Commuters don't want toll hikes on the Turnpike!
In other earth-shattering news, children don't like vegetables, men don't think there's enough football on Sundays, and Sarah Palin actually likes earmarks.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Stop the presses!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
Heading in the right direction
The Pike is considering stupendously large toll hikes, maybe close to doubling the tolls near us (Allston-Brighton, Weston) or adding $5 (not a misprint) to the tunnel tolls or re-instating the western tolls or some combination or blend.
Good: the Pike is looking to tap drivers for upkeep of state highways instead of a subsidy from the general fund.
Bad: there still seems to be no momentum for ending the subsidy to north/south traffic on I-93.
Worrisome: a big toll hike is going to send toll avoiders onto Newton streets; we'll need mitigation
Of course, this would all be less of an issue if we'd get around to stemming the erosion of the gas tax. But, Bernard Cohen and the rest of the Pike board considering such drastic action suggests that maybe a responsible gas tax hike is in our future.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Faster than a Speeding D-Line Trolley!
Alright, maybe only faster if you count the 1/2 mile walk on each end of my D-Line commute. On Friday, I biked from my abode near Weeks Park to Northeastern University (via Beacon Street) in a little over 40 minutes, and back in a little over 45, for a total of 15 miles. And two days later I can say (smugly!) that I'm not sore. Alright, my neck's a little stiff. And I was a little wobbly when I got home, and was snoozing by 9:30pm. But I'm all set to do it again!
Reflections:
If I'm going to keep this up, I need some higher gears than my old mountain bike provides: pedaling like a madman on gentle downhill slopes in my highest gear. Or I need to relax and coast.
Stopped at a light in Brookline, eastbound, 8:20 am. A red Lamborghini revs next to me, its roar mocking my puny attempt to save the planet. In a few moments, the car is a red speck in the distance, which, relative to the planet, so am I in my red jacket. We're all puny. But the driver of the Lamborghini is puny and probably a jerk.
Beacon Street westbound at 4:00pm: sun in my eyes, an easy pace behind another commuter uphill towards Coolidge Corner, a 20-something in spandex on a single-speed passing me, no cars (other than parked ones) in sight. Nirvana! More cycles than cars. At least for a minute or two.
Just past Coolidge Corner, one car is backing into a parallel spot, blocking traffic, and the door of another car opens. As if arranged by a cosmic bike-commuting professor: Hazards 101.
Further west on Beacon, stopped at another light. The driver in the car next to me starts dialing his cellphone. The light turns green. He keeps dialing. I yell (cheerfully, I hope) "Beep! Beep!" It works!
The hills are alive... with the sound of my huffing and puffing. Between Chestnut Hill Reservoir and the Mary Baker Eddy house, I just about got off and walked. I cursed the 15 pounds of notebooks and textbooks in my pannier, and I cursed the road for getting so damn narrow near the the top of the hill. But, ah! The coast down the other side on those broad new shoulders!
There are a lot of cyclists out there. It's a thrill to be part of this growing tribe.
Why don't we in the bike-tribe talk to each other? Are we lost in thought? Overly acclimatized to the isolation of 2-ton steel cages? Coming and going, a good dozen cyclists passed me without warning: no bell, no "passing on the left," nothing. If we aren't civil with our own tribe, are we a we?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Now's the time
With gas prices likely to fall (as oil fell to $93-a-barrel), it's time to really think hard about a higher gas tax. Let's add a dime to the gas tax every two years for the next ten years. We will:
- Survive the up-tick. We survived $4.00-a-gallon gas.
- Continue the virtuous cycle that higher gas prices created in terms of less driving and more transit use.
- Have revenue to help pay for the increased demand on the transit system.
- Have revenue to help pay down the bridge bonds
Sunday, September 7, 2008
What's in the bag?
Find out tomorrow (Monday, September 8) at 8:45. The mayor will remove the bag and reveal a historical first (sort of) for Newton.
The bagged sign is on the southbound side of Chestnut Street Walnut Street, just south of Homer. Please show your support for bicycle improvements and attend the ceremony. Bring your helmet and bike, if you can.
If you drive, probably easiest to park at the library.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Wonderful bike commute
The third and final Bike Friday of the summer this morning and the Newton bike convoy numbered over 35. (Lexington won the largest convoy contest with 51.) Each ride has seen more people join the trip from Newton City Hall to Boston City Hall. Boston Bike tsarina Nicole Freedman says that Bike Fridays may continue into the fall. Here's hoping.
Newton Bicycle/Pedestrian Task Force chairman George Kirby charted the Newton convoy and led the first two rides. No pictures for this ride because George couldn't ride (though he did stop by to send the riders off) and yours truly set the pace.
George missed a terrific ride. It's really wonderful to be part of the growing contingent of people riding to work.
Canadian bike thief
This is, at best, tangentially related to biking in Newton, but it's too weird not to share. Toronto police busted a guy with nearly 3,000 stolen bikes.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Biking Head
If NS&S had an official soundtrack, it would have lots of Talking Heads and David Byrne (in his solo incarnation). We only love him more that Byrne is a long-time biking rider and activist. So, how cool is this: he created nine arty bike racks that have been installed (temporarily) around New York City.
Here's a shoe for in front of Bergdof's.
Sharing the Road, India
As if taking a cue from the DHL signboard, everyone has begun to "move forward," regardless of those still clearing the intersection. The cyclist appears to be dead center, but is actually somewhat to the left of most of the traffic here, which is making a right turn. (Keep in mind that you drive on the left in India, not the right; a right turn crosses traffic.)
Cyclists have to contend with a lot of competition for road share: scooters, motorcycles, auto-rikshaws, cars, small trucks, large trucks, buses, cows. As I posted before, the space for bicycles is getting smaller. Low prestige. The shoulder-strap & package on the back suggest that this one is making a delivery, and likely, in the brutally honest argot of Indian offices, a "peon."
In the photo at the right, note the pecking order of vehicles waiting for a green signal: cars to the extreme right, then motorcycles and rikshaws, then bicycles. There are exceptions, of course (exceptions are the rule on India's roads), but the rule of thumb is that slower, smaller vehicles move to the edges. At lights, cyclists tend to creep around other vehicles to fill in nooks and crannies toward the front. As more vehicles congregate for a right turn, the turn "lane" expands to fit them, until turners block straight traffic.
What relevance does all this have for cyclists in the US? I'm not yet sure. But I'm sure there's a happy medium somewhere between the chaotic heterogeneity of Indian roads and the regimented monoculture of American roads.
Monday, August 18, 2008
More Walnut-y goodness
Apart from the occasional Bike Boston-sponsored group commute, I rarely ride (or drive) on Walnut Street south of Comm. Ave. So, it was a special thrill to ride with son of NS&S down to the New Arts Center this morning in the freshly striped shoulders.
This completes a project to stripe Walnut Street from Beacon down to Newtonville. Beacon to Comm. Ave. was completed in July.
Pictures to come.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Globe Magazine Pedestrian Article
This Sunday's Globe Magazine had an excellent article about pedestrian issues, and all of NS&S Nation has been asking: when is the walk light going to turn green when will we have our indispensable analysis? The article has so many good things to write about, I haven't been able to digest it all. While you wait, I urge you to read the article.
The next post on the article arriving in 13 37 hours!
Are you ready?
A happy confluence of things we love: a talk, by a Project for Public Space staffer, sponsored by the LivableStreets Alliance, on the topic of transportation reform. Thursday, August 21, 2008, from 7:00 to 8:30, 100 Sidney Street, Cambridge.
Gary Toth, Director of Transportation Initiatives for the Project for Public Spaces, will ask the question "Transportation reform for the US - are Americans ready?"
Quoth Toth:
The decisions engineers make will affect people's lives. The street can't be looked at as just a vessel for cars. It's a place with many uses. What we want to do is try to help foster sustainable, livable communities.
Another thing we love? Free beer and soda (courtesy of Harpoon). Be there.
Ad irony
This report of a fatal car crash brought to you by Frost Cadillac. Clearly, the boston.com ad-matching algorithm needs some tweaks.
How's my kid driving?
Way too many teens die — needlessly — in car crashes. Just this week a star runner and soon-to-be Dartmouth student died in a one-car crash in Wenham and seriously injured his teen passenger.
Two Wellesley women are doing something about it. They created a company called Steer Straight, which sells "How's My Teen Driving" stickers and supporting phone service, modeled after the "How's My Driving" stickers on commercial trucks. If someone calls the toll-free number on the sticker and complains, the offending teen's parents receive an e-mail.
Incomprehensibly, boston.com doesn't have the web address in the article, much less a live link, even though the article makes reference to the web site. You'd think it would be a public service of a sort.
Here are two similar services: another How's-My-Teen-Driving company and Tell-My-Mom (1-866-2-TELLMOM).
Needless to say, the primary aim of the program is preventive; the expectation is that kids with the sticker will drive more cautiously. If I had a teen driver, I'd sign up.
The program's founders, though, appear to be sending a mixed message. One founder's seventeen-year-old son drives a Mercedes station wagon, having totaled his previous car. (Choice quote: "'I never drove too crazily,' says the 17-year-old senior, who totaled his previous car after crashing into a stone wall. 'But it definitely makes you think twice about doing things.'" Because cars total themselves!) And, in the accompanying photo online, the women stand in front of two SUVs with the stickers — presumably trucks their kids drive. Teens shouldn't be driving SUVs, especially because they don't need the passenger capacity. Teens shouldn't be driving teens.
Sunday, August 10, 2008
What people want
Imagine that each neighborhood could set its own speed limit. I'm guessing we'd see a lot more speed limits like the one at the Terraces, a private development on Langley Road. (Because it's a private development, they get to set their own speed limit.)
Instead we get speed limits — and roadway design — that cater to those driving through the neighborhood over those that live there.
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