Take Action! Support Safe Streets Legislation

From livable streets:

Next Wednesday, February 7th is the deadline for legislative committees to act on bills, and An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities remains in front of the Joint Committee on Transportation.

Will you help us make Massachusetts streets safer for all? The Committee needs to hear from you!

LivableStreets and the Massachusetts Vision Zero Coalition have been working closely with Senator Brownsberger and Representatives Hecht and Rogers to develop a comprehensive traffic safety bill that will prevent crashes and protect vulnerable road users. Act now and help us enact these street safety measures into law!

It’s easy, just follow these three simple steps:

1. Find out if your legislators are co-sponsors of the bill.

2. Send an email to the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Transportation and your state legislators (see template email provided below). Emails should be sent to the committee chairs, copying your Representative and Senator, by Thursday, February 1st.

3. Make sure to copy [email protected] on your email.

About the Bill
An Act to Reduce Traffic Fatalities (S1905/H2877) will ensure basic, but necessary traffic regulations to guarantee that everyone on our streets can expect to get from point A to point B safely. The bill’s provisions that the Vision Zero Coalition believes will make the biggest difference to the safety of people walking and biking are:

• Lowering default speed limit on state highways and parkways in thickly settled areas from 30 mph to 25 mph
• Allowing municipalities to install limited traffic safety cameras exclusively for speeding and red light & right turn violations
• Equipping state contracted trucks with safety side-guards to reduce pedestrian & bicyclist fatalities
• Prohibits usage of mobile devices, except those in hands-free mode, while operating a motor vehicle
• Vulnerable road user language

What’s Next?
If the bill is reported favorably by this committee, it will be sent on to the House or Senate Ways and Means Committee. If it is reported unfavorable or “studied,” it would essentially be dead for the remainder of this legislative session.

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Share A Scary Biking Moment

From the Cambridge Bicycle Safety group:

First responders are called to 160 crashes every year involving a person on a bike being struck by a car according to Cambridge Police Department data, but we know there are many more that go unreported.

Every day people on bikes have close calls or are hit by cars on our streets. Unless it’s a major crash, we don’t know about it or don’t hear about it. Though they may not be in the statistics, these experiences exact a toll on the person riding a bike, their friends, and family who sometimes have to deal with years of trauma or injury.

The 160 moments project seeks to hear the untold experiences of people who ride in Cambridge and why it is so important that the City rapidly move toward a city-wide network of protected bike lanes.

The stories should be short, less than 160 words. Please submit by Wednesday, January 31st. Share your moment now. It will only take a few minutes.

Thanks,
CBS core organizing team

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Hubway Is Expanding In Boston Voice Your Input On New Station Locations

Hubway is getting bigger and even better! The Boston Transportation Department is adding more than 70 new stations over the next two years.

The Boston Transportation Department (BTD) needs your help finding new locations in Boston for bike share stations! Starting this Saturday, BTD is hosting more than 28 workshops in neighborhoods all across Boston. You know your community best, so they need your input!

These workshops will be an opportunity for you to connect with your neighbors and discuss the best potential locations for bike share stations together.

Join the team and your neighbors at these September workshops:

Jamaica Plain – September 13, 6 PM – BCYF Hennigan, 200 Heath St
Dorchester – September 14, 6 PM – Grove Hall Library, 41 Geneva Ave
South End – September 16, 10 AM –  BCYF Blackstone, 50 W Brookline St
Mattapan – September 19, 6 PM – BCYF Mattahunt, 100 Hebron St
Roslindale – September 20, 6 PM – BCYF Menino, 125 Brookway Rd
Jamaica Plain – September 23, 10 AM – Connolly Branch Library, 433 Centre St
Back Bay – September 27, 6 PM – Central Library, 700 Boylston St
Charlestown – September 28, 6 PM – Charlestown Branch Library, 179 Main St

Visit boston.gov/bike-share-expansion for a full list of workshops and to learn more about how you can get involved in the planning process.

Can’t make it to a workshop in your neighborhood? No worries! Although each workshop will focus on the neighborhood where the meeting is held, BTD will have materials available to discuss all neighborhoods that are under consideration for the expansion. You are welcome to join any workshop.

BTD is looking forward to your feedback on this big expansion!

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Action: Sign Letter On Crucial Inman Square Redesign Changes

From the email:

Want to ensure that the design Cambridge is fast-tracking for Inman Square maximizes our ability to deliver on a vibrant, people-centered neighborhood? Please review and sign our letter calling for changes right now! Read on for more info.

As you know, the city is redesigning Inman Square and has selected a signalized design. The city’s proposed signalized design includes a number of essential features including protected bike lanes throughout the intersection, floating bus stops at the edges of the intersection, and a bus priority lane through a congested part of the intersection.

Unfortunately, the design also has two significant flaws that a coalition of neighborhood groups and residents, including Cambridge Bicycle Safety, are asking to be addressed.

1. The current design includes four lanes of motor vehicle traffic in the heart of Inman Square, which represents a significant increase relative to the status quo.

2. Because the design dedicates so much space to motor vehicles, it requires the removal of most of Vellucci Park, including a number of mature trees, in order to create space for cars to queue while still allowing for a new plaza space in front of Punjabi Dhaba.

These flaws are not necessary. The Inman Square Coalition has put together a list of recommendations for how the plan can be modified to avoid these flaws. The full list of recommendations is available here, and a letter to the City Council, City Manager, and other city staff in support of the core recommendations is available here.

TAKE ACTION: Please sign onto our letter requesting the city make these changes. Add your name here and share this email with your networks.

In addition to signing the letter, we encourage you to write your own thoughts to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and [email protected].

We’ve placed some FAQs below.

Sincerely,
The CBS core team

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Two Actions This Week! Brattle St./Mass. Ave. (Mon), Cambridge St. (Wed)

From the email:

Protected bicycle infrastructure is moving ahead in parts of Cambridge, and there will be two opportunities this week to show strong community support for safer streets through the Brattle Street/Mass Ave (Mon) and Cambridge Street (Wed) projects. We have been very encouraged working with city staff, residents, and local businesses so far to make these successful, but we need to push for safe designs that create a network, particularly with two-way flows. Finally, we include an op-ed that details three important areas for improvement with the city’s proposed Inman Square redesign.

Monday May 15, 5-8PM: Brattle St/Mass Ave Protected Bicycle Lanes Open House
City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, Lobby, RSVP on Facebook

Initial plans for protected bike lanes to be installed this spring on Brattle Street from Eliot to Mason Street and Mass Ave from Trowbridge to Quincy Street will be on display at the City Hall annex, giving us all an opportunity to weigh in with city staff. Both of these projects can provide safe connections in and out of Harvard Square as long as they are designed to be two-way (including contra-flow directions). Creating a viable bicycle network in Cambridge will require many such two-way designs, which we need to advocate for early and often.

Wed May 17, 6-8PM: Cambridge St Protected Bicycle Lane Final Public Meeting
Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, Main Cafeteria, 459 Broadway, RSVP on Facebook

The city will hold its second and final public meeting for the Cambridge St protected bicycle lane project, running from Inman Square to Quincy Street and making key connections to CRLS, Cambridge Hospital and local businesses. This meeting is really important, even for those of us who attended the previous public meeting, for two reasons. First, it’s important for the city to continue to hear that this project has strong support from the community. Second, detailed plans will be presented at this meeting and we need to make sure they have as safe a design as possible, without unnecessary flaws that could make them less useful – especially since this project will serve as a template for future protected thoroughfares.

Cambridge Chronicle Op-Ed: Three changes to make a safe, people-centered Inman Square

At the last public meeting, the city stated that it will be moving forward with a signalized “bend” option for Inman Square, not the roundabout. The design includes essential safety features, such as protected bike lanes and floating bus stops – which is a huge win for bike safety – but it unfortunately also includes features more suitable for a highway than a people-centered square.

Some of us wrote a response to the city’s proposed design in the Cambridge Chronicle, detailing the challenge of creating a safe, neighborhood-focused square with the signalized “bend” option and proposed three changes to try to match the levels of safety of the roundabout in the city’s preferred design. You can read more about the most recent Inman Square redesign meeting in the Cambridge Day.

P.S. Check out this post on Nine Low-Cost Ideas for Making Cambridge Bicycling Safer by Tom Meek.

Sincerely,

Cambridge Bicycle Safety

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