My blinky didn’t come with a helmet mount and I didn’t feel like buying one that did, so I used a few spare zip ties and an old tube I had lying around to make my own. Two ties hold two other ties to the helmet which act as a clip for my blinky to hang onto. The small tube keeps the ties from chewing up the styrofoam and helps keep the blinky stay put:
The supposed advantage to having a helmet mounted blinky is that drivers will react more cautiously to a light that’s clearly visible on your moving head rather than low on your (laterally) stationary bike. I hope so too.
The city of Vancouver has turned one lane of traffic on the busy Burrard Bridge into a bicycle route. Critics predicted chaos, but the first day of the experiment found traffic moving smoothly. This seems to be in line with recent studies suggesting that road closures actually lead to fewer traffic jams.
Wait a minute, a bridge is losing a car lane to bike lanes? Critics predicted chaos? Hmm, something about all this this sounds too familiar.
In fact, the Burrard Bridge in Vancouver is not too unlike the BU bridge: it’s a busy commuter bridge, with a geographical locale not too unlike Boston’s:
Though, unlike the BU bridge which has four lanes, the Burrard bridge has six lanes, and the lane closure conversion to a bike lane is just a non-permanent six-month experiment until the next round of planning as opposed to the immediate permanent painted bike lanes the BU bridge is getting. The other major difference is that the Burrard bridge bike lanes are configured differently:
The entire width of one of its two sidewalks is a dedicated northbound bike lane, while the entire width of the car lane is the other directional bike lane. And best of all, both of these bike lanes are protected from moving traffic by concrete barriers. Compare that to the unprotected lanes the BU bridge is getting:
Since the Burrard Bridge lane openings last Monday, there have been indeed mixed feelings since last week’s opening of the bike lane about whether traffic has improved or not. Regardless, it will be interesting to see further effects of the lane closure over the next six months as a possible indicator of what could be the shape of things to come here in Boston.
The research paper mentioned in the Freakonomics post makes an interesting case for road closure actually causing more efficient traffic, seemingly counter-intuitive to the notion that road closures always cause delays. This article sums up the point that “when individual drivers seek the quickest route, they sometimes end up slowing things down for everybody.” Defining traffic inefficiency as the “Price of Anarchy”, a ratio of equilibrium flow of traffic to the socially optimal flow of traffic, the authors of the paper suggest that by closing certain roads, the Price of Anarchy would decrease; people would be forced to take a less selfish route, improving overall traffic flow for everybody.
Boston was actually one of the cities chosen for theoretical analysis:
Using Google maps, some assumptions such as constant traffic of 10,000 cars/hour on each point-to-point road and a speed limit of 35mph, the authors ran some mathematical analysis, they found that closing the roads indicated by the dotted lines in the map above would actually improve overall traffic going from Harvard Square to Boston Common. In other words, shutting off that entire dotted section of Mass. Ave. in Cambridge would actually improve overall congestion and reduce overall delays. On the other hand, shutting off the Comm. Ave Section colored in red would worsen overall congestion and increase delays. All the roads in blue are neutral to road delays if closed off, meaning that theoretically the BU bridge could be shut off and traffic would neither flow worse nor better, with zero delays
Based on the evidence from the research, could we infer that perhaps overall congestion in Boston isn’t affected much by the BU bridge’s cut to three lanes from four, and won’t be any worse when it’s cut to two during renovation or when it eventually turns into three plus two bike lanes? Maybe. Although, the research makes the case for road closures, not lane closures, meaning a road has to be shut off for drivers to seek alternate routes. So theoretically closing the bridge completely during rush hour wouldn’t have any effect on overall traffic flow. Motorists might grumble, but they’d get home in same amount of time if they knew alternative routes.
As a cyclist, my advice to car commuters in the Boston area to avoiding traffic congestion would be to simply get on a bike and bike-commute to work, like it appears many motorists in Vancouver already have since last week. Some of the motorists who spoke at the last DCR meeting to complain about the lane reconfigurations drove from Brookline to Cambridge on a daily basis, a very easily biked distance. Bike lanes are coming, so why not join the fun?
On June 30th, the Boston DCR held its fourth meeting about the “final design, construction plans, and traffic impacts” for the rehabilitation of the BU Bridge.”
I will only discuss the plans for the bike lanes, but if you’re interested you can view full presentation that touches on other considerations here.
In case you haven’t heard, the BU Bridge will be losing a car lane and gaining two 5-foot wide bike lanes (one in each direction) as part of the BU bridge rehabilitation project, first proposed back in October. The lane reconfiguration chosen since then will turn two lanes of traffic each way into one midway on the bridge, which will look like this:
Other bike lane designs were taken into consideration were not chosen such as barrier separated bike lanes (to not exclude bikers from being able to change lanes), bridge cantilever extensions (physical modification not allowed since bridge deemed a historical monument), so this three-car-lane/two-bike-lane design is what will be put in place.
And the intersection of the bridge with Memorial Dr. on the Cambridge side will be redesigned from its current chaotic lane-less rotary:
to a more organized “roundabout”:
The DCR hired engineering consultants who found that one major source of congestion over the bridge is traffic in and out of the rotary: In its current state the rotary is wide and lacks any sort of lane markings, encouraging drivers to drive fast around it, making it unsafe for cars and cyclists merging into/exiting the rotary and pedestrians crossing the paths of vehicles coming in and out of it.
The redesign into a “roundabout” includes narrower car lanes which will be clearly marked/painted to keep cars in the rotary moving slower, allowing incoming and outgoing vehicles to exit more easily and efficiently than before. The DCR stated traffic engineering simulations show this redesign will improve traffic flow. Slower car traffic will also make the intersection safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
The renovation will take place in three different phases based on three different working sections, and the renovation time line looks like this:
During each phase only two lanes of traffic will be open (one lane per direction), while the other two will be occupied by construction crews. The proposed plans to accommodate cars and cyclists during construction is to paint sharrows and post signs informing that cyclists can and should take up the entire width of a lane as needed.
The 45 minute presentation was followed by over an hour of Q&A. Some points I noted from the Q&A were:
The lack of redesign of the intersection of Commonwealth Ave. on the Boston side. There was one slide on this intersection with no current changes. Not much could be done to this intersection since it would have been a much larger project than just renovating the BU bridge.
The “bridge” effect, or the tendency for drivers to accelerate over bridges with a “hump” or a “bow”, making it unsafe for cyclists. While bike lanes help by giving cyclists their own space, their usefulness only extends as far as the safety they bring, which is not very much as long as cars speed by the narrow bike lane. Some way to physically separate cyclists from cars or slow cars down by way of signs/slowers/flashing yellow lights would help make the bridge safer for cyclists.
Permanent signs or light indicators to let drivers know to slow down or share the road.
A trial run of the all the planned traffic changes before they become permanent and a study of how these changes affect traffic conditions rather than just simulations.
In previous meetings the DCR has actually pointed out that they had in fact been doing several “trial-runs” of some very specific changes, such as adding cones to narrow the lane of the merge onto the bridge off Memorial drive. They never officially reported the effects of this change, though. As for the four lanes into three change, the bridge is set up with three lanes right now as sidewalk renovation is currently happening, but the DCR rep did not say whether the traffic has worsened or not since the lane closure.
At the intersection with Memorial drive, the redesign plan indicates no bike lane at the intersection since it only extends across the bridge. Instead there is just a sharrow(arrow indicating drivers to share the lane with bikers). This intersection could use bike boxes and extension of the bike lane to this intersection.
The narrowing of the entrance lane leading to the merge off Memorial Dr. onto the BU bridge poses a problem for cyclists also merging onto the bridge.
the shoulder on Memorial drive turns into a sharrow before turning into a bike lane. Instead of widening the sidewalk, why not extend the bike lane all the way down to Memorial Dr. so cars wouldn’t have the tendency to ignore the sharrow and cut into the narrow shoulder remaining for bikes?
Galen went up and expressed a few concerns we had as student bike commuters. First, that the bike lanes would inevitably draw inexperienced cyclists to it as any bike lane would, and that considerations such as bike specific stop lights, signs for cyclists, or anything else to keep cars aware of cyclists would be a good idea in keeping the bike lanes safe rather than making them appear so. Second, bike boxes at the intersections to give cyclists space at red lights, allowing cyclists to make safe left turns and prevent cyclists from blocking pedestrian crosswalks. While bike boxes appear in the latest Memorial Dr. intersection plans, they have not yet been finalized. And finally, during the school year when BU students cross the BU bridge intersection with Comm Ave. in hordes throughout the entire day, would there be any police detail during mornings and evenings as construction goes on to people safely across?
What struck me was that after nine months and four meetings, no cycling advocate who did speak up had ever asked the DCR representatives and the traffic engineers present at the meetings, the people deciding on and designing these renovation plans, the simple question of whether they had ever ridden a bike over the BU bridge; the dangers are much more easily experienced than said. The question was finally asked during the fourth meeting when one gentleman approached the microphone and asked the DCR representatives whether they had, to which one replied sheepishly, after a brief moment of hesitation, “no.” The traffic engineers were present too, and there was indeed a bike specialist part of that team, but it is clear that many issues remained unaddressed. If the DCR is ready to take cycling seriously, perhaps it’s time to get the DCR on a bike.
Last Saturday I smiled as I saw Louie chugging along in his Worksman Mover on the packed esplanade:
which reminded me of another utility trike I see parked around BU all the time but never ridden:
In fact, I’ve seen a lot of neat bikes and intuitive DIY bike mods around campus, like this DIY rear fender I saw outside the student activities center, made from a spliced PVC pipe and an L-Bracket:
And these tubes I saw in Myles Standish Hall tied to this bike’s front rack to hold stuff in place.
Several weeks ago I was biking deep within the MIT jungle when I spotted the perfect mixture of all of the above:
this sweet DIY Utility tricycle, welded together by hand and built to carry lots of stuff. My favorite part is the rebar used to make the handlebar. The icing on the cake was a DIY LED light array in the front to pronounce its presence.
Since the owner wasn’t around for me to tell him/her how awesome I though this bike was, I rolled up a printed copy of the official Boston Bike Map I happened to have on me at the time and stuck it under the saddle as a gift.
As you may have guessed, I have an obsession with DIY and utility cycling, but more on that later.
Emerson student, Matthew Hashiguchi, made this documentary on bike lanes in Boston. It was for his class on Filmmaking in the Sustainable City. Check it out!
Entries (RSS)