[*BCM*] bike lanes, new bridge plans

[Anne Wolfe]

To address the practical problems in your suggestion (which in theory I
like, but practicalites tend to be something that has to be addressed)
1) Having a lane/law that marks where car parking ends or depends on the
distance of the driver's side mirror from the curb totally ignores the fact
that cars are different widths.  Substantially different widths.  A Smart
car is narrower than a Cadillac is narrower than a delivery truck.

2) To have a parking lane, then a red door lane and THEN a bike lane on most
streets would start to run out of street width.  Particularly if the parking
lane would be wide enough to accommodate large delivery trucks as needed in
your first point.

3) If you go paint a white line and put a bike in it, people will figure out
that it is a lane for bicycles. Particularly if (as I suspect) there were
bike lanes in the country/world prior to some guy in Cambridge deciding to
paint his own. If you suddenly paint another white line, or as you suggest a
red line, and put a car door in it, people will just be confused as they
won't know what it means.  And as red is generally not used for traffic lane
marking (generally parking or forbidden zones), people will either cause
other accidents (car v. car or v. bike or v. pedestrian) or snarl ups or
else (and sigh, I think this is most likely) ignore it altogether.

4) You could file a lawsuit against the City of Cambridge for being doored.
Heck, you can sue the Pope for paternity.  But you are unlikely to win, and
it is likely to be one expensive loss.  The reason why is that you would
have to prove that the City of Cambridge was negligent and that negligence
caused you to be doored by this driver.  Now, proving the negligence of the
driver is generally easy.  If the didn't look for you (which is usually the
case) and doored you, they were negligent.  If they did look for you and
doored you anyway, they were negligent.  But what did the City of Cambridge
do that was negligent?  What would it be reasonable for the City of
Cambridge have done to prevent you getting doored by people who don't look?
How contributorily negligent will you be found for riding too close to the
cars and riding in the door zone, and not looking to see if people are
sitting in the driver's seat.  From a legal standpoint, the negligence is
going to be shared (before a lot of people start screaming how it is never
the cyclists fault, shared doesn't have to mean equally.  And it usually
isn't.  It is much more on the cyclist's side.  But there is often a
proportion, even if less than 10% to the cyclist.)  It is going to be a hard
case to prove against the City of Cambridge.


2009/1/30 Charvak Karpe <charvak at alum.mit.edu>

> Hi,
>
> I went to a DCR meeting on Tuesday night where they unveiled revised plans
> for the BU bridge and Craigie Dam bridge.  The presentation is available
> here: http://www.mass.gov/dcr/projects/pdf/BU%20Craigie%20Follow%20Up.pdf
> found at http://www.mass.gov/dcr/projects/charlesriverbasin.htm  I thought
> BCMers might be interested in it.
>
> I was happy to see the work of the new consultants the DCR brought in
> to address bicycle and pedestrian issues.  I agreed with most of the
> improvements proposed, like traffic calming by making the BU bridge rotary
> less wide (although I'll miss drifting around it in the rain in my car).
> However, there was much criticism voiced by the audience about various
> things.  The consultant representative and DCR politely took the comments
> and complaints and then clearly explained the reasoning
> behind their designs.  I was the only one who said anything positive about
> their "share the road" signs and sharrows painted onto lanes vs. other types
> of bike lanes.
>
> I wanted to see if there are people on this list who share my view that the
> only types of bike lanes practical on Boston bridges are either shared use
> lanes or raised lanes like the one here
> http://www.paulhillsdon.com/blog/2008/03/27/richmonds-raised-bike-lane/ .
> If so, it would be nice to let the designers know.
>
> Another interesting moment at the meeting was when Secretary Fred Salvucci
> pointed out that we could cheaply test the new traffic patterns on the
> bridges using sandbags and paint before finalizing the designs.  He
> recounted a story of how the first bike lanes in Cambridge were painted by
> some college student and they remained on the road.  That story has inspired
> me to consider painting red circles with lines over the bike pictures in the
> Cambridge door zones, maybe along with graphics depicting a door opening
> into a cyclist and a warning "door zone: do not ride".
>
> The whole system seems poorly designed.  Why is there a rule against
> vehicles parking over 1 foot from the curb as opposed to a law about the
> distance of the driver's side mirror from the curb?  Shouldn't there simply
> be a line marking where car parking ends, a red zone for opening doors, and
> a bike lane outside of that?  Drivers of narrow cars wouldn't have to weave
> back and forth to squeeze up against the curb, it would be easy to ensure
> you're parked within the parking zone, and cyclists would not drift too
> close to doors.
>
> I'm too lame to actually go out and try re-painting the streets to indicate
> dangerous door zones, but if anyone wants funding for supplies, I'd be happy
> to be the sponsor and risk being charged with being an accessory to this
> http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/266-94.htm.  I can deal with cars
> honking at me for riding at a safe distance from parked cars or road
> hazards, but I cringe when I see cyclists ride too far to the right.  I
> should try talking to Craig Kelley first to see his opinion on what is the
> proper process for communicating safe practices to both drivers and
> cyclists.  Or maybe it's easier to wait until someone gets doored and
> encourage him or her to file a lawsuit against the City of Cambridge.  Has
> anyone been doored in Cambridge recently?  Did you have suffer pain or
> damage to your bicycle that was not reimbursed by the driver?
>
>
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-- 
Anne M. Wolfe, LL.M.
Mobile: ( 07805) 456901

Be well, do good work, and keep in touch. - Garrison Keillor
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