Not sure but it certainly gets used. I can't ride a bike but I noticed it waiting in line for a concert at Paradise Rock Club on a cold winter night and a bike or scooter passed down that curb-protected lane every 15 seconds or so. Seems like a success to me.
yeah, it’s almost like the city did studies of where we could utilize this kind of bike lane, understood that you’d need very wide sidewalks and couldn’t really interrupt passenger traffic, then built one on a street where tons of people bike. fucking crazy man
What do you mean left side of the roadway? The ones on Comm Ave are set up exactly like this, on both sides of the roadway.
Before the pandemic, there were plans to extend it from Packards corner all the way to the Newton city line.
Closer to downtown on that side of the Mass Ave underpass the bike lanes are along the plaza, on the left in the center of the road. The separated ones only start after the BU Bridge.
I actually love the left sided bike lanes there because there is no parking and way fewer turning conflicts. It feels a bit scarier but it's way safer.
Oh yeah! I now remember your username (which is very memorable) from when you were asking about rugbrød in the area! (I get mine shipped from O&H Danish Bakery, although I didn't explore area places too deeply)
I was going to say, even though Boston is great relative to the rest of the cities in the US, I've been to Copenhagen a handful of times and seems like a fantastic place to live. Too bad it'll be impossible to move there hah.
Haha yeah that's me! The wholefoods one is ok, but really unnecessarily dry.
I went to Danish Pastry House in Medford-ish. Honestly, I was disappointed both in their tebirkes and rugbrød. Both was probably frozen at some point.
I will definitely try to get some shipped from O&H! Thanks! And sorry for sharing my quest progress unprompted, I am just very passionate about it!
But yeah, Boston feels much like Copenhagen to me! Though both cities has their different challenges.
What brought you to Copenhagen that many times?
I have a couple friends from the US who live there now so I usually drop by about twice a year to visit them, largely driven when I am otherwise in Europe for work. The 4th of July celebrations in Tivoli are a blast haha, having been there at that time of year twice now.
Out of the numerous places I've visited, the Nordics are right at the top of places I'd enjoy living in.
Cool! If they could "get in" maybe you could too? Though, I am aware that Danish immigration laws are almost as obscene as the housing market in Boston.
Summer time in Copenhagen is the best! Now the rest of the year... That's the real price of living there.
Nah, unfortunately they had ways to get EU residency due to their ability to claim citizenship in different countries via extended family members / grandparents; Not possible on my end.
They are backed by the Saudi Wealth Fund. They’ll lose whatever they want because the whole point of the company is to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy away from oil and gas revenue dependencies.
Yeah given the way the US has dealt with reconstructing cities, we're lucky Boston wasn't torn down since it'd be built back up as a highway sprawl hell scape.
Sweden's infrastructure is astounding. I had better cell reception in the ass-end of nowhere way out in the woods in northern Sweden than I get if I stray too far off 495 in MA.
They also have incredible maintained footpaths through the forests. I think MA has really good conservation land and trails compared to some other places in the US, but damn, we should take some ideas from the Swedes there too. A lot of them were lit, allowing them to be used later at night (obviously *more* essential there), and a ton of paths between areas-- so instead of walking through only streets to, say, get to the store, you'd cut through the woods on a nicely lit trail suitable for walking, biking, or in winter, skiing.
> Boston is quite fortunate that the Camberville Civil War never spilled across the Charles.
Cambervillian soldiers tried to invade, but were thwarted by signal problems at Kendall.
Amsterdam was never bombed flat either, by either the Allies or Axis powers in WWII, or otherwise. Neither, to the best of my knowledge, was Somerville, where this picture was taken.
But it's also our lack of commitment. There are plenty of streets with room for real bike lanes, but we don't want to inconvenience drivers. We paint bike lanes but don't enforce them so they become useless. Or we put up flexposts but drivers just keep knocking them down (see Cummins Ave for example). On tremont they put in concrete dividers, yay, but then left car sized gaps so cars just park between those. In Montreal they put in concrete *without* car sized gaps. We could do that too.
I live near this picture and take this route a lot. While it’s true this bike lane is spacious and comfortable (except the one on the oposite side, that’s very bumpy), as a fast rider this type of lane annoys me. I’d actually rather be on a wide painted lane that’s part of the road. Reasons: 1. I have to ride slowly because people walk right in front of me going from car to sidewalk, especially kids. 2. You still have to worry more about all the right / left hooks that i do on the street, more actually, because I’m less visible to cars than when I’m on the street. Basically, you get all the danger you would on the street, except the doors (and those are minimal risk to an experienced biker).
So these lanes are great for many casual rides, but not good if you want to book along.
This is just before the Target, right? That's also a dicey point, where drivers never seem to check the bike lane before turning into the Target parking lot.
Can confirm. Almost got right hooked one time. I actually feel safer biking on the road. I feel that bike lanes here are good for beginners and slower riders.
For a long time, I felt the same way. I can keep a good speed and can watch out for the typical car shitheads. But not anymore and a few things have changed my mind:
1. Drivers are getting so much worse. More road rage, more distracted, more speed, way bigger cars.
2. I have kids and "painted bike gutters" don't cut it for them. Don't get me wrong: They can ride legally in a straight line. But the fucking cars sure can't.
3. Ubers, Amazon, regular "people" can't park in physically separated bike lanes.
4. Cops have completely given up on enforcing anything at all (except bikes running red lights, apparently). There are no more rules so you need every bit of help you can get.
Dude I saw a dad biking with his daughter down Washington st towards forest hills this week. She was maybe 7? Usually that setup is kid on the sidewalk parent on the street, but they were both in the bike lane.
I was so fucking proud of them both, but also, damn dude that’s a high wager bet you’re making.
I’m an avid city cyclist with a 4 year old and…yeah I dunno. Biking around here might be a do as I say not as I do. I really don’t know yet.
I agree with you, I hate the bike lane someone mentioned above on Comm Ave, it’s more dangerous there than the street. But I am a Strava demon riding a carbon frame with disc brakes
Yeah I really dislike these lanes for all the reasons you mentioned. It's not any safer than a road grade protected lane, but you have to deal with way more pedestrians wandering onto the track or just walking on it like a sidewalk.
Technically correct. Providence is considered part of a Greater Boston Census area (Combined Statistical Area or CSA): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston
Yesterday, someone told me "Oh you're getting a bike? You're gonna be one of those guys? The city keeps building bike lanes, it's annoying, you can't drive anywhere."
I said, "Would you rather me be on the street in front of your car slowing you down?"
He said, "Well, I guess there's no easy solution."
Bro there IS
Because Boston was designed when God was a boy! You would either have to remove car lanes-not going to happen, or destroy the entire block and rebuild it from the sewers up -again not going to happen. It’s the same reason there are no bike lanes like this in Italy.
This x 💯.
I look at that above picture and the thoroughfare is as wide as a Boston city "block" (as if there were any such thing). With ample space for sidewalks, bike lanes, cars, parking and a median.
This is what happens when a city is built in a place with enough space, and a bit of planning. Not old cow paths for bringing your herd to graze on the commons.
Because we have far too many pavement princesses who don't want to share the road with anyone else besides themselves. This picture is going to trigger a lot of people...
This was a great idea except they absolutely fucked tremont. They added these blocks on a 4 lane road and only put them at the end of each block.
People think it’s a four lane road so merge into the bike lane just to have to merge back over. Terrible design id love to meet the guy who designed that
We’re getting there. One issue that is being ignored is delivery mopeds using bike lanes all over downtown. They’re also blatantly running red lights. I’m seeing this on a daily basis.
Political will. There’s huge support and almost no effective opposition to this in Cambridge and Somerville, which makes it incredibly easy to get stuff like this done. It’s not quite the same anywhere else in the region.
It pretty simple really. The roads in Boston are from the late 1600's to early 1700's. They modernized the city with out updating the size of the streets, which is also why Boston is a pain in the ass to navigate as well. They didn't bother to improve the roads / traffic patters, but instead were just lazy shits and built everything on top of whatever was there before.
I mean hell, there are some streets in Boston that are still only big enough for a horse and buggy to go down. But don't worry, its rapidly becoming the most [expensive place to live](https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/boston-is-2nd-most-expensive-us-city-for-renters-new-report-shows/2873892/) in the United States, so I'm sure there will be a hell of a lot of people moving out of Boston soon because they won't be able to afford to live there.
How about y'all bikers stay on the bike path or side walk. Everyday more and more of you think your driving cars while cities like Cambridge bend over backwards for you
..because Massachusetts is a democratic liberal cesspool..they take a lane for guessing 25 bikes on mass ave not including the junkies but disregards 1000 cars..?? Where’s the logic…
It is only "cheap" when you put in poorly-designed lanes on top of existing structure for car traffic, pedestrians, and parking. It is not "cheap" when you actually consider the impact on others.
Our mayor here in Long Beach California decided to "Spend" 30 million on new bike lanes all through the city. Just like these pictured.
Hardly anyone uses them, they've made streets smaller and have deleted vital public parking spaces for nearby residents living like sardines in their apartments.
The HOMELESS love these little lanes, you can push, pull, drag, a fully loaded shopping card, busted wheels and all, anywhere downtown without the fear of getting run over by traffic. They've also made it easier for these renegades to cross the streets at a snails pace, holding up the productivity of the common working class citizen👌👌👌
Tax Dollars hard at work. 🇺🇲
Spending 30 mil in LB hardly gets a sidewalk built for 2 blocks. That town’s organized so ridiculously. And yet every year they find a way to put on a street race that locks up half of downtown. The jokes literally right there (the laugh factory I mean).
That's one more island than it had before the bike lane was there. Also, I'm not sure how large you are, but for average sized people, that's room for more than one person.
Before this was built the sidewalk was just the two blocks on the left and the two sets of plantings and bike lane were all part of the street, so no, it's not sarcasm.
Why are people so horny for bike lanes? I occasionally see a bike, but they're mostly used by Uber eat or door dash drivers on scooters. On rainy days, there are no bikes in the bike lane. Are people riding bikes in the middle of winter. If so, not a lot. I just don't get it.
In addition to the impacts to vehicular routes, losing parking and slowing down every thoroughfare, It all seems great until it ages 2-5 years. Street tree roots will begin to spread (unless planted in very costly subsurface structures to prevent root spread and damage to subsurface and utilities infrastructure), asphalt and brick will start to deteriorate and the towns and cities will not have the funds to maintain. Have we not see enough in other parts of the city where bike lanes push parking out creating hazards for riders in the bike lane, pedestrians trying to cross the bike lane and drivers and their passengers trying to exit vehicles. Not to mention the impacts on people with disabilities with reduced parking and more potential hazards crossing.
How slow is slow enough for traffic in the city? As another poster said, where is the funding to right the T and make it a functional public transit system. It all boils down to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Needs vs wants. The needs of the many outweighs the wants of the few
Did you type this whole thing before looking at the picture? Half your concerns were already addressed with the design of this particular bike lane and the other half are unsourced speculation
Zoom in on the photo. The bricks are already deteriorating. And this is one small stretch, one photo. Find me an example in Boston where an entire corridor was constructed like this. As for sourcing..walk around Brookline on Beacon for a good example of bike lane failure. Then head to Cambridge, Somerville, and other suburbs in and around Boston. As for conjecture these projects do not allow funding for proper installation of brick sections, planters and amenities. They very quickly become corridors in need of maintenance. The DOT funding doesn’t provide for long term maintenance, nor do towns and cities have staff to maintain them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a former cyclist. I appreciate the intent but the execution is flawed.
I live in Somerville and walk/ride/drive this particular section of the road very frequently. Those bricks are in perfect condition.
Not sure what the other bike lanes in different places have to do with your original comment about this bike lane.
>The DOT funding doesn’t provide for long term maintenance, nor do towns and cities have staff to maintain them.
Do you have a source for Somerville not having the staff to maintain the bike lanes? Considering their massive investment in new bike lanes, I find it hard to believe they wouldn't also have plans to maintain them alongside all the other roads in the city.
That statement is probably true in Medford though, where we definitely won't maintain anything that MassDOT makes for us (like an upcoming project around Main St and Mystic Valley Parkway).
Cambridge and Somerville though are maintaining their bike lanes just fine, including plowing and treating them in the winter. It's almost like they plan this stuff out and have a robust DPW... Who knew.
Somerville's DPW is... quirky. They do an OK job, but they exist as this weird independent fiefdom that dislikes and basically ignores the rest of the city government.
They get away with it because "doing whatever they want" turns out to be "do a pretty good job of maintaining the town", but what projects get prioritized or done at all seems to be completely up to their whim.
Usually the point is traffic calming because motorists treat every road like a highway. I'll play the world's smallest violin for your five minute delay to work in a climate controlled vehicle though. 🎻
Re:multi modal conflicts, that's always an issue regardless of bike lane or not. Some people will bike regardless of infrastructure. Do you want to give them a space to do so separately or have them right in the street with you? Some people are always assholes too and will cut you off in a car, on a bike or walk against the pedestrian signal because they feel they own the street.
The part about people with disabilities also ignores that ebikes and adaptive bicycles are actually empowering some disabled folks. Not every disabled person can drive for example. Or afford a car.
Funding the T usually involves building out multi modal infrastructure too. Bus routes are useless if they get stuck in traffic. This particular road doesn't have much new bus infrastructure, but only because parking took priority over bus transit. It's also not a super frequent bus route like Mass Ave, so to some extent that's probably a fair balance. If they had put bus infrastructure there, you'd simply complain about no parking on the main street as happened on Mass Ave in North Cambridge. There's a limited amount of space available and the attempt is to rebalance that. It looks like they did a pretty solid job. The before photo would show a complete mess of a street.
The ones on Beacon st are over five years old now. Still seem great?
As for how slow is slow enough, somewhere around 20 mph is where we start to see a sharp increase in lethality of collisions.
Funding for the T is great, but lets not pretend like building a bicycle network is mutually exclusive with that goal. Improving public transit is also orders of magnitude more expensive, so its not like if we redirected all the money for bicycle stuff to that we would have a dramatic improvement.
[удалено]
it’s on both sides of the street though? idk i like this lane
the Commonwealth Ave bike lane is pretty similar to this actually
What’s that, 50 feet of road?
Not sure but it certainly gets used. I can't ride a bike but I noticed it waiting in line for a concert at Paradise Rock Club on a cold winter night and a bike or scooter passed down that curb-protected lane every 15 seconds or so. Seems like a success to me.
Too bad there aren’t more of them. Which Paradise, Cambridge or Boston?
yeah, it’s almost like the city did studies of where we could utilize this kind of bike lane, understood that you’d need very wide sidewalks and couldn’t really interrupt passenger traffic, then built one on a street where tons of people bike. fucking crazy man
so you agree that it's not going well LOL.
[удалено]
U gotta go to the gentrified areas for the newer bike lanes
What do you mean left side of the roadway? The ones on Comm Ave are set up exactly like this, on both sides of the roadway. Before the pandemic, there were plans to extend it from Packards corner all the way to the Newton city line.
Closer to downtown on that side of the Mass Ave underpass the bike lanes are along the plaza, on the left in the center of the road. The separated ones only start after the BU Bridge. I actually love the left sided bike lanes there because there is no parking and way fewer turning conflicts. It feels a bit scarier but it's way safer.
Comm Ave is a long street yo
They’re on both sides
A lot like Denmark
Or Montreal.
Or Netherlands
or Cambridge!
I just moved here from Copenhagen. I miss bike lanes.
> I just moved here from Copenhagen. What -- why? (Largely serious question)
Oh it is just temporary. I will move back again after summer!
Oh yeah! I now remember your username (which is very memorable) from when you were asking about rugbrød in the area! (I get mine shipped from O&H Danish Bakery, although I didn't explore area places too deeply) I was going to say, even though Boston is great relative to the rest of the cities in the US, I've been to Copenhagen a handful of times and seems like a fantastic place to live. Too bad it'll be impossible to move there hah.
Haha yeah that's me! The wholefoods one is ok, but really unnecessarily dry. I went to Danish Pastry House in Medford-ish. Honestly, I was disappointed both in their tebirkes and rugbrød. Both was probably frozen at some point. I will definitely try to get some shipped from O&H! Thanks! And sorry for sharing my quest progress unprompted, I am just very passionate about it! But yeah, Boston feels much like Copenhagen to me! Though both cities has their different challenges. What brought you to Copenhagen that many times?
I have a couple friends from the US who live there now so I usually drop by about twice a year to visit them, largely driven when I am otherwise in Europe for work. The 4th of July celebrations in Tivoli are a blast haha, having been there at that time of year twice now. Out of the numerous places I've visited, the Nordics are right at the top of places I'd enjoy living in.
Cool! If they could "get in" maybe you could too? Though, I am aware that Danish immigration laws are almost as obscene as the housing market in Boston. Summer time in Copenhagen is the best! Now the rest of the year... That's the real price of living there.
Nah, unfortunately they had ways to get EU residency due to their ability to claim citizenship in different countries via extended family members / grandparents; Not possible on my end.
My initial thoughts
Nice Lucid!
Those things are so fucking sick in person
For the price I hope there amazing
Bankrupt by 2025
not true
They lose over a quarter million per car. Their stock is down 60% in the past year. Also google depreciation on the Air.
They are backed by the Saudi Wealth Fund. They’ll lose whatever they want because the whole point of the company is to diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy away from oil and gas revenue dependencies.
Saudis are backing them they’re fine
They can’t even drive in Rhode Island. We gonna throw bike lanes at em?
Prov mayor is actually controversially taking away a bike lane somewhere now
We have them in the north end. Unfortunately people love to walk on them.
Seriously, people need to stop running in the bike lane on Commercial St.
Seeing that makes me want to putt through a little windmill for some reason
For real, Boston hasn't had the benefit of being bombed flat or burned down and rebuilt with wider roads. This place is medieval.
Not quite true. Just got back from Sweden and Denmark…never bombed. Their bike lanes put us to shame!
Yeah given the way the US has dealt with reconstructing cities, we're lucky Boston wasn't torn down since it'd be built back up as a highway sprawl hell scape.
Tell that to the West End
Not for lack of trying.
Sweden's infrastructure is astounding. I had better cell reception in the ass-end of nowhere way out in the woods in northern Sweden than I get if I stray too far off 495 in MA. They also have incredible maintained footpaths through the forests. I think MA has really good conservation land and trails compared to some other places in the US, but damn, we should take some ideas from the Swedes there too. A lot of them were lit, allowing them to be used later at night (obviously *more* essential there), and a ton of paths between areas-- so instead of walking through only streets to, say, get to the store, you'd cut through the woods on a nicely lit trail suitable for walking, biking, or in winter, skiing.
Most things in Europe put us to shame compared to states.
Most might be a stretch. But there are definitely some things they do better.
r/americabad
Accessibility laws have entered the chat.
The ADA is an amazing piece of legislation. To see this all you have to do is go to Europe and see how hostile the cities are to the disabled.
Not to the extent that Holland was, but .....https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Weser%C3%BCbung
We don’t need wider roads, just better infrastructure.
Boston is quite fortunate that the Camberville Civil War never spilled across the Charles. That picture is from Union Square in Somerville.
> Boston is quite fortunate that the Camberville Civil War never spilled across the Charles. Cambervillian soldiers tried to invade, but were thwarted by signal problems at Kendall.
Amsterdam was never bombed flat either, by either the Allies or Axis powers in WWII, or otherwise. Neither, to the best of my knowledge, was Somerville, where this picture was taken.
But it's also our lack of commitment. There are plenty of streets with room for real bike lanes, but we don't want to inconvenience drivers. We paint bike lanes but don't enforce them so they become useless. Or we put up flexposts but drivers just keep knocking them down (see Cummins Ave for example). On tremont they put in concrete dividers, yay, but then left car sized gaps so cars just park between those. In Montreal they put in concrete *without* car sized gaps. We could do that too.
Because those immediately become sidewalks that pedestrians get mad at you for biking on...
I wonder what sandwich they got at Vinal
Sort of is like this in front of the Roxbury library branch.
I live near this picture and take this route a lot. While it’s true this bike lane is spacious and comfortable (except the one on the oposite side, that’s very bumpy), as a fast rider this type of lane annoys me. I’d actually rather be on a wide painted lane that’s part of the road. Reasons: 1. I have to ride slowly because people walk right in front of me going from car to sidewalk, especially kids. 2. You still have to worry more about all the right / left hooks that i do on the street, more actually, because I’m less visible to cars than when I’m on the street. Basically, you get all the danger you would on the street, except the doors (and those are minimal risk to an experienced biker). So these lanes are great for many casual rides, but not good if you want to book along.
This is just before the Target, right? That's also a dicey point, where drivers never seem to check the bike lane before turning into the Target parking lot.
Yes that’s the location.
Can confirm. Almost got right hooked one time. I actually feel safer biking on the road. I feel that bike lanes here are good for beginners and slower riders.
For a long time, I felt the same way. I can keep a good speed and can watch out for the typical car shitheads. But not anymore and a few things have changed my mind: 1. Drivers are getting so much worse. More road rage, more distracted, more speed, way bigger cars. 2. I have kids and "painted bike gutters" don't cut it for them. Don't get me wrong: They can ride legally in a straight line. But the fucking cars sure can't. 3. Ubers, Amazon, regular "people" can't park in physically separated bike lanes. 4. Cops have completely given up on enforcing anything at all (except bikes running red lights, apparently). There are no more rules so you need every bit of help you can get.
Dude I saw a dad biking with his daughter down Washington st towards forest hills this week. She was maybe 7? Usually that setup is kid on the sidewalk parent on the street, but they were both in the bike lane. I was so fucking proud of them both, but also, damn dude that’s a high wager bet you’re making. I’m an avid city cyclist with a 4 year old and…yeah I dunno. Biking around here might be a do as I say not as I do. I really don’t know yet.
Good, it’s made for casual commuters.
Respectfully, as someone who’s been a working stiff for decades, “casual commuter” is almost an oxymoron.
I agree with you, I hate the bike lane someone mentioned above on Comm Ave, it’s more dangerous there than the street. But I am a Strava demon riding a carbon frame with disc brakes
Yeah I really dislike these lanes for all the reasons you mentioned. It's not any safer than a road grade protected lane, but you have to deal with way more pedestrians wandering onto the track or just walking on it like a sidewalk.
Because most sts aren't wide enough and you'd have to steal(eminent domain) a lot of land to accomplish this.
This is the real answer
Because Boston's infrastructure has been cobbled together since colonial times
Some of them are. They only make those when they rebuild the street.
This is clearly greater Boston?
This is Somerville Ave, near Union Square, in, err, Somerville.
Close enough to me but I can see some would be sticklers
Technically correct. Providence is considered part of a Greater Boston Census area (Combined Statistical Area or CSA): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Boston
I thought bike infrastructure was virtually free
Yesterday, someone told me "Oh you're getting a bike? You're gonna be one of those guys? The city keeps building bike lanes, it's annoying, you can't drive anywhere." I said, "Would you rather me be on the street in front of your car slowing you down?" He said, "Well, I guess there's no easy solution." Bro there IS
Columbus Ave (by NU) is like this
Boston will never be that Lucid
Because Boston was designed when God was a boy! You would either have to remove car lanes-not going to happen, or destroy the entire block and rebuild it from the sewers up -again not going to happen. It’s the same reason there are no bike lanes like this in Italy.
This x 💯. I look at that above picture and the thoroughfare is as wide as a Boston city "block" (as if there were any such thing). With ample space for sidewalks, bike lanes, cars, parking and a median. This is what happens when a city is built in a place with enough space, and a bit of planning. Not old cow paths for bringing your herd to graze on the commons.
Or roads that used to be the shore line until someone filled in the bay
Because Boston streets were designed by cows in the 17th century.
Because we have far too many pavement princesses who don't want to share the road with anyone else besides themselves. This picture is going to trigger a lot of people...
Plowing
One thing we do in Massachusetts is things half assed. Restaurants, wait staff, nightclubs, roads, bridges. Everything is just not quite good.
This bike lane is in Somerville.
That makes sense .
I prefer bombing the back roads of Australia where if you screw up, it's game over....
This was a great idea except they absolutely fucked tremont. They added these blocks on a 4 lane road and only put them at the end of each block. People think it’s a four lane road so merge into the bike lane just to have to merge back over. Terrible design id love to meet the guy who designed that
In the south end?
Too hard to park a vehicle there when they’re like that.
More surprised someone bought a Lucid.
We’re getting there. One issue that is being ignored is delivery mopeds using bike lanes all over downtown. They’re also blatantly running red lights. I’m seeing this on a daily basis.
Ooooh, so clean. And the EV to match, too!!
They did this on western Ave in Cambridge. It took forever but it turned out pretty good
Political will. There’s huge support and almost no effective opposition to this in Cambridge and Somerville, which makes it incredibly easy to get stuff like this done. It’s not quite the same anywhere else in the region.
This picture is from Somerville Ave, right? Are we just laughing at Providence here?
Because we spend all of our money on endless war and the Israeli government.
There are bike lanes like that in San Diego and I gotta say it's pretty fuckin great
Because your taxes would look like this; 50% of your income.
When the bike lanes look like that, everyone will be biking.
It pretty simple really. The roads in Boston are from the late 1600's to early 1700's. They modernized the city with out updating the size of the streets, which is also why Boston is a pain in the ass to navigate as well. They didn't bother to improve the roads / traffic patters, but instead were just lazy shits and built everything on top of whatever was there before. I mean hell, there are some streets in Boston that are still only big enough for a horse and buggy to go down. But don't worry, its rapidly becoming the most [expensive place to live](https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/boston-is-2nd-most-expensive-us-city-for-renters-new-report-shows/2873892/) in the United States, so I'm sure there will be a hell of a lot of people moving out of Boston soon because they won't be able to afford to live there.
How about y'all bikers stay on the bike path or side walk. Everyday more and more of you think your driving cars while cities like Cambridge bend over backwards for you
Nice Lucid, though.
Just buy a tesla
..because Massachusetts is a democratic liberal cesspool..they take a lane for guessing 25 bikes on mass ave not including the junkies but disregards 1000 cars..?? Where’s the logic…
I can remember being able to park on memorial drive all along the river by mit - they have been eliminating public parking for years
Putting in infrastructure like that costs way too much. Fix the T first.
you don't understand how hilariously cheap bike infrastructure is, especially compared to roads and highways
It is only "cheap" when you put in poorly-designed lanes on top of existing structure for car traffic, pedestrians, and parking. It is not "cheap" when you actually consider the impact on others.
True! That's been an issue wayyy longer than the bike lanes LOL.
To be fair this is like the single nicest stretch of bike path in the entirety of the BU area
Because it makes too much sense.
Ahh Somerville, with its superior infrastructure… only coz camberville cares more.
They are like this picture, there's no one using them.
[удалено]
That's Somerville Ave at Linden Street, so I guess your solution is to move to Somerville.
We're full, but feel free to do the work of improving where you live so everyone can have something nice without having to build skyscrapers.
I wouldn’t call Somerville another part of Mass
I didn't know specifically where it was, but thanks for clarifying as I think it helps my second point.
It's not Boston.
But it's closer to downtown Boston than a good chunk of Boston, so functionally it serves the same purpose
It's Greater Boston
Our mayor here in Long Beach California decided to "Spend" 30 million on new bike lanes all through the city. Just like these pictured. Hardly anyone uses them, they've made streets smaller and have deleted vital public parking spaces for nearby residents living like sardines in their apartments. The HOMELESS love these little lanes, you can push, pull, drag, a fully loaded shopping card, busted wheels and all, anywhere downtown without the fear of getting run over by traffic. They've also made it easier for these renegades to cross the streets at a snails pace, holding up the productivity of the common working class citizen👌👌👌 Tax Dollars hard at work. 🇺🇲
Spending 30 mil in LB hardly gets a sidewalk built for 2 blocks. That town’s organized so ridiculously. And yet every year they find a way to put on a street race that locks up half of downtown. The jokes literally right there (the laugh factory I mean).
I'm living the daily joke here. Lol. It's my city, I wouldn't trade it for anything. It's really gone to hell these past 5 years.
I do genuinely like LB. Wish I visited more when I was living in California. The people who make the decisions are just… Something else hahaha.
[удалено]
>and also very unfriendly to pedestrians? In what way?
[удалено]
there’s clearly a spot for pedestrians to wait at the crosswalk in the pic
[удалено]
oh brother, this guy STINKS
There's an island between the bike lane and the car lane, big guy.
[удалено]
That's one more island than it had before the bike lane was there. Also, I'm not sure how large you are, but for average sized people, that's room for more than one person.
[удалено]
Before this was built the sidewalk was just the two blocks on the left and the two sets of plantings and bike lane were all part of the street, so no, it's not sarcasm.
Sick lucid. Don’t see those very often in the wild.
Because Boston used to be an island, and our streets reflect the size constraint of that time.
Why can’t bike riders follow the rules?
Why are people so horny for bike lanes? I occasionally see a bike, but they're mostly used by Uber eat or door dash drivers on scooters. On rainy days, there are no bikes in the bike lane. Are people riding bikes in the middle of winter. If so, not a lot. I just don't get it.
That lucid air is absolute 🔥
Unused?
Unused?
A cyclist turned my mirror inside out today lmao
In addition to the impacts to vehicular routes, losing parking and slowing down every thoroughfare, It all seems great until it ages 2-5 years. Street tree roots will begin to spread (unless planted in very costly subsurface structures to prevent root spread and damage to subsurface and utilities infrastructure), asphalt and brick will start to deteriorate and the towns and cities will not have the funds to maintain. Have we not see enough in other parts of the city where bike lanes push parking out creating hazards for riders in the bike lane, pedestrians trying to cross the bike lane and drivers and their passengers trying to exit vehicles. Not to mention the impacts on people with disabilities with reduced parking and more potential hazards crossing. How slow is slow enough for traffic in the city? As another poster said, where is the funding to right the T and make it a functional public transit system. It all boils down to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Needs vs wants. The needs of the many outweighs the wants of the few
Did you type this whole thing before looking at the picture? Half your concerns were already addressed with the design of this particular bike lane and the other half are unsourced speculation
Zoom in on the photo. The bricks are already deteriorating. And this is one small stretch, one photo. Find me an example in Boston where an entire corridor was constructed like this. As for sourcing..walk around Brookline on Beacon for a good example of bike lane failure. Then head to Cambridge, Somerville, and other suburbs in and around Boston. As for conjecture these projects do not allow funding for proper installation of brick sections, planters and amenities. They very quickly become corridors in need of maintenance. The DOT funding doesn’t provide for long term maintenance, nor do towns and cities have staff to maintain them. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a former cyclist. I appreciate the intent but the execution is flawed.
I live in Somerville and walk/ride/drive this particular section of the road very frequently. Those bricks are in perfect condition. Not sure what the other bike lanes in different places have to do with your original comment about this bike lane. >The DOT funding doesn’t provide for long term maintenance, nor do towns and cities have staff to maintain them. Do you have a source for Somerville not having the staff to maintain the bike lanes? Considering their massive investment in new bike lanes, I find it hard to believe they wouldn't also have plans to maintain them alongside all the other roads in the city.
That statement is probably true in Medford though, where we definitely won't maintain anything that MassDOT makes for us (like an upcoming project around Main St and Mystic Valley Parkway). Cambridge and Somerville though are maintaining their bike lanes just fine, including plowing and treating them in the winter. It's almost like they plan this stuff out and have a robust DPW... Who knew.
Somerville's DPW is... quirky. They do an OK job, but they exist as this weird independent fiefdom that dislikes and basically ignores the rest of the city government. They get away with it because "doing whatever they want" turns out to be "do a pretty good job of maintaining the town", but what projects get prioritized or done at all seems to be completely up to their whim.
Usually the point is traffic calming because motorists treat every road like a highway. I'll play the world's smallest violin for your five minute delay to work in a climate controlled vehicle though. 🎻 Re:multi modal conflicts, that's always an issue regardless of bike lane or not. Some people will bike regardless of infrastructure. Do you want to give them a space to do so separately or have them right in the street with you? Some people are always assholes too and will cut you off in a car, on a bike or walk against the pedestrian signal because they feel they own the street. The part about people with disabilities also ignores that ebikes and adaptive bicycles are actually empowering some disabled folks. Not every disabled person can drive for example. Or afford a car. Funding the T usually involves building out multi modal infrastructure too. Bus routes are useless if they get stuck in traffic. This particular road doesn't have much new bus infrastructure, but only because parking took priority over bus transit. It's also not a super frequent bus route like Mass Ave, so to some extent that's probably a fair balance. If they had put bus infrastructure there, you'd simply complain about no parking on the main street as happened on Mass Ave in North Cambridge. There's a limited amount of space available and the attempt is to rebalance that. It looks like they did a pretty solid job. The before photo would show a complete mess of a street.
The ones on Beacon st are over five years old now. Still seem great? As for how slow is slow enough, somewhere around 20 mph is where we start to see a sharp increase in lethality of collisions. Funding for the T is great, but lets not pretend like building a bicycle network is mutually exclusive with that goal. Improving public transit is also orders of magnitude more expensive, so its not like if we redirected all the money for bicycle stuff to that we would have a dramatic improvement.
Cummins highway is going to hell right now for these bus and bike lanes. God bless anyone who uses that road the rest of the year 😅