Cambridge Releases Crash Report For The Year

Summary, lots of new riders, so more crashes, but crash rate down.  Overall good news, as the number of riders has skyrocketed the crash per-capita has gone down, meaning that more riders have lead to safer riding.

Still a lot of work to go, but its moving in the right direction (at least in Cambridge it is)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Crime Analysis Unit at the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) has conducted analysis of the traffic crashes occurring within the CPD jurisdiction over the past 15 years. The available data includes crash calls for service (any call requesting police assistance related to a traffic collision), crash reports (any collision that is severe enough to require a police report), and incidents requiring transport to the hospital by Emergency Medical Services (EMS).

The Unit’s primary goal has been to understand trends in crash incidents in the context of population growth and changes in ridership (i.e., increasing numbers of bicyclists). This analysis resulted in the following conclusions:

x The total number of crashes occurring in the city has declined since the early 2000s, even as population and number of road users have increased. x While total crashes have declined, crashes involving cyclists increased by 28% from 2000 to 2015, corresponding with an increase in bike ridership. Normalizing for increases in bike ridership, the bike crash rate has declined since 2010, with more variability prior to 2010.

x A small portion of crashes required an EMS transport to the hospital – about 20% of crashes since 2010. Approximately half of crashes requiring EMS transport involved non-motorists.

x Crashes are distributed broadly across the city, with notable hotspots along Massachusetts Avenue from MIT to Central Square, the Harvard Square area, Massachusetts Avenue near Porter Square, and the Inman Square area.

x Two locations have had a particularly high incidence of crashes requiring EMS transport to the Hospital: Hampshire Street from Inman Square to Tremont Street, and Massachusetts Avenue from Vassar Street to Bigelow Street. These two locations accounted for 22% of all crashes requiring EMS transport in 2015 and 2016. These areas are heavily trafficked by cyclists and pedestrians, the road users most vulnerable to injury in the event of a crash. Other notable locations include the Kendall Square area near Broadway and Hampshire Street, along John F. Kennedy Street and Massachusetts Avenue near Harvard Square, and on Cambridge Street near 5th and 6th Streets

Read the full thing here (pdf)

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Come Out May 2 To Create A New Inman Square Safe For Everyone!

From the email:

Together, we’re making streets in Cambridge safer for all ages and abilities. As a result of our voices, we have seen some initial wins with pop-up lanes and great community support in favor of the city’s plans for Cambridge Street protected bike lanes. We need to continue this momentum this Tuesday, May 2 at the important Inman Square redesign meeting where the city will unveil the results of its months-long internal deliberations.

Cambridge St Update: 150 people showed up for the Cambridge Street protected bike lane meeting, and the tone was overwhelmingly positive, especially for making the street safe for the hundreds of CRLS students that bike or walk to school. Many bicyclists also emphasized the need to support local businesses and how this project can benefit them. The city has promised to begin construction in June, with one more public meeting between then and now, and we’ll keep you posted on how we can all make sure this project is a success.

Inman Sq Public Meeting: The other major project happening this Spring is the redesign of Inman Square, which will connect directly to the east end of the Cambridge Street protected bike lane. There is an important public meeting this Tuesday, May 2where city staff will present their preferred design and solicit feedback. All four of the designs presented at the last meeting, particularly the bend options, need significant changes to be as safe for all users as they can be. Thus, it’s crucial for as many of us as possible to come out on May 2 in support of safe, protected bicycle infrastructure and traffic calming! We deserve safe streets for all ages and abilities and the final design must reflect this.

When: Tuesday, May 2, 6-8pm (6-7: presentation, 7-8: discussion)

Where: Cambridge Public Library (Main Branch), Lower Level (L2)

Please RSVP so that your friends find out about it too!

Members of Cambridge Bike Safety have spent the last several months talking with local residents, businesses, neighborhood associations, and transportation professionals to understand how best to meet the needs of the community. CBS has put forward criteria for the project reflecting these conversations, based on safety, convenience, and environmental sustainability, and ranked the four proposed designs by the city. Read our full recommendation.

All plans meet the basic goal of providing safer bicycle facilities, in particular through the use of protected bicycle lanes. The Roundabout scores best on our metrics of safety, convenience, and environmental sustainability, with Bend Cambridge scoring second best.

Regardless of the design chosen, we expect that further changes will be needed, and Tuesday is a critical juncture to make these views known to the city.

Read our blog post for our full recommendation and considerations for all designs.

We hope to see you on May 2!

Sincerely,

All of us at Cambridge Bike Safety

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Crucial Inman Sq Meeting Tomorrow (Tues 1/24)

Get out there and let your voice be heard!

Got this in the email:

Inman Square is one of the most dangerous intersections in Cambridge and we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make it a place that’s safe for everyone. The city is in the process of redesigning the intersection and will be presenting their plans for public feedback tomorrow, Tuesday, Jan 24 and we need you to show up!

WHAT: Inman Square redesign public meeting
WHEN: Tomorrow, Tuesday January 24, 6–9PM
WHERE: Cambridge Hospital, 1493 Cambridge Street, Macht Building 3rd floor
RSVP and SHARE the Facebook event

It is critically important that we get a great turnout at the meeting to speak out for safer, protected infrastructure for people from 8 to 80 years old. There are two major design options: a “wrap-around” and the “peanut-about” proposed by the Boston Cyclists Union. (See designs for both here)

We look forward to seeing the city’s wrap-around options in more detail at the meeting, but based on what we know now, we strongly support the peanut-about proposal as it achieves the key goals of protected bike infrastructure, improved pedestrian safety, and efficient design. Representatives from Kittleson & Associates who worked on the peanut-about will be at the meeting tomorrow to answer questions.

KEY TALKING POINTS:

• Inman Square is one of the city’s most dangerous intersections for bicyclists and pedestrians.

• The top priority for the redesign must be to improve the safety of bicyclists and pedestrians of all ages.

• Protected, separate bike infrastructure is absolutely necessary and must be a part of the solution. It will also maintain the vitality and uniqueness of the square.

• The peanut-about design is the best option for the city to achieve the goals of a safer intersection for people of all ages and abilities.

One last note: If you haven’t filled out our survey about the pop-up winter pilot protected lanes on Mass Ave yet, please do so now! We’ve got over 150 responses so far. Please share it on Facebook & elsewhere so we can help make the spring network as successful as possible!

Sincerely,
Annie, Nate, and other members of the CBS core team

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Protected Bike Lanes Installed On Mass. Ave. In Central

The good folks in cambridge fighting for improved bike safety are claiming their first (of hopefully many) victories, with the installation of protected bike lanes in Central Square.

from their email:

We are excited to report major progress in the push for bike safety in Cambridge! Today, the City started to implement pop-up protected bike lanes on sections of Mass Ave! Additionally, the City has has committed to begin building a broader network of pop-up protected bike lanes this spring.

These are a major achievements and they would not have happened without you. The City Council and the new City Manager Louis DePasquale are responding to our petition signatures, phone calls, letter writing, rallies, and council meeting attendance. As a measure of the city’s commitment, the traffic department will be hiring an additional engineer in large part to help with the plans for increased bike infrastructure.

Our road to success has not been without challenges. As you may recall, in early November, the city had stated publicly that establishing even a single protected bike lane before the end of the year would be impossible due to the time needed for planning and the practical problems posed by snow and cold weather. This surprising reversal in policy was the result of our calls, letters and presence at council meetings letting City Hall know that we were not satisfied with the pace of progress.

Even as we celebrate, we recognize that we are still a long way from our goal of a network of protected bike infrastructure on all major thoroughfares. During the Winter, conversations will continue with city officials to work out details for the Spring roll-out of additional protected bike lanes. The city has not specified the exact plan for the spring pop-up network and we want to make sure that it is significant in scope and is as successful as possible. It will be important to voice our opinion at public meetings and, if necessary, at the council to make this happen. Let’s continue to use our collective power to ensure that we get the safe streets everyone deserves.

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Action Alert: Call Cambridge City Councilors by Monday for Protected Bike Lanes!

The group of citizens in Cambridge pushing for safer streets is on a roll! (more, here and here)

From the email:

FURTHER BACKGROUND & TALKING POINTS

What’s happened before now?

• 8 policy orders were passed 10/17, including:
  • pop-up bike lanes on Mass Ave, Hampshire, Cambridge, Broadway
  • revisit Huron / Pearl St to improve bike infrastructure per bike plan
  • include bike leaders in Vision Zero working group
• City presented on its plan this Wednesday 11/2:
  • planning to implement one pop-up by Spring (on part of Cambridge St), no others in foreseeable future
  • not going to revisit Huron, Pearl St will have parking studies done
  • Vision Zero group with community leaders to be formed by December

• Most important are motions #1 and 3 from the Neighborhood and Long-term Planning Committee to move up the pop-up for one street from Spring to NOW (pre-Winter), put in a larger network of pop-ups in the spring, and put in protected lanes on Huron as it is reconstructed.
• See the motions here
• Mayor Simmons has a policy order to implement all 8 policies by Nov 2017
  • this is WAY TOO SLOW. Which is why we MUST make sure the pop-ups get done by pre-Winter/Spring
  • When talking to her, you can say “thank you, but we need you to vote YES on the motion to move the pop-up to pre-Winter”. This is fine, since some of the 8 policies can get done by Nov 2017 (e.g. the website for bike safety)

• We realize this is an ambitious program, so we need city councillors working with the city staff to move this work forward
• In the past three months since Amada Phillip’s death there have been over 80 recorded crashes in Cambridge involving cyclists. Of the 69 crashes that were so serious they were reported to the police, 44 have been on Cambridge, Mass Ave, Hampshire, or Broadway
• The city is encouraging new businesses (e.g. in Kendall) to minimize parking and encourage workers to commute by bike, but then not providing the needed infrastructure for safe commuting
• We want to see cyclists from ages 8 to 80 able to get across the city safely.
• Protected bike lanes increase safety for all users of the street and also increase foot traffic to businesses
• Tell them your personal biking story

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