Evan Westrate, a neighbor of mine, just forwarded this somewhat unusual report –
“I saw a Newton police cruiser pull over a bicyclist yesterday! I was driving behind the officer on Cabot St. in Newtonville, about to turn left onto Walnut St. by Newton North. The light turned green for us, and one car in front of the cruiser turned onto Walnut. As the police cruiser was turning left, a cyclist on Walnut St. sped right through the red light in front of him. On came his lights and he pulled her over right on the spot! I could see the incredulous look on her face as I passed by. I don’t know how the laws apply in that situation, or whether she was issued a ticket or not. It’s just something you don’t see every day!”
So glad to hear this! I try to be careful as a driver and am scared silly sometimes by near accidents with bicyclists who don’t think traffic laws apply to them. Just this evening I was turning right onto Lincoln and had a near miss with a bicyclist who was biking the wrong way on Lincoln.
Love it. We all share the road. I am glad someone told you about it. I didn’t know this happened. Hopefully the biker realizes that biking without regard to the rules can cost a life.
Well depending on direction this should be a legal maneuver (it is in many European countries friendlier to folks cycling) since bikes and cars don’t need to occupy the same space. I am very much a fan of allowing bikes to go through red lights (with a separate signal) specifically at T intersection when they are traveling along the top of the T. Though to do so there would need to either be a bike lane or cycletrack for the cyclist to use to separate them from the auto lane. (since this is not allowed, though Cambridge has been looking at how to do this, I will continue to wait at all red lights like I do now)
Anyway there is neither at this intersection and it seems the cyclist was heading north on Walnut so running the red light is a much stupider choice. (though I also would not do it going south since there is no bike lane and it is reallllly tight for cyclists through here, especially with turning cars.
That said I do support fair road violation enforcement, but folks on bikes are also not likely to kill or injury anybody but themselves (bike-ped crashes are veryyyy rare though near misses are more common than they should be) so while we should focus on blatant red light running especially, it’s not the folks on bikes causing the risks to others if they do so.
Oh and to MGWA, I presume you mean on the wrong side of the street since I don’t seem to remember any part of Lincoln being one way… That said it is a stupid maneuver but it is usually done for a couple very good reasons (not just being an idiot on the wrong side). In many cases they are needing to take a left and instead of waiting in the middle of the road (no mans land) while cars pass closely on either side, they take the first opening they get, scoot across the road and go the wrong way for a block or to so they avoid the perceived risk of waiting in the middle of the road for traffic to clear. No it is not safer, but it feels safer and I have seen it done many many times. If this is happening frequently in a certain area the route might be more attractive to cycling than it would be to folks driving, or there are more folks that bike living on that street, traffic could be moving faster than it should be, or there are few breaks in oncoming traffic so the first opportunity is taken. In which case the intersection and area surrounding it should be looked at to make it safer for cyclists to make that left turn. (to be fair there are folks cycling that use the road as if they were walking on a road with no shoulder, eg walk opposite traffic, this is due to lack of training in school which is being corrected now thanks to the good folks at Bike Newton, Newton PD, and the Safe Routes to School group.)
I mean the bike was going in the opposite direction of traffic. So when I turned right onto Lincoln, he was driving directly at me on my side of the street next to the parked cars. And, yes, that was illegal and unsafe.
As to your assertion that folks on bikes are also not likely to kill or injury anybody but themselves, while that’s mostly true I have been in situations where bikers forced me to choose between hitting them or making an evasive maneuver that could have injured or killed someone in the lane of traffic I had to suddenly swerve into.
I try to avoid biking the streets after 7am on weekdays (or even Saturdays, for that matter) – there’s just to0 many cars on the road. This is such a busy place! If bikers want drivers to respect them, then they must respect traffic laws 100%, no exceptions. Kudos to NPD for enforcing this.
The Newton Police have instructions to enforce the bicycle laws.
That means
–cyclists running red lights–with exceptions for those cyclists that stop & check for traffic first (there are lights that don’t detect cyclists, and at low traffic times you could stand there all night). –cyclists driving against traffic, like what mgwa saw.
–drivers who put a tire (or two or four) in the bike line,
–drivers who cut a cyclist off,
–drivers who squeeze too close to cyclists.
Had this cyclist crashed into another cyclist coming off Cabot Street, she could have caused serious injury.
A friend and I were pulled over by a police officer several years ago in Dover when we were riding side by side rather than single file. It was pre-rush hour, but we should have been paying closer attention to the increasing traffic. He let us know what he thought of us and he let us off with a warning. I’ve never done it again — not because I’m afraid of getting a ticket, but because — by interrupting my stupid behavior, he made me realize how much I was jeopardizing my safety and the safety of others. Very effective.
As cyclist, I’m very happy to hear about this incident on several levels. The police acted on a blatant traffic violation (more than fair). Issuing a citation to a cyclist helps legitimize that bicycles are valid road transportation, not just toys. And there’s additional info from @Andreae that enforcement is going to cut both ways.
I’m a cyclist, and am glad police will pull over cyclists for infractions.
That intersection is a “T” as stated above, and there are times (low traffic) where there are few options when the light won’t turn. I’m fairly certain that between the activity on that light and the obvious presence of cars turning left, that was not the case. So good on them.
Gail as for riding two abreast, that is completely legal, you are entitled to the lane – at times it is safer to do so, at times not so much- a judgment call and up to both cars and cyclists to share the road sensibly.