Boston Bikers Advocacy! Mass Ave improvements Feb 26!

Neighbors, there's another chance to voice concerns about street design impacting bicycle & pedestrian safety. See this post in this thread:



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Calling all Boston area e-Bikers!

There's a public meeting at 6:30pm, Monday 4 February in Somerville regarding re-design/rebuild of Beacon St - a major bike route from Cambridge to Porter Square. This is the 25% design approval meeting (which apparently means something to civil engineers and transportation geeks smarter than me).

The redesign will certainly include some form of bike lane. Present design calls for part of the route to be cycle track. There will certainly be local motorists there to defend their perceived right to free parking. I'll be there as a voice for cyclists - to press MassDOT to have some backbone and design a better cycle track even if it means loss of a little free on-street storage of mobile cages.

If you're available, interested and most importantly in the area Monday night, please consider showing up and joining me. Should be a good time!

More details:
Location: 5 Cherry St, Somerville, MA 02144

Some background:
http://somerville.patch.com/blog_posts/guest-post-city-hosts-meeting-to-resolve-beacon-st-dust-up
http://somerville.patch.com/blog_posts/creating-a-better-beacon-street

Good luck with that. To judge by their actions, most folks would deprive themselves and their children (and they do) before depriving their cars.

I'll be there. I wonder if it would help to have some visual aids to drive the point home.

I say we get there early so it doesn't end up like last time with a million people bitching about T oriented gripes before the bike people get the edgewise word. I'm going to spread the word amongst the pedicab and hubway clans. One person in particular has been consumed with the idea of seperated and/or elevated bike lanes, he will want to be involved I'm sure.

Moved this to E-vents as it is more likely to be seen there than Other Toxic Discussions.

gestalt said:

I'll be there. I wonder if it would help to have some visual aids to drive the point home.

Click to expand...

I originally planned to go by bike. But now I plan to drive. I'll take the full size van, arrive early, and ensure I occupy at least 3 parking spots. Hopefully some who would come to represent the motorist lobby won't find parking, and just go home.

I've been marketing it in my circles as well, one of my work friends is quite interested.

Here's a video of the street in question. [youtube]vteOG1nbPYE[/youtube]

Notice the moonscape like road surface. The pavement is nice and smooth if only you succumb to the siren's song and ride right in the door zone.

At 1:18 you see the intersection where I witnessed a brazen right cross that left a cyclist on her back in the street and the driver speeding off.

Please help spread the word - if you know bikers in Cambridge, Somerville, or nearby communities, ask them to come out and support. I've already asked both my friends

Here's some info on news coverage: http://beaconstreetsomerville.org/globe-covers-beacon-street-reconstruction-public-meeting-3/

People afraid of walking a half block to park their cars will be at the public meeting in force :x

Oh, and I'm not shamelessly bumping my own thread to keep it on the "active topics" page... or am I? :lol:

Update!
A local paper has a poll.
http://www.somervillescout.com/2012/12/poll-are-you-in-favor-of-the-proposed-beacon-street-cycle-track/
This one allows multiple voting if you toss cookies between refreshes.

Mua-ha-ha-ha-ha-hahahaaaaaaaaH!

Are we supposed to vote yes or no?

Cuz I just voted 10 times for yes...

YES please!

Thanks!

Much thanks to thepronghorn and anyone else helping to monkey with that poll. We've really given the cyclists a huge margin over those afraid of change.

gestalt said:

I'll be there. I wonder if it would help to have some visual aids to drive the point home.

I say we get there early so it doesn't end up like last time with a million people bitching about T oriented gripes before the bike people get the edgewise word. I'm going to spread the word amongst the pedicab and hubway clans. One person in particular has been consumed with the idea of seperated and/or elevated bike lanes, he will want to be involved I'm sure.

Click to expand...

Gestalt I'll see you there. I aim to arrive at 6:15. If I have time in the morning I'll throw one of the e-bikes in the back of the van, after "the show" if you have a few minutes to stick around you can take it for a spin. If I had to choose between the two bikes, which would you prefer I bring?

amberwolf said:

Moved this to E-vents as it is more likely to be seen there than Other Toxic Discussions.

Click to expand...

Also - thanks AW for moving the thread!

MattyCiii said:

If I had to choose between the two bikes, which would you prefer I bring?

Click to expand...

the green meanie for sure!!!

I'm pming you my phone number

Bike's all loaded and ready to go.

The LiPo pack will be in the van all day so will sag like an old lady's bosoms. It'll be cold at 30mph so dress accordingly... I packed my moto helmet and a pair of ski gloves just for grins. The bike isn't well lighted - one white light up front, no rears - but then again, you'll be the fastest thing on Beacon St anyway.

I'll PM you my number too. I plan to be there at 6:15, but I'm bringing my girlfriend who gets out of work later than me, so there's a wild card at play...

I'm not there but lets not think that the minority, that's us on the bikes, should rule over those who own the motor vehicles and pay the taxes to keep up the roads. Speaking of keeping up the roads what you show in the vid is awful and they should be fixing it. As far as taking away parking for many to give bike lanes to the few I am not for that sort of thing even though I am on the bike always and drive less than once a month. Not that my say makes much of a difference around here as the agendas of those brought into office usually rule no matter what the public says. They spend millions on bike lanes and painting the roads green, a device allowing cyclists to pass up vehicles stopped at lights and legally pull in front of them at the intersection thus blocking their paths when the light changes, around here. Whole lanes of streets, in the downtown area, have been taken from cars and given to cyclists. Naturally these confiscated lanes are in areas the cyclists seldom travel. Have to admit that they do get things right now and then though. I really do hate it when there is a nice bike lane for several miles and then it disappears for a half mile or so and then is back again like in your vid. We have the same thing on one of our better bike lanes near my house. Still I hope something can be done that will have a positive impact on both sides. Just my outlook/opinion for what it's worth.

biohazardman said:

I'm not there but lets not think that the minority, that's us on the bikes, should rule over those who own the motor vehicles and pay the taxes to keep up the roads.

Click to expand...

I've thought that through. This is an issue I know very well.

I pay taxes. I pay a metric crap-ton of income taxes, because I earn a goodly sum of pay. Sales tax too. Drivers pay a gas tax, I'll grant you. But the MA gas tax, and the federal gas tax, have not been raised in 20 years. In that time, inflation has cut the buying power of the gas tax in half, and improvements in fuel economy have halved it again. Gas tax pays very little of roadway acquisition, construction and maintenance. Sales tax, property tax and income tax make up a vast difference. Recently the MA governor announced an initiative to invest billions of dollars in transportation. Will the drivers pay more for these roads? Not one cent in use taxes - so... no. The cost will be borne by the income tax payers - me a leader in that category.

There's one lane North and one lane South on that street (plus the bike lanes). There are several motorways that parallel Beacon St, including McGrath Highway and US 93. The motorists are well served, believe me. I have no sympathy for the motorists.

As for parking... As a culture, we charge way, way less than anything fair for parking. In most places it's "free". But property is never free, most of all in a dense urban environment. There's no property tax revenue coming in on parking spots. So who pays for all the "fee" parking? All the taxpayers.

Driving is highly subsidized in our culture, especially in the USA. I don't think it too much to ask that one, one of the North/South corridors into Boston have some reasonable accommodation for cyclists. Drivers can park elsewhere, and take alternate routes if Beacon St traffic moves too slow for them.

So to be clear, the principal push-pull here is: To preserve parking at risk of cyclists lives, or not. Let's look at that parking:

I ride this road quite often. Usually at 5pm, but occasionally in mid afternoon and sometimes in the evening (7-8pm). These parking spots shown are always open:

See all those empty metered spots there on the left?


More empty spots...


I think there's a tumbleweed in one of those metered spots...


More single-point observation. Google Earth's satellite either captured the street on a typical day, or they somehow captured a freak day when fewer than normal people were parking. My guess is they captured an average day...

Pay more taxes than I should myself but got to help support as much of the government insanity as I can. I see what you are talking about now. Nobody parks there. Looks like a bad place to park to me anyway. Open your door even a little and get it torn off by traffic. Probly serve both parties well to have it a bike lane with no parking in that area as there is plenty across the street. So how did it go at the meeting?

It was a good public meeting - as far as I can tell (I'm still pretty new to civics/local politics). I went with my girlfriend, and Gestalt met us there.

I paid close attention to the presentation. I saw that the plan had evolved some since the last meeting (that I only read accounts of). It took a lot of wind from my sails - in a good way. No need to complain about 13' wide motorist lane widths since the plan brought them back to a more balanced 11'.

Citizens got up to speak. Speaker #1, a local, gave an almost poetic ode to parking in the thickest Boston accent I'd heard all day. I was speaker #3 and kept my comments brief. This is a major artery not a parking lot. No person's safety should be compromised for the sake of free parking. With federal and state taxes going to this project, I have the right to safe passage.

Lots of learned speakers followed. Seems there was like a 10:1 ratio bikers to people interested in parking. Most bikers were commenting on their thoughts about cycle track Vs. bike lane. For my part, I'm fine either way.

When it was over Gestalt and I chatted a bit about e-bikes and he got to ride my A-Line a bit - but at about 20*f, it's hard to do 30mph very long without getting really cold!

What's at stake: http://ealscoalition.org/2013/02/03/critical-public-hearing-mass-ave-pedbike-improvements-at-risk/
Simply put - street redesign that makes the street safer for cyclists, motorists and pedestrians with negligible impact to the flow of motorists.

When & Where: Arlington town hall, Tuesday February 26th, 7pm.

It would be good to get the numbers and names of bicycle/pedestrian fatalities and injuries that have happened in the stretch of mass ave that is being discussed. See if people think that future victims lives and limbs are worth that extra 34 seconds.

I think that is the part that most opponents of increased bicycle infrastructure just don't get until they are face to face with the people who have paid a real price for the driving lifestyle.

Like this - http://bostoncyclistsunion.org/resources/crash-map/ - Only, covering Arlington? I wonder what that would require...

Slightly OT... Glad I don't live in MS:
http://www.worldlifeexpectancy.com/usa/massachusetts-motor-vehicle-death-rate

glad I don't live in the south, couldn't help but notice that's where all the bad ones are.