At today’s A-B Bikes meeting, Chris told me she spotted three cars with parking violation tickets on North Harvard Ave, which, in case you haven’t heard, was freshly repaved, repainted with bike lanes, and marked with no standing signs:
I was a bit skeptical of what Chris told me she saw, since I had yet to see any car ticketed for parking in a bike lane in Boston, let alone North Harvard Ave. where the bike lane’s been used as a constant parking lane since its existence, (though I have seen cops whisk away drivers parked in the Comm Ave. bike lane) so I decided to check it out myself. Upon arrival, I found two cars parked in the bike lane:
I was surprised to see two tickets affixed to each vehicle; one orange ticket under the wiper and one white ticket shoved on the outside of the driver’s window.
Upon further inspection, this is what the white ticket said:
It was indeed an official City of Boston violation citing a $75 fine for parking in a no standing zone. Hmm, the new bike ordinance states a $100 fine for parking in a bike lane. They must have not updated the tickets yet. So if this was the actual violation ticket, then what was the orange ticket? Whipping around to the windshield, this is what I found:
A fake parking violation ticket with a sense of humor! I’ve seen this idea on the internet before but never in action.
The note was definitely a nice, informative touch. And In case you’re wondering, the Lincoln did have a nice big Harvard U bumper sticker in the rear.
Speaking of fake parking tickets, I’m a fan of NYC-based Times-Up’s Bike Lane Liberation Clown Brigade, a ride that dresses up as clowns before giving out fake tickets:
So props to both the rogue biketivist for the awesome fake ticket (As far as I know, whoever wrote it wasn’t a BU/A-B biker) and BPD for actually being on top of writing parking violations with the addition of the bike lanes. We’ve seen a lot of skeptical feedback about enforcement of the new ordinance, but hopefully what I saw tonight is indicative of what’s more to come.
Update: It seems we have a very likely suspect for the “rogue biketivist” leaving fake parking tickets on cars parked in the North Harvard Ave bike lane: fellow Bostonbiker blogger Zero Combustion, who has not only been ranting about the bike lanes all summer, but yesterday actually mentioned wanting to leave fake tickets herself. The tickets she bought online match what I saw last night. Though at $4.99 per fake ticket, handing out more will likely be a very costly endeavor.
And thanks m2mayer for pointing this out.
Update 2: yeah, it was Zero Combustion. And apparently you can buy 100 packs of those tickets on Amazon for $15.
The Other Side Cafe on Newbury Street gets a new on-street bike rack this morning. Removing one metered parking space, has made room for 12 bikes. Special thanks to Richard and Sarra Lederman of Lederman Engineering, Boston Transportation Departmen, Boston Public Works for the work this morning.
This, folks, is another huge step for a bike friendlier Boston, especially for cyclists who frequent the Other Side. It’s a great day when 12 bikes can now use space formerly dedicated for use by a single car. If you get a chance to bike by the Other Side Cafe, don’t forget to check out the sweet rack. We can only hope to see more of this in the future.
Yes, that deserved all caps. Now we may actually be able to use that bike lane they striped down Comm Ave. FedEx trucks be warned…
The long and short is that the City Council just passed an ordinance prohibiting parking in bike lanes. It empowers BTD and BPD officers to ticket any violators. The tickets are for $100. Wow. The full ordinance is posted below.
This was passed with the help of a few influential bike organizations, namely LivableStreets Alliance, BU Bikes, Allston-Brighton Bikes, Bikes Not Bombs, Institute for Human Centered Design, Massachusetts Bicycle Coalition, Rozzie Bikes, JP Bikes, and Dot Bike. Thanks to all the groups that helped push this badly needed legislation.
AN ORDINANCE PROHIBITING PARKING IN A MARKED BIKE LANE
OR MARKED SHARED LANE
WHEREAS: The City of Boston is lacking an effective method to ensure public safety as members of the public not only travel in motor vehicles in marked bike lanes and shared lanes but also park in said lanes; and
WHEREAS: This Ordinance shall establish the following guidelines for parking motor vehicles in marked bike lanes and shared bike lanes; and
Ordained by the City Council as follows:
Purpose. The purpose of this ordinance is to establish guidelines for parking motor vehicles in marked bike lanes and shared bike lanes.
Prohibition from Marked Bike Lanes and Shared Lanes. No driver shall stand or park any motor vehicle in a marked bike or shared bike lane in the City of Boston.
Penalties. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be subject to a fine of one hundred dollars and no cents ($100.00) for each offense. This fine shall increase by thirty-three dollars ($33.00) if it remains unpaid at least twenty-one (21) days after issuance of a notice of the violation.
Exceptions. Nothing in these sections shall prevent standing or parking a motor vehicle in a marked bike lane or shared bike lane: (i) when necessary to avoid conflict with other traffic or pedestrians; (ii) in compliance with the lawful direction of a police officer or official traffic sign; or (iii) unless authorized to do so under existing regulations (including but not limited to designated residential parking lanes or parking meters).
Enforcement. The Boston Transportation Department and the Boston Police Department shall have the authority to enforce this section. The provisions of Massachusetts General Laws c. 90, s. 20A1/2 may be used to enforce these sections, and the adjudication provisions of this chapter and of Chapter 190 of the Acts of 1982 shall apply to this section. The Boston Police Department and Boston Transportation Department shall have the authority to impound any motor vehicle in violation of these sections.
Regulatory Authority. The Commissioner of the Boston Transportation Department and the Commissioner of the Boston Police Department shall have the authority to promulgate rules and regulations necessary to implement and enforce these sections.
Severability. If any provision of these sections is held as invalid, then such provision shall be considered separately and apart from the remaining provisions, which shall remain in full force and effect.
Implementation. The provisions of this section shall be effective immediately after passage.
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.
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!
As it turns out, according to Boston city law, bicycles are considered vehicles, so parking a bicycle in a metered parking space is perfectly legal.
With that knowledge, Galen struck a brain-chord in thinking of starting some guerrilla on-street bike parking. Re-purposing parking spots isn’t anything new, as the global-wide existence of PARK(ing) Day will attest to, and neither is on-street bike parking, but to our knowledge it had never been done in either Newton nor Boston, so Nathan Phillips, mentor of BU Bikes and active member of Newton Bikes, ran with the idea over in Newton a few weeks ago. It was so successful that he wanted us to try it out in Boston, so last Friday, before the start of Boston’s Critical Mass ride, we did.
After paying a meter for a spot on Boylston, Nathan and I invited passing cyclists and Critical Mass riders to join us, and though only a few did actually join us, they reacted positively to our efforts, even if it was after luring them in with Clif Bars:
Eventually we moved to a second spot, and a curious Motorcyclist even joined in on our two-wheeled parking party. Before leaving, we left him with the meter ticket for the space which still had 40 minutes remaining.
Before I arrived Nathan had one confrontation with a parking meter attendant, who after leaving to report him to her supervisor never returned. One police officer told me we couldn’t leave our bikes in the space and stumbled away befuddled when I told him we actually paid the meter and that what we were doing was legal.
As far as we know, this is the first time anyone’s ever attempted any kind of on-street bike parking in Boston. Though, rumor has it that a certain bar/cafe here will soon be the first establishment to have the city convert a metered spot into on-street bike parking. I’m guessing it’ll look something like what they’ve done in Portland:
Considering said rumor, upcoming PARK(ing) day in September, and the fact that bicycles are considered vehicles under Boston law, expect to see more fun and useful re-purposing of city metered parking spots for people-friendly usage right here in Boston in the foreseeable future. And even if we weren’t the first to take over a parking space in Boston for on-street bike parking, we were certainly the first BU Bikers to do it.
This past weekend while visiting a friend in Virginia I had the opportunity to be part of the very first wave of cyclists to ride on the brand new Woodrow Wilson Bridge Trail across the Potomac river, a big deal since bikers and pedestrians in Alexandria, Va looking to cross into Maryland can now cross a 1.1 mile bridge instead of looping 15 miles up into Washington DC then back down into Maryland.
The path opened at 1pm, so some friends and I met up with the first mass of a few hundred bikers in Alexandria headed for the bridge. It was great to see the mish-mash of cyclists all coming together for the event-I was pleasantly surprised to see so many different types of bikes. Aside from the usual road bikes and hybrids, I spotted plenty of recumbents, folders, touring bikes, and even some wacky looking RANS bikes. The local bike shop offered free bike rentals for people to cross the bridge that day on a first-come, first-serve basis, so a good number of people biking who wouldn’t have otherwise biked.
Ignore my poor photography skills and you can see that behind the fence is a whopping ten lanes of I-95 and the adjacent path.
When stopping at a lookout point, I was excited but puzzled to see that they included a bike rack with cable to lock up my wheels- I don’t see a reason to lock up my bike at a 50 square-foot lookout point on a bridge where I will be literally standing in front of my bike while I’m there. Oh well, at least the designers did something to take bikers into consideration.
Aside from me and my friends being perhaps the first BU Bikers to cross the bridge, there were other firsts. This man was perhaps the first man to ever cross the bridge wearing fancy Crocs and sit on that rock to smoke a fancy cigar
and perhaps this is the first man wearing a One Less Car t-shirt to ever slump on his bike and read the history plaques.
The trail on the Maryland side doesn’t connect to other bike paths yet but this gravel path did take us to National Harbor, where we were forced to dismount from our bikes and walk into a $65 wine and food festival complete with blasting smooth jazz, so we turned back and crossed back into Virginia.
So I can’t help but compare this memorable event to what’s going on in Boston. Things have really started to pick up this year, with new bike lanes sprouting up everywhere, plans to close off Newbury for cars, and BU bridge reconstruction. A slow and steady process, but hopefully one day Boston will have a day as glorious as Alexandria did.
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