3 Simple Design Elements For Safer Intersections

Lets copy this all over the place…

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MassBike Gets Substantial Sponsors For Its New Bill

From MassBike:

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State House and Common, in the Snow Copyright Leslie Jones, provided by Boston Public Libraryunder Creative Commons License

The Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition (“MassBike”) is deeply appreciative of each of the state legislators that sponsored bills to make our roadways safer and more convenient for bicyclists. As the newly appointed executive director of MassBike I want to acknowledge and thank them for showing the political courage to support cycling and cyclists in Massachusetts. Please join me in thanking your senators and representatives for sponsoring these important bills. You can find out how here, or look for your districts below.

Apparently things are changing for the better for bicycling here in the world’s largest college town, Massachusetts. Working with our former executive director and current government affairs advisor, David Watson, we filed two bills for the new legislative session on Beacon Hill. The first was a Bike Lane Protection Bill, which makes it illegal for motorists to block established bike lanes. Every cyclist has experienced frustration with those hard-won bike lanes being used for everything from deliveries to taxi lines to double-parking spaces.

The second piece of legislation is a Vulnerable Road Users Bill, which brings together pedestrians, cyclists, road workers, tow truck operators, police officers, and emergency personnel as vulnerable road users and defines what is a safe-passing distance. This is landmark legislation that makes our entire state safer.

We had 42 lawmakers sign on as sponsors or co-sponsors for each of these bills. This represents 25 percent of the State Senate and 21 percent of the State House. This support will not go unnoticed. For too long, bicyclists have been simply tolerated by the transportation system. This legislation, if passed, will show that the Bay State – which has so much to gain by integrating pedestrians and cyclists into its streetscape – is not looking to just tolerate bicyclists but also to welcome and protect them as an important part of the transportation grid.

These lawmakers recognize that for the Bay State to be a leader in transportation, the bicycle is an important part of the streetscape, roadways, and transportation grid.

In the Senate

Sponsoring Both Bills
Michael Barrett, Third Middlesex
William Brownsberger, Second Suffolk and Middlesex
Sonia Chang-Diaz, Second Suffolk
Sal DiDomenico, Middlex and Suffolk
Kenneth Donnelly, Fourth Middlesex
James Eldridge, Middlesex and Worcester
Brian Joyce, Norfolk, Bristol, and Plymouth
Jason Lewis, Fifth Middlesex
Joan Lovely, Second Essex

Sponsoring Vulnerable Road Users Bill
Anne Gobi, Worcester, Hampden, Hampshire, and Middlesex

In the House

Sponsoring Both Bills
Ruth Balser, 12th Middlesex
Gailanne Cariddi, 1st Berkshire
Marjorie Decker, 25th Middlesex
Daniel Donahue, 16th Worcester
Shawn Dooley, 9th Norfolk
Carolyn Dykema, 8th Middlesex
Sean Garballey, 23rd Middlesex
Kenneth Gordon, 21st Middlesex
Jonathan Hecht, 29th Middlesex
Kay Khan, 11th Middlesex
Peter Kocot, 1st Hampshire
Jay Livingstone, 8th Suffolk
Timothy Madden, Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket
Elizabeth Poirier, 14th Bristol
Denise Provost, 27th Middlesex
Angelo Puppolo, 12th Hampden
David Rogers, 24th Middlesex
Jeffrey Roy, 10th Norfolk
Paul Schmid, 8th Bristol
Frank Smizik, 15th Norfolk
Aaron Vega, 5th Hampden
John Velis, 4th Hampden
Chris Walsh, 6th Middlesex

Sponsoring Vulnerable Road Users Bill
Daniel Cullinane, 12th Suffolk
Josh Cutler, 6th Plymouth
Carole Fiola, 6th Bristol
Leonard Mirra, 2nd Essex

Sponsoring Bike Lane Bill
Christine Barber, 34th Middlesex
Danielle Gregoire, 4th Middlesex
Bradford Hill, 4th Essex
Michael Moran, 18th Suffolk
Paul Tucker, 7th Essex

Yours Truly,

Richard Fries
Executive Director, MassBike

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How To Almost Kill Someone: Right Hook Edition

If you drive a car, you need to see this video.  I got this from Ian yesterday.

From Ian

I got right hooked in a bike lane this morning on Beacon St in Somerville,
MA, and got the entire thing recorded on my GoPro.  I called the cops, who
did respond, but basically seemed uninterested in the fact that a motorist
right hooked a cyclist, and in fact the officer told me that I needed to be
more careful!

A co-worker recommended contacting you, and said that you might be
interested in the video to help raise awareness of how dangerous a right
hook is to cyclists.

When making right turns it is not enough to simply turn on your signal, you need to also make sure NO ONE IS IN THE LANE NEXT TO YOU!  Including but not limited to the bike lane.  Just treat the bike lane like a lane for cars, check your mirror, yield to traffic already in that lane, etc.  There was very little the cyclist could have or should have been doing in this situation, he was riding legal down the road, and a car dramatically changed lanes with very little warning.  If you look at the video the signal and the turn happen at the same time, basically this driver flicked on his signal (a rare thing in this town), and began turning the wheel for the turn at the same time.  There is no way he could have had time to check behind him to make sure there was no one in the bike lane.

Luckily the gentleman in this video is ok, but it could have been a lot nastier.  I applaud his calm reaction, I have a feeling I would have flipped my shit.

Another even bigger problem here is the blasé reaction from the cops.  Waiting until someone is killed is not an effective strategy for preventing deaths.  This motorist should have been issues a citation (Ian was unclear about if he was or not), and legal action should be taken against the driver and the company he is driving for.  For every horrific death by right hook there are hundreds of these nail biting close calls, only if the police get serious about reducing these incidents will the deaths be prevented.

With the advent of cheap go-pro style cameras we are going to be seeing a lot more of this kind of thing.  I imagine a future several years from now when a simple USB stick style camera can record a days worth of video, and you would simply strap it to your jacket and use it as a daily commute recorder, if nothing happened that day you could erase the memory and go about your day.  If however some asshole right hooks you, you will have it all recorded.  If you have the money, and you ride often perhaps integrating a personal recording device into your safety gear is not such a bad idea.

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Globe Talk: Safe Or Savage? The State Of Bicycle Safety In Boston

Got this in the email, looks like it could be informative:

Globe Talks: 

Safe or savage? The state of bicycle safety in Boston

Join a few of Boston’s leading cyclists and policy makers to discuss bike safety around Boston and the efforts to make biking in the city easier and more accessible.

The event will be moderated by The Boston Globe transportation reporter Martine Powers.

Panelists:

• Nicole Freedman, City of Boston’s Boston Bikes director
• Vineet Gupta, Boston Transportation Department’s Director of Policy and Planning
• Richard Fries, former professional European racer, world-class race announcer and race organizer, and local commuting advocate
• Josh Zisson, bike lawyer and BikeSafeBoston.com blogger
• Jackie Douglas, director of the Boston-area transit advocacy group Livable Streets

DATE: Tuesday, July 30

TIME: 6pm – 7:30pm

LOCATION: The Boston Globe | 135 Morrissey Blvd. | Boston, MA

www.bostonbikesafety.eventbrite.com

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Boston Police District C-11 Presents Summer Safety Day & Bike Rodeo

Saturday, June 15, 2013
10:00am until 2:00pm in EDT

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