As you soak in today’s unseasonal warmth and sunshine, let’s turn the way-back machine to the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, when we woke to a more typical New England morning: rain and 40s forecast for the entire day. Remember it?
Despite the unpleasant conditions, more than 50 kids biked to Newton North (as counted by friend of V14 and Bike Newton president Alicia Bowman). Soak that in (pun intended). Rain. 40s. 50 teenagers biked to school.
This is a reality that we should celebrate for environmental, health, and traffic impacts. This is a reality that many of us championed for years. This is a reality that is, quite frankly, astonishing given the city’s dreadful lack of bike-friendly accommodations to and at the school.
But, most importantly, this is a reality that demands strong, immediate action. We can no longer delay full bike accommodations on Walnut St. and Lowell Ave. The old concern trolling that we don’t want to encourage biking because it’s too dangerous is now reckless. The kids are biking. It is essential that we make them safe.
There can be no higher priority on either street than bike safety. Fifty kids on a rainy December day passes whatever threshold you might imagine. Do whatever is required, including removing on-street parking.
We need to provide much more and much better bike parking at the school. Convert prime parking spots to covered bike parking. Now. From every perspective, the school community benefits when more kids bike. Kids who bike to school should be rewarded with the best parking. When the better bike parking encourages more kids to bike, convert more parking to bike parking. Rinse. Repeat.
The picture of bikes in the rain should generate some real urgency from public officials. Do not ignore the wisdom of the young.
One of those bikes belongs to my son who bikes to school all winter long. In fact, he owns a set of studded tires that allow him to bike in the ice.
But here’s what happens when we don’t make biking safe. Earlier this year my son was biking on Lowell Ave. He was going over the Pike at a very slow pace (almost walking speed) with his lights on when a student flung open a passenger door of his parent’s car and hit my son on the shoulder. My son was fine, he wasn’t knocked off his bike, but it shook him up enough to text me when he got to school.
A block or so later he saw another passenger door fly open (this one was far enough ahead to not hit him). He told me later that had the car been pulled over he would have known to look for a door, but it wasn’t. It was in traffic.
Many parents choose to drive their kids to Newton North and that backs up traffic along Lowell and Walnut (I have a video of biking through Newtonville around the time that high school starts, I’ll post it soon). Parents and students become frustrated and then parents release their kids INTO traffic.
This isn’t safe. Not for any student.
Oh, and it would be nice if we could cover the bike parking. It’s not good to have your bike rained on all day.
Here is the video of my ride to work. I’ve cued it to start as I approach Newtonville. https://youtu.be/VkLJRQiJOe8?t=2m48s
^Who are you, Evil Kenevil?? Also bikers should be stopping at red lights and stop signs, just like cars.
@Buf – Yeah, watching that left my heart pounding. I think the point-of-view filming does make it look way more insane than it is in real life . Particularly squeezing between the cars and the curb as thee space got smaller and smaller. I was wincing and holding my breath watching it.
I can’t wait until Evil Tanowitz announces he’ll be jumping over school buses in the Newton North parking lot on his ten-speed
First, I’m not Evil Kenevil. This is what our kids bike through every day.
Second, @Buf, I’m not sure how far you watched, but I did stop at every light. There are exceptions. One exception is when I can get ahead of traffic, sometimes that means going during an All-Walk (if I won’t interfere with pedestrians) and sometimes it means moving when traffic stops and before the green turns. The reason for this is that it’s safer for a cyclist to be AHEAD of traffic as opposed to alongside moving cars, which would put me in their blind spot. If you want to see why this is important, take a look as I come through Newton Highlands and onto Needham Street in which cars swerve into my lane without looking or signaling.
Another exception is the T intersection near Newton North in which all traffic is stopped. I did it there for the same reasons: to be ahead of the cars.
Chuck — The main issue I see with your video is you are passing traffic on right without being in a bike lane. Others may have different opinions, but in the traffic you were riding in, I think the appropriate thing is to take you place in the traffic line between cars as a vehicle and wait for it to advance. Riding between traffic and curb allows you to make better time, but it is invitation to get door-ed or to have someone take a right turn in front of you. You are making a choice to make better time than the cars, but that comes with risks.
Also, I sped the video up a bit (2x) to make for a shorter video, so it looks a bit faster than I normally bike.
“One exception is when I can get ahead of traffic, sometimes that means going during an All-Walk (if I won’t interfere with pedestrians) and sometimes it means moving when traffic stops and before the green turns.” Is that legal? I’m a biking-in-Newton newb.
And they bike to South too. My daughter has biked every day – rain or shine – because she gets to sleep in 20 extra minutes. At South the kids walking and biking and skateboarding from Brandeis Road (Parker St. direction) all walk/bike/skateboard through the student parking lot and the two parent car dropoffs.
There is no marked pedestrian/bike/skateboard path from Brandeis Road to the main student entrance at the back of the parking lot. Cars are going every which way with kids, including those who just parked, weaving in between them.
@Chuck “One exception is when I can get ahead of traffic, sometimes that means going during an All-Walk (if I won’t interfere with pedestrians) and sometimes it means moving when traffic stops and before the green turns. The reason for this is that it’s safer for a cyclist to be AHEAD of traffic as opposed to alongside moving cars, which would put me in their blind spot. If you want to see why this is important, take a look as I come through Newton Highlands and onto Needham Street in which cars swerve into my lane without looking or signaling.
Another exception is the T intersection near Newton North in which all traffic is stopped. I did it there for the same reasons: to be ahead of the cars.”
Sorry Chuck, but you don’t get to make “exceptions” to rules of the road. There are not different rules for bikes
So let’s assume that I ride right in traffic when there is no bike lane, as is the case in most of Newton. I’m moving at 10 to 15 mph, slower on the hills. Cars will need to wait for me. Is everyone OK with that? If so, I’m happy to ride right in the middle of the road (take a look at when I’m in Needham taking a left off of Highland Ave. I’m right in line with cars). My guess is the drivers behind me are not going to be nearly as happy and are likely to make illegal runs around me.
That’s the complaint I hear about Chestnut Street. Because it’s so narrow, bikes slow traffic. It’s why I stay off that particular road.
Bike traffic lights, as many cities have and have been on the proposal for W. Newton (I can’t recall if they’re still there) let the bikes move slightly ahead of traffic just for this reason. When all traffic is stopped the bike light turns green so bikes are ahead of the cars. In places that we don’t have such accommodations, it’s common to try to edge out and make it work better for all involved.
When I’m right next to a car and coming out of their blind spot, it can shock a driver. It’s not fair to them and it’s not fair to me.
@Chuck — “So let’s assume that I ride right in traffic when there is no bike lane, as is the case in most of Newton. I’m moving at 10 to 15 mph, slower on the hills. Cars will need to wait for me. Is everyone OK with that?”
If a cyclist is in situation where you can’t maintain traffic speed, that’s where they should move over to side and allow cars to pass on the left as they choose, having the cyclist fully in their vision. If its a situation where they don’t feel you can be passed safely (e.g. very narrow road), then often it makes sense to either continue to assert right to road, move to sidewalk (e.g. on a high speed decent of Rt 30 east in Weston or perhaps Chestnut stretch you are referring to), or avoid the route. Passing on right by riding up on right side of cars into their blind spots, while saving a lot of time in congested traffic, has same risks for bikes that they have for cars.
In terms of village center bike lane configurations, we should be aware that none of the options (sharrows, bike lanes, protected bike lanes) fully substitute for well-trained cyclists of all ages AND careful car drivers/occupants. The middle of the road is often safer than being squarely in range of suddenly opening driver/passenger doors or distracted pedestrians. Thanks for the post. You are raising important issues.
might we take this to a different level of mindset? Invincibility ingratiated in entitlement mentality – helmet use with benevolent environmental sacrifice breeds contemptuous operation?
As I have argued with Sec. Stephanie Pollack, the ‘complete streets’ program falls far short in recognizing where the motorcycle, motor scooter, moped, motorbike fit in.
If one does not operate one of those vehicles as such, one will not understand the needs for minority roadusers; and how might state government once again spin the ‘complete’ future safety explanations?
@harrysanders Please share specific things we need to do to make it safer and easier for people on motor operated cycles. Maybe Sean Cna weigh in as well as he has been know to travel Newton on his motorcycle.
@jackprior I have to disagree. Of the 6 e’s often referenced by advocates for safe routes to school (engineering, education, evaluation, encouragement, enforcement and equity), all are important but one rises clearly to the top. I call it the BIG E – ENGINEERING. We can and should engineer our roads to be safer for all road users starting with the most vulnerable, those NOT wrapped in steel and airbags. With that we will get to the recently added e – EQUITY. Good news is if we are willing to look outside Newton there are people getting it right. We don’t have to experiment. We can implement best practices and move forward.
As for bikes proceeding forward on a ped light, this is a great idea whose time has come. This is a fast way to get the functionality of a bike light. This has been proposed as part of an omnibus road safety bill in the state legislature. Bikes would be able to move safely through an intersection with no vehicles, removing the conflict of a slow off the gun bike vs a car. If we can trust bikes to avoid hitting pedestrians at mid block crossings we can trust them in this situation or at least as much as we can trust anyone on the roads. Otherwise, time to cough up some more money for bike infrastructure and get going.
@Alicia — I don’t think we are fully disagreeing and I like the E framework (wasn’t familiar with it). That was kinda my point with “none of the options (sharrows, bike lanes, protected bike lanes) fully substitute for well-trained cyclists” and I would add drivers (via enforcement).
Probably a good amount of us have gotten an enforcement “education” at some point reminding us to respect pedestrians in crosswalks that we never subsequently forget. Coexisting increased bike traffic will require similar amounts of enforcement-education with drivers and cyclists. Even with a cyclist background, I’ve made two flubs as a driver in Boston/Cambridge this past years not recognizing the new engineering now in place – i.e. dropping someone off on a bike lane mass ave curb and not realizing a bike lane wasn’t a “right on red” lane (happily without associated enforcement). Similarly I think cyclists now have an increased need to adopt strict traffic law compliance over speed in service of overall safety and driver respect.
We have a fixed amount of wall to wall space at pinch points in our village centers to allocate to competing priorities of (1) added sidewalk width/outdoor dining, (2) parking, (3) protected or conventional bike lanes, (4) space for 2 lanes of traffic, allowing people to back into spaces, business unloading, letting emergency vehicles pass, (5) two way main/side streets. I think we have some pinch points where giving the cyclist a confident and a clear right to the main road along with education on all sides may end up being the best and safest trade-off.
Thanks for posting this. We bike in all weather. There should be ample bike covered bike parking at all schools! We are setting routines now with kids. Public transit, bike, walk or school bus – we are reducing the amount of cars on the street. However, if we start that routine with a first grader (we live 1/2 mile and we have raincoats so we can walk and save the earth and help our health) that sticks with them through out their life. My son takes the green line into Boston when possible (since that is what we do also).
My concern with exceptions with bikers, is that when I am driving my car, and I allow a pedestrian to cross in the crosswalk, the biker on my right doesn’t always pay attention, and I have seen enough near misses. I have also seen the pedestrian nearly get hit during a walk signal because the biker (who should have stopped) never stopped and nearly hit a person. Not all auto drivers stop for pedestrians nor do all bikers. We need to be cognizant of sharing the road to all.
It is mystifying that the new North that cost so much, lacks substantive bike facilities (if I understand this correctly). Sadly, it’s not new, as the previous North wasn’t any better. Given the perpetual traffic/parking issues that have gotten worse, I hope Mayor Fuller works on a solution to this.
Another thought: besides racks/locking areas, there should be a place for folks to store their bike helmets and other accessories, if there isn’t already. I remember biking to NNHS in the late 80s as a student when my helmet wouldn’t fit into my locker. I didn’t want to haul it around all day, and obviously didn’t want it to be stolen. I had to ask to store it in the House office (they did, grudgingly). But that’s unfeasible if we want more folks to bike, and young folks in particular need head protection.