The Latest From BostonBiker.org
News, Events, Updates
Report From The Lowering The Speed Limit Public Hearing
Written by Boston Biker on Apr 25Lynn gave this great report on how the hearing to lower the speed limit to 20 mph in Boston went (the report was from 4 days ago, I am just now getting around to reading it). Looks like things are going well for the effort:
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Boston Ties For Highest Bike/Pedestrian City
Written by Boston Biker on Mar 09We managed to get really good safety ratings as well!
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For the second time in a row, Boston and Washington D.C., have topped a biannual report for the share of commuters who bike or walk to work in the 50 most populous U.S. cities — but this year, D.C. has narrowed the gap between them to a dead tie.
According to the Alliance for Biking and Walking’s 2016 Benchmarking Report — a breakdown of non-vehicular mode share in the U.S. released this week — 16.7 percent of both cities’ commuters bike or walk to work. That’s a 2 percent increase in D.C. since the 2014 report, with Boston’s rates unchanged in the same time period.
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Woman Cyclist Killed On Mass. Ave. In Hit And Run
Written by Boston Biker on Aug 07Check in with your friends. Does anyone know who this is. This is horrible, and marks yet another instance of large trucks having fatal interactions with cyclists.
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A woman riding a bike was struck and killed by a truck in an apparent hit-and-run in the Back Bay Friday morning.
The cyclist was hit by the rear wheel of a flatbed truck as it turned off Massachusetts Avenue onto Beacon Street around 7 a.m.
The woman was rushed to Massachusetts General Hospital where she died a short time later, according to police.
Her name has not been released, but investigators said she was in her 20’s. (via)
If you see a truck matching the following description let police know right away.
Police said it is possible the truck driver was not aware the cyclist had been hit.
They’re looking for a flatbed truck with a red sleeper cab and a damaged chrome grill.
A city traffic camera has video of crash, according to police, and authorities plan to release images of the truck soon.
No other information is available at this point in the investigation.
Does anyone know who owns this bike?
More info from the globe:
She was struck by a tractor-trailer unit pulling a flatbed trailer loaded with steel, said Boston Police Superintendent Bernard O’Rourke. Police were called to the scene at 7:05 a.m.
He described the tractor-trailer as having a red sleeper cab with chrome air horns on top of it, and some damage to the grill. He said the truck driver may not have seen the bicyclist, but stressed the investigation is just starting.
He said surveillance cameras in the neighborhood captured the incident and some of that footage may be released to the public later Friday.
“It’s a very, very tragic situation,’’ O’Rouke said.
The search for the vehicle is underway. “We are checking everything we can. We are looking at every single surveillance camera we can check,” he said. “We’re doing whatever we can to find the truck.”
Zach Cloyd, 31, who lives next door to the scene, said he stopped biking home from work because this particular intersection is dangerous.
“That exact corner, waiting at that corner, I’ve had someone almost hit me as they were turning right,” he said.
In the aftermath of the crash, there was a bike with a crushed handlebar laying at the intersection and nearby a helmet laying next to the bike.(via)
EDIT:
This is the truck they are looking for:
(via)
EDIT:
See a periscope of the officer at the scene talking about the crash.
EDIT:
UHub reports this is a very dangerous intersection, which we figured out in 2013. Lets hope we do something with that data now. (via)
The Back Bay intersection where a bicyclist was hit and killed this morning was identified in a city report two years ago as the most dangerous in the city for bicyclists.
A 2013 report on bicycle safety commissioned by then Mayor Menino found the intersection of Beacon Street and Massachusetts Avenue had more bicycle crashes than any other – and noted it was just two blocks away from the second riskiest intersection for bicyclists:
We found that nearly 60% of all bicycle collisions occurred at street intersections. Of the 7 locations with 5 or more geographically identical collision locations, the top two intersections with the highest number of crashes were in the Back Bay/Beacon Hill neighborhood, with 14 collisions at Beacon St and Massachusetts Ave and 12 collisions at Massachusetts Avenue and Commonwealth Ave (Westbound).
H/t Penny Cherubino.
EDIT:
BPS has released more pictures of the truck.
They have also said that the woman was in her early 30’s not her 20’s.
EDIT:
They found the driver and the truck. No charges filed yet.
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Traffic Congestion: How To Fix It
Written by Boston Biker on Jul 27Here is a great email I got from Liviable Streets
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The statistics show that each of us is driving less. So why do our roads feel more jammed up? Why does it take longer to get anywhere? And what can we do about it? Some politicians have begun blaming Traffic Calming and bicycle lanes for the backups; saying that Complete Streets and pedestrian bulb-outs are making roads less safe because less accessible for emergency vehicles. Is there any truth to this? More fundamentally, is car congestion a problem to be solved or a solution to a problem?
A 2013 report from US PIRG showed that the average number of miles driven by the average American has been falling for about a decade, through economic booms and busts, and was down to mid-1990s levels. Millennials, our nation’s largest-ever generational cohort, are using transit and bikes more and taking fewer and shorter car trips, resulting in a 23% drop in the average number of miles driven. The percentage of high school seniors with a driver’s license fell 12%. Walkable city life is increasingly attractive to both young people and retiring baby boomers. The rise of on-line shopping, social media, and telecommuting has meant fewer quick car trips.
Despite these trends, as every driver knows, our roads are increasingly congested – not everywhere or all the time but for increasing periods at a growing number of key intersections and road segments. Congestion radically reduces the volume of traffic passing through a road section, the through-put, thereby creating a negative feedback loop that creates more backups. It’s estimated that USA drivers spend about 14.5 million hours every day stuck in traffic. Congestion not only costs us time – in 2011 Boston drivers collectively lost about 137 million hours, or about 53 hours per commuter per year – but also fuel and therefore pollution, health, and money. Not to mention frustration and occasionally murderous road rage. Although we Bostonians believe we’ve got it worst, car congestion seems to be clogging roads like kudzu in nearly every city in the country – and, by some reports, across the globe .
It’s true that a new report has said that the first four months of 2015 has set a new record in total vehicle miles in the US – up nearly 32 billion since the previous high in 2007, pushing gas consumption as well as prices upward. Lower gasoline prices and a recovering economy (consumer spending in May, 2015 had the highest month jump in six years) are two reasons for the jump, probably augmented by the continuing lack of viable alternatives to car driving for many people. But a four-month blip is not enough to explain years of delays.
We do know some things that are contributing to the larger problem – land use patterns and population growth are the most important. The low-rise dense designs that make older urban areas walkable and transit-efficient is illegal to build in many places today due to parking requirements, anti-mixed use and other zoning requirements, etc.
We know some things that may appear to be causative but actually aren’t – making roads safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, prioritizing bus and trolley traffic, even reducing the average speed of cars.
We know some things that (counterintuitively) do not help reduce congestion – most notably building more roads or adding lanes, all of which eventually fill up as our additional drivers decide to move into the new space.
And we know some things that do improve the situation, but usually only when they are applied as a group rather than singularly – improving road use efficiency using technology (signal timing, access controls, central monitoring) and other methods (car pools, HOV lanes, car sharing, perhaps driverless cars), increasing alternative options (transit both regional and downtown, bicycling), changing land-use patterns (Smart-Growth style transit-orientated development), requiring corporate and municipal Transportation Demand Management programs (incentives to not drive alone or to not drive at all), and (most effective of all) congestion pricing of various kinds.
What is needed is the cultural and political willingness to accept this knowledge and act upon it – while also coming to grips with the reality that the continuing imbalance of potential drivers to current or any plausible future amounts of road space means that congestion is a permanent part of a car-based reality.
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World Naked Bike Ride Last Night
Written by Boston Biker on Jul 12Got a good glimpse of some amazing and awesome naked riders last night. Way to go everyone! Bikes + anything = awesome. Especially if that anything is naked people having innocent fun on a warm summer night.
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The Word On The Street
Here is what people are saying
- Where bicycles are prohibited in Massachusetts August 16, 2023TweetThe main issue you will confront if you get into a dispute with police over bicycle prohibitions is whether the prohibition is supported by law. Often it is not. Example: the ramp from Commonwealth Avenue to Route 128 northbound and … Continue reading →jsallen
- Where bicycles are prohibited in Massachusetts August 16, 2023TweetThe main issue you will confront if you get into a dispute with police over bicycle prohibitions is whether the prohibition is supported by law. Often it is not. Example: the ramp from Commonwealth Avenue to Route 128 northbound and … Continue reading →jsallen
- It’s Finally Happening! 5th Annual Hot Cocoa Ride Feb 12! February 8, 2022... Continue reading →commonwheels
- It’s Finally Happening! 5th Annual Hot Cocoa Ride Feb 12! February 8, 2022... Continue reading →commonwheels
- Hello world! June 9, 2021Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing! Continue reading →thecommunityspoke
- Run The Jewels Lead Free Pewter Hand Carved And Cast Pin Set January 3, 2021Made these lovely RTJ fist and gun pin set. Hand carved in wax, and then cast in lead free pewter. Because these are made by hand you can do fun things like add an extra small pin so that they sit just so (also means they have “customized” brass back plates to accommodate the extra […]Boston Biker
- My Work In The Wild: Feather Head Badge With Chris King Headset January 3, 2021One of my customers sent me this amazing picture of my feather badge installed on their (awesome!) bike. Check out Manofmultnomah (here and here), apparently Chris King took some interest in it as well. Want one of your own? Buy it here, or here... Continue reading →Boston Biker
- Boston’s Invitation to Improve Biking in Boston: Draw on Some Maps! December 14, 2020TweetSometimes, the best way to gather ideas and feedback is to let people draw on some maps. Last night, at the Bike Network Open House, pedallovers unveiled a draft for their upcoming plans for a more connected biking network infrastructure … Continue reading →greg
- Boston’s Invitation to Improve Biking in Boston: Draw on Some Maps! December 14, 2020TweetSometimes, the best way to gather ideas and feedback is to let people draw on some maps. Last night, at the Bike Network Open House, pedallovers unveiled a draft for their upcoming plans for a more connected biking network infrastructure … Continue reading →greg
- Boston’s Invitation to Improve Biking in Boston: Draw on Some Maps! December 14, 2020TweetSometimes, the best way to gather ideas and feedback is to let people draw on some maps. Last night, at the Bike Network Open House, pedallovers unveiled a draft for their upcoming plans for a more connected biking network infrastructure … Continue reading →greg
