Today fall semester here at BU kicked off, and boy what a kickoff.
Heading to my first class of the semester had me biking through Kenmore Square, where I was extremely pleased to observe Boston’s finest doing a stellar job enforcing that new bike lane ordinance:
So i whipped out my phone to call the…oh. Unfortunately I didn’t have any fake parking tickets to offer.
After reviewing the course syllabus, class let out at 10:30, which left me thirty minutes to wander before my 11:00 class, and wander I did, to check up on our friends the bike racks. You may remember last year bike parking outside CAS was insufficient for the sheer quantity of bikes parked there during the day, so the trees, tree rails and fencing became the everyone’s go-to bike rack. So what’s changed? Well, on the east wing of CAS near the corner of Comm Ave. and Granby St, another “hanger” style bike rack has been added to accommodate 14 more bikes:
It appears that this rack may have been just enough to keep the tree rails completely bike-free at this end:
As I headed toward the Tsai Center, where no new bike parking has been added, bikes were parked to the clock fence:
And then at the other end of CAS nearest to Marsh Plaza, where the only bike parking were three “bike loops” to accommodate six bikes, things were looking pretty grim for the beautiful paint jobs on those poor tree rails:
Of course, people still parked their bikes on the Marsh Plaza railings:
Swinging around to the back of CAS, the hanger style rack was full,
and one brave man was locking his bike to the gold mine of bike racks in the CAS parking lot he found.
Needless to say, it’s time to start parking your bike in these racks and stop using the tree/hand railings. Remember, CAS has almost as many entrances in the rear as there are in the front. As a matter of safety, please don’t bike the wrong way down Granby or hit an pedestrians as you walk your bike through Marsh Plaza or the GSU.
I was happy to see people using the new bike rack bars in the GCB garage:
though with these racks people are putting their front wheels over the tops. The wide spaces in between the vertical bars are supposed to allow you to roll your entire wheel in, but my bike, for one, didn’t fit in because my handlebars got in the way and my seat was too tall, so I joined the club and put my front wheel over too so I could lock my frame.
After class finished, I found myself amidst the Comm. Ave. evening rush hour I do love so much, where I ran into El Putnam of A-B Bikes, who told she had just witness a cyclist get doored while riding in the Comm. Ave. bike lane. Looking east at the bike lane to see what I could see, I saw a bus in the bike lane. Just then I looked to my right and Professor Nathan Phillips rode by and into the fiery pit of gridlock that is Comm. Ave. and University Drive, seen from the opposite perspective of the photo I put up a few days ago.
Traffic jams are nothing new. I’ve spent a lot of time in New York, but at least there the grid makes gridlock somewhat predictable. Here, you can’t really tell whether cars are jetting for Storrow Drive or the BU Bridge, which is problematic since both paths cross the bike lane, creating opportunities for a cyclist to be right hooked:
So how do you safely navigate this mess, you ask? Here’s what I do: Ignore the green painted bike lane at this intersection and instead pretend I’m a car. Before approaching the intersection, change lanes into the car lane by signaling with my left arm when the coast is clear, so that by the time I’m waiting at the light my bike and I are planted right where that silver Toyota Highlander shown above is. This way, when the light turns green, I’m in front of the Toyota and it can’t right-hook me when it turns to either University Rd or BU Bridge. (diagram of this maneuver coming soon) Once I’m clear of being right hooked, I’ll switch back to the bike lane.
I only checked out one part of the campus today, but as I’ve mentioned, new bikes racks are being deployed all around campus; the GSU has some new racks as well. As a courtesy, keep the railings (except the GCB garage bike railing) free of bikes. If you’re biking to a class in CAS, check out those spacious bike racks around back. I’m sure you’ll find them and walking through the BU beach just lovely.
As for those cars in the bike lanes, I was pleasantly surprised to find these cards at every table in the dining hall.
I, for one, will be putting this number in my phone. Maybe it’ll come in handy. Just remember, a car parked in a bike lane is against the law, as the BPD were so kind to demonstrate today, and for cyclists, a definite safety concern. School just started and I’ve already heard of a dooring incident on Comm Ave. Even in the bike lanes, you need to stay alert and watch out for doors. I hope BUPD is serious enough about bike safety to respond to complaints about cars illegally parked in bike lanes because it would really be great to see more of what I saw last April:
a BUPD officer writing a ticket for a car parked in a bike lane, a beautiful sight indeed.
At least I know this BUPD officer is ready to set the example for safe bike lane use:
In other news, my slow but steady bike move out of Allston is going well, as I was able to fit my entire laundry hamper in my homebuilt trashcan pannier:
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