voice heard — Contact DCR to oppose their dangerous design, and urge lawmakers to step in. Even if your state representatives don’t cover this area, they can still influence broader DCR policy now and in the future. Share feedback to DCR Commissioner Roy and Governor Baker. For lawmakers, email Representative Chynah Tyler and Senator Will Brownsberger, who represent this area, and your own state senator and representative (find contact info here). For all emails, please CC [email protected].

• Save the date — DCR’s Stewardship Council meets next week on Thursday, 7/18, at which you can share feedback on the agency’s approach to PBLs and other bike infrastructure. If DCR ignores us now, this meeting will be our next opportunity to apply pressure about PBLs.

“If Paula were here, she would say, ‘Don’t mourn: Organize, and make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Todd, a long-time friend of Paula Sharaga’s, said at her ghost bike ceremony. That time to organize and push for change is here.

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The Boston Neighborhood Bike Organizing Leadership Institute

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World Remembrance Day This Sunday Nov 18th

From The BCU:

Sunday is World Day of Remembrance. Will you join the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition in honoring victims of traffic crashes?

World Day of Remembrance
Sunday, Nov. 18 // 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.
Learn more + RSVP

The day will begin with a ghost bike ceremony at 12:30 pm, followed by a vigil and silent march from the State House to City Hall to demand swifter action to prevent traffic deaths.

We know you are angry and sad about recent fatalities on our streets. So are we. These kinds of tragedies are avoidable with better, proactive planning and policy. Stand with us to show that life-saving infrastructure improvements cannot wait.

While Boston has made some progress toward reducing injurious crashes, change has not come quickly enough. In 2017, there were 1,162 cyclist and pedestrian incidents that prompted an EMS response — or more than 3 per day. Meanwhile, Boston’s bike fatality rate continues to be higher than the rates in comparable cities. (It’s one reason Boston fell this year to #20 in Bicycling Magazine’s ranking of the best bike cities in America.)

Friday’s fatal crash, in which a dump truck driver hit and killed BU graduate student Meng Jin as he biked near the Museum of Science, serves as another devastating reminder of the dangers posed by deadly street design. (A ghost bike ceremony will be held on Sunday before the rally and demonstration; for more information and to RSVP head here.)

Meng Jin Ghost Bike Ceremony
Sunday, Nov 18 // 12:30 – 1:30 p.m.
Intersection of Charles River Dam & Museum Way
Learn more + RSVP

On Sunday, members of the Coalition will be placing silhouettes at crash sites throughout the Boston area, as well as statewide, as part of the #CrashNotAccident awareness campaign. Crashes are not accidents — they’re the tragic, preventable results of inadequate planning and policy. People make mistakes; our streets must be designed so those mistakes are not fatal. Please join us to ensure that these lives are not forgotten and to demand safe streets for all in our communities.

Take part in the following memorial actions:

12:30 pm – Meng Jin Ghost Bike Ceremony at Charles River Dam & Museum Way
1:45 pm – Gather on the steps of Massachusetts State House for a Memorial Vigil
2:00 pm – Program for Memorial Vigil begins
2:45 pm – Silent Walk of Remembrance to Boston City Hall Plaza to demand safer roads
3:30 pm – Event ends

Please dress warmly and wear yellow in remembrance of those we’ve lost to traffic crashes.

We also encourage you to invite your elected state and local representatives. Show them the human toll of dangerous street design and urge them to support Vision Zero. You can find your city legislators here, and your state legislators here.

Help us spread the word via social media by using the following hashtags before and during the event: #WDoR2018 #CrashNotAccident #SafetyOverSpeed #VisionZero

The vast majority of these traffic crashes are preventable through engineering, education and enforcement. In numbers, we can recognize our loved ones, and also demand action from our elected officials.

We hope to see you there on Sunday, November 18th.

The post World Day of Remembrance, Sunday Nov. 18 appeared first on Boston Cyclists Union.

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