The Story

For as long as I’ve been Cycling the streets of Cambridge, the east end of Cambridge Street has had two perfectly serviceable bike lanes .. but with one conspicuously absent feature.

Where's the little man?

Or the 'cyclist diamond'?

I’m no expert, but I hear tell that unless these little icons are present in the lane, these lanes are not lawfully bike lanes, and cyclists using them are therefore not subject to the same protection that they would be in a true bike lane, or even a ’squeezeway’! The horror! To be bamboozled into thinking we’ve got the protection of the city when the lines mean nothing at all!  And this is a road where lanes like this are truly necessary – double-parking is at it’s worst here on Cambridge Street, meanwhile cars blast by at speed, trying to make it past the next yellow light. Aggressive driving is rampant, and motorists in this area are none too kind to the average cyclist – I’ve learned this the hard way.

Another thing I noticed was a significant lack of bicycle parking… and a suspicious coating around all the meters.

What and why?

This black plastic coating made it very difficult for me to use my ‘fun size’ Kryptonite U-lock. Is this thing here to help or hurt cyclists? For the love of Gond, what is it? There are scores of businesses on Cambridge Street that can, will and do benefit from the patronage of cyclists, but sadly this fact seems to have gone unnoticed.

Dear [Grimlocke],

On behalf of Governor Deval L. Patrick, thank you for your recent correspondence regarding the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. We have forwarded your letter to Massachusetts Department of Transportation  for further review. If necessary, please be assured you will receive a response as quickly as possible. We are committed to addressing your concerns promptly.

Again, thank you for contacting Governor Patrick’s office and please feel free to contact our office in the future with any questions or concerns you may have regarding other matters.

Sincerely,

Governor Patrick’s Constituent Services Office

617-725-4005

www.mass.gov/governor/contact

I’m happy that I’m getting word of some action, if not seeing first hand. I also haven’t seen any dangerous behavior for.. wow about a week. I’m not on the streets as much as I am in the warmer months, but I still cover at least 14-20 miles of the worst roads in the area, every day. Today I have the pleasure of taking Cambridge up to the River Street bridge, up River and along Prospect – possibly one of the crappiest rides in the city. We’ll see what I spy along this route, aside from debris – strewn and potholed shoulder, gridlocked cars and jaywalking peds.

“I think you should write a formal letter of complaint to the Mayor.”

Uh..  ohkay.

I also tend to call the police ALOT; I have the numbers for Brookline, Boston District 14, Downtown Boston, Cambridge and Somerville Police Departments in my phone contacts. No, I’m not calling about the kids on my lawn. I call about double parked cars, people threatening my life, people parked in the bike lane, etc. I asked the gentleman I was speaking to today what the best number to call to get someone  on the scene in a NON emergency (see: person parked in the bike lane) is, and he said,

“Just call 911 and tell them its not an emergency. If you call the police station we’ll have to call them anyway to get to dispatch.”

So… yeah. I guess I’ll be calling 911 a bunch in the near future, and hoping I don’t get yelled at if the offender decides to take the hint and pull out of the bike lane and into the night, leaving me standing there holding the phone, so to speak.

I want to give props to a guy that I pass every day on my homeward bound commute. This policeman is always directing traffic at that wonky intersection on the Brookline side of Coolidge Corner. At first, I would ride through and he would scowl at me along with all the motorists, but with persistant smiling, I have broken his resolve. I now get a smile every time I ride by him, and today he quipped, ” nice goggles! “. I’m glad he’s there, keeping an eye on stuff, and I feel safer for his presence. Hats off to you, my good man.

As an act of civil disobedience, some cyclists in NYC have remarked a bike lane on Bedford Ave that was recently sandblasted away.

One of the controversies about this is that the lanes were possibly removed at the request of the Hasidic community living in the area and who may have taken issue with the (type or lack of) garments being worn by (female) cyclists. It doesn’t help that the same NYPost article says “[a] source close to Mayor Bloomberg said removing the lanes was an effort to appease the Hasidic community just before last month’s election.”

Really? This is what our safety is weighed against?

Show ‘em how it’s done, people:

I highly doubt he ‘asked’ the kids to get out of his way, especially if it was who I think it was.

A few weeks ago, a truck from Brighton Towing pushed me into the curb while I was traveling in the bike lane in the Brookline end of Harvard St., southbound. When we reached a red light, I hollered ‘Too Close’, at the driver, as I am wont to do when speedy parasites infringe upon my lanespace. When he caught up with me again, he swerved into the bike lane ON PURPOSE this time, screaming out the window. Assault with a deadly tow truck, I’d call that. Anyway, I found out his name is Jay, via calling the number ON HIS TRUCK. Idiot.

Seems someone got their just desserts at Brighton Towing, probably for following this same driving/public relations pattern. I really hope it was our good friend Jay. Karma is a dirty bitch, and I buy her a whole lot of drinks.

A while ago I wrote about how to use door zone bike lanes. In which I posited the following argument: Bike lanes are good because they draw out more cyclists, and if you are against door zone bike lanes you can either use them properly (as outlined in the article), use streets without bike lanes, or lobby for the removal of on street parking. For the most part no one disagreed with my arguments.

However, some of you responded, “But what about Columbus Ave!” The Columbus Ave. bike lanes are completely door zone (!!), or so some of you said. Being the person of science that I am, I decided to go investigate for myself.

First off I want to set the scene: Wednesday, mid-day. Slightly overcast, with a threat of rain, your typical October day in Boston. I rode down most of the bike lane on one side and did a bit of track back on the other, overall I covered most of the new bike lane.

I have to say that I was pretty shocked by how poor the enforcement was of parking the bike lane, I saw dozens (literally) of cars parked in the bike lane.

A fine example of taking up the entire bike lane! I wish a cop was around to issue you a ticket...hmmm

Yes I know it's a meals on wheels van, but come on there is a parking space RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU...can't you be bothered to pull in, at least the lights are on to warn people...if only a cop was around to fix this...

Yes Officer Car NUPD 18 was parked in a tow zone and had a good chunk of the car hanging out into the bike lane, something the rest of the people in front of him managed to avoid.

The other thing that seemed strange to me was that the bike lane came and went, replaced in portions with sharrows. For those not “in the know” sharrows, are street markings to indicate that cars are supposed to share the road with bikers (share arrows). These also seemed to be, umm lets say, poorly placed…

Here we have the classic 'twofer', we got the sharrow being PARKED ON, and behind that a car blocking the bike lane.

Another car parked directly in front of a sharrow.

That looks like a disaster waiting to happen, lets get a closer look...

Frankly I was appalled with just how much a disaster the sharrow placement seems to be…how is allowing parking OVER the sharrows (not to mention the rampant double parking) supposed to help bikers? I mean…why waist the paint? I think something must have gone wrong someplace because these don’t look like they are placed correctly, or the parking ordinance hasn’t been updated to remove on street parking in these locations…right? This couldn’t have been planed this way? Please someone tell me this was not the plan.

Ok but what about the first question. Is the entire bike lane on Columbus Ave. “in the door zone” as so many have claimed. Lets see.

Here is a good example of the bike lane width (ignore the giant pot hole for now), looks kind of dicey...looks pretty narrow...

It did look pretty narrow, I would estimate from the picture above that the door zone would be something like this.

But that wasn’t enough for me, I didn’t want “probably door zone” I was hunting for “actual door zone.” I needed some hard science, so I started asking people “hey can I take a picture of you with your door open?” A normal enough thing to ask people, right? And they were more than happy to help out. I want to make it clear, each of these people opened their door for me, at my request, they are all helpful nice people and were not trying to kill me. (I have highlighted “actual door zone” on each of these in red, the green would thus be the “non-door zone”)

Note: I added a bit more red to this because this guy had managed to get his car pretty far over, but as you can see you have room on the left.

But “that’s a car” you say, but “he is pulled way over” you say. What about a truck? Well I was lucky enough to run into this guy, who was very helpful and actually really nice.

As you can see even with a truck door there is still space on the left hand side for a biker. When I explained to this guy what I was doing he did something that really made me happy.

He got out his freaking measuring tape, seriously this is my kind of guy. Here is what he found.

It’s kind of hard to see, but there was 26 inches of clearance from the end of his door to the left of the white line.

So what does all this mean? Basically there are some serious problems with double parking and sharrow design on Columbus Ave. But the Columbus Ave. bike lane is NOT all door zone. It is narrow, but it most certainly is not all door zone. If you use the same strategy I suggest in my first post about door zone bike lanes you should be just fine. I would recommend you ride on the left white line when using this bike lane, if used in this way you will easily avoid opening doors.

I have talked to a lot of people and a large majority (almost all of them) want more bike lanes. The bike lanes might make them safer, they might not (I honestly don’t know) but what I do know is that painting bike lanes makes more people feel comfortable riding. And that is a very good thing. Clearly however poorly designed infrastructure (sharrows with parking on them?!) can lead to confusion and injury, but a “door zone” bike lane, even a narrow one like Columbus Ave. can be safely used if the people are educated. In a perfect world, all bike lanes would be wide as the street and no cars would be allowed to park near them. We of course do not live in a perfect world, so we deal with what we have. It is embarrassing how poorly laid out the sharrows are and how bad the double parking is on Columbus Ave. But that in no way makes the bike lane “all door zone” or unusable.

Because education is needed to use these facilities safely (you had to get educated to drive your car safely as well) and not everyone is going to read this blog, I suggest that for all door zone bike lanes a sign like this be posted.

Ride to the left people, stay out of the door zone!

Today’s experiment yielded a chap going up the pedestrian ramp, on a bike, suuuuper slowly. I felt a bit bad for him until I passed and realized that he was doing it with one hand because in the other he was holding a cup of Dunk. “The coffee, it’s a handicap!”, I exclaimed. (see: The goggles, they do nothing!) I hope he understood that I was just playing with him. He then proceeded to blow through every red light all the way up Harvard St. in Allston. Holding a coffee. I wish I’d caught his name so I can keep an eye out for it in the police notes.

The second anomaly of today was a large tow truck, marked Brighton Towing, Inc.   The truck swerved into the bike lane to avoid a ‘$100 fine’ standing mid-road sign and was close enough to brush my elbow. At the next red light I hollered “TOO CLOSE!” into  his window, as a public service announcement. I’m nice like that. As he passed me farther on he swerved in toward me threateningly and yelled something out of the window that was entirely unintelligible but obviously negative, so at the NEXT red light I stopped and queried at his window. I’m not sure if his face was just built like that or if he was actually really trying, but he was giving me the most moronic look I’ve ever seen on another human being. Given the amount of reality TV I’ve seen in the past I was not a little bit impressed. He ended his rant of garbled nonsense with ‘why are you riding a bike, are you not right in the head?’…

What does one say to this, really?

What drivers of large vehicles owned by small businesses need to understand is that if they act like idiots on the road, all you or I have to do is stroll inside and google the name of their company. I called Brighton Towing, and I now know that the operator that threatened me goes by the name of Jay. I didn’t go to the police because I don’t really have anything to show (and man do they hate to be bothered unless you’re bleeding), but I DO know how to contact him if I need to, and I know the address of his place of business, and his email address. Good going, Jay. May you land yourself the role of a lifetime in the next season of ‘Traffic Wars’.

If you see a silver convertible BMW with the license plate NCN and a faded pair of Red Sox underneath the plate driving around today, tell the fat entitled bitch behind the wheel that Grimlocke the bike vigilante says Hi. She’ll probably know who you mean. Also remind her that the bike lane is never a casual parking spot, even if you ‘have a child in the car’, because yes, I do indeed have all day, and yes, I will call our good friends the police. Because yes, I am a smartass bitch. I chose it as a hobby because I have a knack. I should have taken a picture of this chubby twit.

On the topic of things I should have taken a picture of – the second person I stopped to be a smartass bitch at today because they were parked in the bike lane was actually a woman with a beard. I just kept riding. Some things you just have to let go.

Everyone’s heard of the old person that got up in the middle of the night to get a glass of milk, fell down some stairs, and croaked.

I feel like I’m dangerously close to actually being that person. Except I’m not old [in the relative scheme of things] and this is all going to happen on a bike.

Because while it’s only the second week of school, last night I found myself half groping through my usual commute, squinting in the dark as if that’s going to somehow fix my 0/0 vision. It didn’t, obviously, but feet fueled by hunger bordering on starvation and getting crowded out of the lane by impatient cars, it did help that I knew my route well.

Newton likes to keep things dark, but even along Comm Ave – which actually has functioning street lights – the shadows of trees like to hide all the sneaky potholes that are just deep enough to fall into. My trusty Knog light kept the more attentive drivers at bay but I’d still need one of those intense headlights [the kind you actually strap around your head] to actually illuminate the street.

Because I’m as blind as a bat. The only thing keeping me from eating shit on the way home was the fact that I knew what to avoid and where. But cutting across the Boston College undergrad campus, and hopping onto Beacon, I discovered something new.

A bike lane…! Marked off on both sides of the street in bold white lines that I could see even without the aid of sunlight. And while I know the bumps and cracks on that stretch of road nearly by heart, it’s reassuring to know that a couple feet of asphalt have officially been sectioned off for my personal use.

Of course, this has the potential to put me right back into that dangerous old-person-dying-in-her-house scenario. Because the whole assumption behind that is that you know your house well enough to get around with no lights on. But of course you’re wrong and you end up paying the consequences. Which sucks when you have to die for it.

Maybe I’ll stick to taking my chances on Comm Ave…

Look who BUBikes caught parking in the bike lane…naughty naughty BUPD7 Car 597.

If you see someone (especially someone who knows better like the cops) parked in a bike lane, send in the pictures we can publicly shame them!

It’s that time of year: College Move In. This past May I moved out all my belongings from my Myles Standish dorm room in Kenmore Square into my summer apartment in Allston using only my bike. Here’s what that looked like:

This is my homebuilt Xtracycle longtail cargo bike, whose inadequate axle actually broke after carrying the load seen below:

So I used my mountain bike outfitted with wald rear baskets to tow my crippled longtail to my apartment which in turn carried my snowboard:

From then on I used my rear baskets and a baby stroller turned makeshift bike trailer to carry more of my junk:

And here’s my bike carrying my office chair:

It took a total of thirteen trips to move all my belongings out of my dorm and a bit of creativity to affix some irregularly sized items to my bike.

As you can tell I am a huge fan of cargo biking, but less obvious is my fanaticism for the video game Katamari Damacy, so I was less than thrilled to miss last weekend’s Katamari-cat, a Katamari Damacy Themed Alleycat bike race/scavenger hunt that required riders to carry irregularly sized items with them on their bike. Needless to say, that Alleycat would have been right up my alley

Since the BU semester starts in a few days, I’ve decided to bike-move again back into my new dorm room in Myles Standish. What’s a senior doing in a predominately underclassmen dorm, you ask? Why, enjoying the luxury of a spacious single to house me and all my bikes, of course. So for the past few weeks I’ve been borrowing and using an electric powered bike since my knees have been giving me trouble. After attaching my Wald baskets to the rear rack, I began round one of my slow but steady bike move back to the dorm today using my camping dry bags and some bungee cords:

Unfortunately, I almost forgot that college move-in day meant a nightmare of traffic and illegally parked vehicles. While I didn’t see cars parked in the bike lane outside Warren Towers, there were two moving trucks hogging the lane:

It only got worse when I got to Kenmore Square, where the outbound bike lane, the only place I’ve personally ever been doored, was lined with parked cars:

But the real nightmare was the intersection of Comm. Ave and University Rd, where during rush hour even with a green light the bike lane and the green linewas blocked by cars coming off the Carlton St. Bridge trying to get onto the BU bridge and Storrow Drive. Over the summer this was less of a problem since less people were in town, but seeing this intersection today as the new school year takes off was a stark reminder of what I am likely to see on a daily basis all year unless something changes:

As you can see, the cyclist above is not very happy about dangerous mess she has just waded through. And as school will soon be in full swing and swarms of bicyclists and pedestrians pass through bu BU bridge intersection, we can only hope to see something done about it soon, especially when actual BU Bridge renovation begins.

Farther down Comm. Ave at Agganis Arena, Cirque Du Soleil was scheduled to perform, and Boston Police detail was making sure traffic was running smoothly. Giant electronic traffic alert displays were also displaying messages to drivers to expect delays. What if those displays also said to watch out for cyclists? Wouldn’t that be nice?

Thursday, August 27th, 2009. North Harvard St.

blue skies and open roads

I have gotten some reports that a new half mile of bike lane was painted on Columbus ave in the back bay/south end area last night. From what I hear they are not stenciled yet (the bike symbol isn’t on them, just the lines, which from what I understand are done by different people), anyone got any pictures?

EDIT: Hurray BostonBiker.org Bloggers! Not only did you produce pictures of the new bike lane almost as soon as I had posted this, but I think you are all awesome as well!

From chic cyclists’s blog.

I need a new bike. I have a nice big chunk of change earmarked for this new bike. I know exactly what I want to be riding, from stem to stern, as it were. You’d think it’d be easy to walk into a shop and/or a custom build boutique and say “here, have my moneys and give me this not so complex item” but noooo. It seems that all the shops are too busy (or too cool) to need my cash, and the designers are all so backed up that there’s no way I’d be getting anything concrete until the middle of next summer. What’s a girl to do? I want a bike, and I want it NOW(ish)! I know that if I don’t get someone to help soon, I’m going to just break down and get a pre-assembled POS to ride for another year, and I won’t be satisfied. Grr.

In other news, it seems that they have decal’d and signed the bike lane on N. Harvard, which is awesome. Not so awesome is the fact that it seems tickets are no deterrent to the people who really want to park there. I wonder how much they are ticketing for. I think this afternoon I’ll stop and take a peek at the total price of being a douchebag. At the same time I may leave a ticket of my own. Here’s a peek:

My phone cam is crappy, but on the back of the fake ticket you can check boxes on such violations as:

• Parking like a Jackass
• Taking up 2 Spaces (Jerk)
• Being Illiterate (it says ‘RESERVED’)
• Ugly Driver Violation

And much much more! You can get these fakey tickets at bigmouthtoys.com.

The ride to work today was amazingly serene. However (there’s always a however), while entering Harvard Square from the north, I was once again forced out of the bike lane and into traffic by the ass end of a taxi. You know where I’m talking about :

View Larger Map
This is the same story, day in, day out. So this time I’m going to bitch about it, because that’s how I roll.
So far the only contact info I have for bike issues in Cambridge is cseiderman@cambridgema.gov, at 617/349-4629. The Community Development Department TTY line is 617/349-4621. If this isn’t the best person to talk to, hopefully she (Cara Seiderman) can point me in the right direction.
I have to admit, Cambridge is pretty tolerable to ride through, as compared to some of it’s surrounding neighbors like Allston, Boston Proper, Revere, etc. With the exception of roads like Somerville Ave and Prospect St., I don’t often feel crowded on the main thoroughfares. Cambridge Street has to be dealt with, though. If you don’t know already, the ‘bike lanes’ drawn up and down C-street are not actually enforceable by law, because there are no decals drawn in, nor posted signage. This situation arose because, or so I’m told, many business owners on the street protested a bike lane. I can’t really understand why, but I believe it has to do with delivery parking on the street, as well as stricter rules for double parking when there is a bike lane present. Either way, it’s ridiculous. I almost wish some guerilla bike advocacy group would paint in some little cyclists decals, just to get people thinking about it again. I would never encourage something like that, of course…

The bike lane on North Harvard is still without decals or signage, or any kind of enforcement whatsoever. I understand that these things take time, but it didn’t take any time whatsoever to pave and then paint the extensive vehicle traffic lines, so what gives with the rest of the business? Maybe if more people bug Nicole about it, she’ll grease the wheels a little bit:

Nicole Freedman

Director of Bicycle Programs

One City Hall Square, Suite 932

Boston, MA 02201

617.429.8440

Nicole.Freedman.bra@CityofBoston.gov

Hi,

Thank you for your email.  This project is not yet complete. We still have to add decals, new signs, etc, after which we can begin enforcement. We do intend to make these lanes workable for the cyclists.

Thanks for alerting us to the issue.

Nicole Freedman

_____

Hi again Nicole,

My fellow bicycle commuters and I have noticed that there are still no decals or No Parking signs along the new bike lane on North Harvard Street. Can you please give me an idea as to when this project will be done? Can you also please inform me as to why it wasn’t done when the original lines were drawn? Is this project being protested by some? If so, can you inform me as to whom?

-Grimlocke

____

Hi G,

Thank you for your email.  The signs should be up this week at the latest and we will also be placing warning signs on all the cars to let them know that we will start enforcing the no parking rules.  Signs are installed by different contractors than those that do pavement markings, hence the different dates.

Thank you so much.

Nicole Freedman

Director, Boston Bikes

One City Hall Square, Rm 932

Boston, MA 02201

(617) 918-4456 (work)

Reader Grim sent these to me…as you can see the new bike lanes on North Harvard have not been totally understood just yet by the drivers in the area…perhaps a couple 100$ dollar tickets would smarten them up.

more pics here

Remember this, score one for the good guys, right?

And they’ve also repaved N. Harvard Street, so fresh and so smooth, complete with bike lanes! oh yay!

Oh… wait.

There are also signs like this posted all along this lane.

But nobody seems to care.

Great work, guys.

Yes, that deserved all caps.  Now we may actually be able to use that bike lane they striped down Comm Ave.  FedEx trucks be warned…

The long and short is that the City Council just passed an ordinance prohibiting parking in bike lanes.  It empowers BTD and BPD officers to ticket any violators.  The tickets are for $100.  Wow.  The full ordinance is posted below.

This was passed with the help of a few influential bike organizations, namely LivableStreets Alliance, BU Bikes, Allston-Brighton Bikes, Bikes Not Bombs, Institute for Human Centered Design, Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, Rozzie Bikes, JP Bikes, and Dot Bike.  Thanks to all the groups that helped push this badly needed legislation.

AN ORDINANCE PROHIBITING PARKING IN A MARKED BIKE LANE

OR MARKED SHARED LANE

WHEREAS: The City of Boston is lacking an effective method to ensure public safety as members of the public not only travel in motor vehicles in marked bike lanes and shared lanes but also park in said lanes; and

WHEREAS: This Ordinance shall establish the following guidelines for parking motor vehicles in marked bike lanes and shared bike lanes; and

Ordained by the City Council as follows:

1. Purpose. The purpose of this ordinance is to establish guidelines for parking motor vehicles in marked bike lanes and shared bike lanes.
2. Prohibition from Marked Bike Lanes and Shared Lanes. No driver shall stand or park any motor vehicle in a marked bike or shared bike lane in the City of Boston.
3. Penalties. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be subject to a fine of one hundred dollars and no cents ($100.00) for each offense. This fine shall increase by thirty-three dollars ($33.00) if it remains unpaid at least twenty-one (21) days after issuance of a notice of the violation.
4. Exceptions. Nothing in these sections shall prevent standing or parking a motor vehicle in a marked bike lane or shared bike lane: (i) when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or pedestrians; (ii) in compliance with the lawful direction of a police officer or official traffic sign; or (iii) unless authorized to do so under existing regulations (including but not limited to designated residential parking lanes or parking meters).
5. Enforcement. The Boston Transportation Department and the Boston Police Department shall have the authority to enforce this section. The provisions of Massachusetts General Laws c. 90, s. 20A1/2 may be used to enforce these sections, and the adjudication provisions of this chapter and of Chapter 190 of the Acts of 1982 shall apply to this section. The Boston Police Department and Boston Transportation Department shall have the authority to impound any motor vehicle in violation of these sections.
6. Regulatory Authority. The Commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department and the Commissioner of the Boston Police Department shall have the authority to promulgate rules and regulations necessary to implement and enforce these sections.
7. Severability. If any provision of these sections is held as invalid, then such provision shall be considered separately and apart from the remaining provisions, which shall remain in full force and effect.
8. Implementation. The provisions of this section shall be effective immediately after passage.

The latest article from Boston.com is set up as a sounding board for all road users who use the bridge.

The biased title “BU bridge plans could spur road rage” comes from the prediction of Stanley Spiegel, you’ll see the quote in the third paragraph on the page. The article itself gives fair play to both sides of the story, then opens up for discussion among the community.

So, pay a visit, maybe even make your voice heard. Don’t get into too much of a tizzy over the comments, it’s not worth raising blood pressure over, but do try to read them and keep yourself informed. This is a microcosm of the daily struggle that a lot of riders face in the Boston/Cambridge area. I found that after a certain level of detachment is reached a comical sadness can set in.

Update

A genuine-appearing comment from DCR Commissioner Rick Sullivan offers up an e-mail address targetting public response for the Accelerated Bridge Program, of which the BU Bridge reconstruction falls under, and encourages people to contact them with their comments.

I think I might leave a couple there myself. Anyone else care to voice up?

As Commissioner of the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR), I am sensitive to the varying perspectives that surround this and other DCR bridge projects. We are extremely fortunate that Governor Patrick has made repairing the state’s bridges a high priority through his Accelerated Bridge Program, and we are working hard to balance the public’s many viewpoints and interests as we move forward on all our projects statewide. Regarding the BU Bridge, we are still trying to find the best ways to accommodate all traffic – including cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, and pedestrians – and I would urge anyone who would like to comment on the plans to contact the agency directly at dcr.updates [at] state.ma.us. That e-mail address has been set up specifically for feedback from the public on the Accelerated Bridge Program, so you can send your comments there for any bridge project. Also let us know if you would like to receive regular updates and notices of DCR public meetings on the agency’s bridge projects. We are doing our best to create a transparent process so that everyone’s concerns can be heard.
Rick Sullivan

The comment can be found on page 13 of the comments for the article.

check out http://boston.mybikelane.com/

This is a preliminary report (sorry I don’t have the little do-hickey that lets you take pictures off the camera with me) but this morning while riding to work I noticed that the “bus lane” on Washington (see map below) is now a “Bus and Bike lane”

View Larger Map

For those of you not in the know, this section of Washington has apparently been designated a bus/bike lane for a long long time. But the city and the MBTA were in stuck in a game of “you paint the signs” “No! You pain the signs” for a couple years. Seems someone finally won!

I will have more pictures, and more info (like how far down it goes in both directions) tonight as I will investigate on the way home.

It’s not a long lane, but it’s nice to see yet more bicycle infrastructure popping up all over. We will see if the bus’s and cars respect the new markings. Hopefully someone over at the City or the MBTA let the other person know they put the signs down.

Remember I am still hunting for pictures of new bike racks, if you see one snap a photo and send it to shane at BostonBiker.org with the location you saw it.

Check out this video here.

I know for sure there is a bike lane some place in Boston (I am thinking Harvard or Central square) that would beat this one hands down. Do you know one? I love bike lanes, but some times you have to wonder why they are put down where they are. Clearly some of them were planned out by people who either did it at the last moment, or did it without thinking about how cyclists really use the road.

Slate V Editor Andy Bowers documents what he claims is the stupidest bike lane in America. Got another contender?

Do we have any bike lanes as short as this one? Found via Digg.