Boston bike czar

I know I'm late to this, but a few thoughts on Mayor Menino's latest push to lift Boston from the depths of the bike-friendliness ratings:

• Great.


• All the grassroots in the world can't beat the influence of a mayor to get things going. (See also, Chicago.) Fortunately or unfortunately, progress in Boston may end up being more a function of the Mayor's new-found love of biking than all the good work by MassBike and other groups.


• I hope that Boston takes a coordinated regional approach, recognizing that many of Boston's bikers come from the surrounding cities and towns, which are on a spectrum of bike-friendliness.


• Matt Viser's report in the Globe is nicely researched and balanced.


• There's a great opportunity for incremental improvement to be had with bike racks. Every block that has more than 3 bikes locked to meters or fences ought to get a bike rack. (There's another great small opportunity along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.)

See also this piece in BostonNow, which quotes friend of NS&S Peter Furth.

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This is promising

Governor Deval Patrick is going to introduce a comprehensive overhaul of the Commonwealth's transportation policy before Thursday's Turnpike Authority board votes on toll increases.

Not so promising? Patrick is against a gas tax increase and says "user fees" (presumably using a congestion pricing-like automated system) are at least ten years off.

Meanwhile, the Turnpike Authority has scheduled a public hearing about toll changes on October 10 in Newton at 6:00 in the Veterans War Memorial Auditorium at City Hall.

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By the reservoir

I'm getting some good feedback to a nascent effort to get some sort of bike accommodations striped on Beacon Street along the Chestnut Hill Reservoir.

It seems like an easy and valuable win for the City of Boston.

• The stretch of Beacon is plenty wide, even near Cleveland Circle where there's resident parking.


• Along a reservoir is a good place to promote biking.


• It is a well-used bike commuting route.


• While a short stretch, it would connect to and extend Brookline's good work on Beacon Street.


• It would connect BC into Brookline's bike-friendly Beacon.


• It would nicely tie into Newton's efforts to make Beacon bike-friendlier.

The timing couldn't be more right. Mayor Menino has pledged to improve biking in Boston. The DCR has a project on the boards to improve access to and the paths within the reservation itself. Bike accommodations on Beacon (which is Boston's in that stretch) would be a nice complement. The near completion of the Waterworks construction seems to promise at least a partial repaving effort.

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Kids love their cars

She's only one young woman, but Newton South senior Katie Sander's spirited defense of kids driving to Newton South is depressing:

You can take away my soul but don’t take away my car.

Perhaps I’m being a bratty, entitled Newton kid, but driving to school and work has significantly improved my quality of life (and that of my parents, who no longer have to lug me around). And Sean, I am suprised that you’re surprised that high schoolers aren’t bigger proponents of self-propulsion. If anything we’re leading a call for more parking spots.

Ms. Sanders thoughts are in the comments to a TAB blog entry about a student hit by a car in a school crosswalk.

At who's expense comes the improved quality of life? The neighborhoods along her route to school, particularly those close to the school? Her future self who will suffer the effects of climate change? Not to be too dramatic, but the soldiers dying in the Middle East because we want to protect our oil interests? The kid hit by the car?

It's also depressing that school traffic, much of which is unnecessary, is perhaps impossible to regulate, short of some sort of congestion-pricing scheme. So, the only hope is to convince kids and parents to alter their behaviors.

Based on Ms. Sander's comments, it won't be easy.

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Take a chance

Is this likelier to encourage or discourage auto use?

From today's Globe. (Cartoon won't be there if you follow the link after a more recent Wasserman cartoon is posted.)

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Grossman's and bikes

As reported by the TAB, there is proposed development on Washington Street in Wellesley, right over the Newton border on the former Grossman's site.

One bike/ped hook to the project (and there are sure to be others): Wellesley is looking at the project to provide mitigation funds that might be used to rehabilitate an old bridge on a proposed rail trail. (Search on "Trail Project" for the relevant entry.)

I'm just learning about the rail trail project. It's currently on hold while abutters litigate claims to the rail right-of-way.

Apparently, it would be a great way to get folks to the Riverside T station.

More as I learn more.

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Funding imbalance

Next year, the Federal Transportation Agency is going to dole out $42 billion in highway aid v. $1.4 billion in transit aid.

Imagine what would happen if the numbers were switched. Imagine what could be done if transit aid were merely doubled by shifting $1.4 billion from highway.

Figures from a Washington Post article that notes not only the funding discrepancy, but the regulatory hoops that transit projects have to jump through to get federal approval (via Ryan Avent).

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Beacon St. islands

Beacon Street is enormously varied in width. This causes some real problems with striping a shoulder for bikes.

If you stripe a consistent (car) travel lane—as the city did in its striping trial—you end up with shoulders that are so wide, motorists confuse them for travel lanes. If you stripe a consistent shoulder, you end up with an inconsistent width travel lane, which is also problematic.

So, which is it? Consistent shoulder width or consistent lane width?

How 'bout both!

Work from the outside, in. Consistent shoulder width (4 ft., I believe). Consistent travel lane (14 ft.). Where the curb-to-curb distance is greater than 36 feet, create a painted "island" with diagonal yellow stripes.

Eventually, when the road is repaved again, the city could make the road width consistent (one hopes with separated bike lanes east of Newton Centre), adding to the grass berm. Or, maybe turn the paint islands into real, landscaped islands.

That would be cool.

Another possibility is to create a buffer between the shoulder and the travel lane.

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Route 9 at Winchester/Centre

This is a rough idea of what I proposed for Route 9 and Winchester/Centre Street. Click on the picture for a larger version.

• Add a Two-Way Left Turn Lane, like what's on various parts of Needham Street.
• Add an island on the westbound ramp. (It's the triangle on the top.) The purpose of this island is two-fold:
• Create a single lane for turning left. You'd be amazed how often aggressive drivers will go around a waiting car's right than turn left across the front of the waiting car.
• Create a pedestrian refuge.
• Add an island on the eastbound ramp. (It's the diamond on the bottom.) This island also has two purposes:
• Create a a pedestrian refuge.
• Manage conflicting traffic at the bottom of the ramp.

The diagram doesn't show the improvements to sidewalks— especially the crummy sidewalk on the existing island on the east side of Centre Street—and narrowing the Curtis Street intersection.

Previously:
More Needham Street (area) thoughts
Alderman Fischman on Needham Street

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Kids PMC ride in Newton

Here is something I didn't know anything about. There's a Kids PMC ride around the Wells Avenue Office Park on September 16th.

Anybody want to sponsor son or daughter of NS&S?

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Parking in the Globe

If you're coming here from the Globe, welcome. What did you think of my op-ed? Leave a comment.

If you didn't see it, I have an op-ed in the Globe today in which I argue that on-street parking is too cheap in Boston.

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More Needham Street (area) thoughts

Is there any reason for the enormous crossing at Curtis and Winchester? I have (inelegantly) added lines to represent the curb lines in the picture above.

In addition to a roundabout at Christina and Needham, why not a roundabout at Winchester and Needham, too? Plenty of space. A roundabout could improve traffic flow through the intersection.

It looks like the Skipjacks renovation includes removing the parking spaces from in front of the restaurant and adding a little greenery instead. The lot between Skipjacks and International Bike now looks plenty big enough to house the very complementary parking needs of IBC and Skipjacks. Maybe IBC could be persuaded to share the lot, green up its front lot, and get rid of some curb cuts.

In fact, they could both use the eastern Avalon curb cut and have customers enter the parking lots from the back side.

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Before this week's TAB comes out ...

A few comments on things from last week's TAB.

Five of the letters to the editors touched on traffic or transportation.

Responding to Jim Feldman's op-ed about bike accommodations in Newton (or the lack thereof), Leonard Wolfe wrote a letter chastising bicycle riders for their smugness and their lack of attention to pedestrians (last letter on the page). Mr. Wolfe has been hit by bikers twice and nearly hit another two times ... in the last year! There's no excuse for that. Bikers have to yield to pedestrians and be on the lookout for them. In a sense, bikers need to protect pedestrians.

It's really a shame that pedestrians view bikers with such hostility. Pedestrians and bikers should be natural allies. Bikers need to rehabilitate their image.

Mark Lichtenstein asked if Langley is ever going to be repaved (fourth letter on the page). Answer: Yes. In September.

Cara Lichtenstein uses the occasion of Alderman Mitch Fischman's op-ed on Needham Street to urge support for Senate bill 2029 and House bill 3694, which would relieve the MBTA of much of its debt (third letter on the page).

I have a letter about the Comprehensive Plan (first letter) and Barry Bergman has a follow-up to Adam Peller's letter from the week before (which was a response to Mr. Bergman's letter about my stop sign op-ed).

Those are a lot of traffic-related letters.

And, Chrissie Long has a long article about the Woodland Road speed tables. The article ends with a quotation from an admitted speeder who wishes more were done to educate Lasell College students to wear brighter clothing.

The guy has lived in the neighborhood for 21 years, knows that Lasell College kids cross the street—in dark clothing, and yet he still drives "maybe a little too fast down that road."

Is there any better explanation for why we need to lower roadway design speeds?

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Beacon Street observations

Two interesting sights on Beacon Street from my ride in this morning.

The first was truly moving: a mother and two children crossing Washington Street on their bikes. A boy of about 7 was on a tag-a-long behind his mother and a nine-ish girl was on her own bike. What made it moving were the crutches strapped to the tag-a-long. They were clearly not temporary. It seems that the boy has some sort of disability. But, regardless of the disability, the family was biking to its destination. And, the crutch set up looked like riding was a reasonably frequent event.

Inspiring. If only more able-bodied children were encouraged to bike and walk!

The second was an automatic pedestrian detector on a mid-block crosswalk between Fairbanks and Marion Streets (I think). An automatic pedestrian detector, as the name implies, automatically detects a person about to enter a crosswalk and triggers a pedestrian crossing cycle.

I'm a little skeptical of technical solutions at crosswalks out of concern for the false negative, a pedestrian entering the crosswalk without having pushed the button or tripped the sensors. Obviously, the point of these automatic detection systems is to lower the false negatives by eliminating the need to have the pedestrian do anything. But, I wonder about having to rely on technology that can malfunction, especially when it can take a while for broken things to get fixed.

If the technology proves out, I think the automatic detection systems make a lot sense on busy roads, like Beacon Street. On busy roads, it's not appropriate to lower speeds for all traffic to pedestrian-friendly speeds. And, pedestrian-detection means that traffic flow is only interrupted when there's actually a pedestrian.

Apart from the cost, I don't think such a system makes sense on more residential streets. The point of traffic calming on side streets is to lower traffic speeds overall, not just when a pedestrian needs to cross. Pedestrian-actuated signals, automated or not, send the signal that motorists only have to slow when there is a pedestrian ready to cross. And, that's the wrong message.

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Why stop?

I've argued against stop signs as traffic calming from what I'll call the random-compliance angle. If you put up stop signs where there is no right-of-way conflict to manage:

• Pedestrians will rely on the stop signs and expect that traffic will stop.
• Some motorists will recognize the stop signs as unnecessary and will not stop.

The combination of reliance by one party and non-compliance by another party has the potential for injury or worse.

But, there's another angle. Let's call it the excess-compliance angle.

The purpose of traffic calming is to slow traffic, not stop it. (This is not the case on our busier streets and intersections.) Sufficiently slowed traffic has time to stop for pedestrians. Pedestrians have enough time to react to traffic. Motorists are better able to stop for crosswalks, making crosswalks more useful for pedestrians. Slowing traffic reduces the severity of injury and the risk of death.

Our neighborhoods don't need to stop traffic flow to enjoy these benefits. Pedestrian traffic, while it should be a priority, is rarely as heavy as car traffic. (Not that we wouldn't like it to be!) Outside of school time, crosswalk crossings are especially infrequent.

It's unreasonable to bring every car to a full stop just so we can make conditions ideal for those occasions when there is a pedestrian.

The point of traffic calming is to balance traffic flow with pedestrian safety, convenience, and comfort. Appropriate traffic calming measures allow traffic to flow at a reasonable pace ... except when there is a pedestrian in a crosswalk. Stop signs stop the flow of traffic all the time, regardless of actual need to stop.

Which brings us back to the random-compliance problem. Non-compliance stems from the motorist's intuitive—and correct—understanding that a stop-sign is not needed to resolve a right-of-way conflict and that it is overkill to address pedestrian issues.

Why stop traffic when you don't have to?

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