Jenna Fisher writes on Patch..
First it was the thumbtacks in the bike lane on Winchester Street. Then a street sweeper was seen on the street frequented by both cars and cyclists and now the bike lane disappeared. Saturday afternoon several cyclists reported the lane markings, including those familiar arrows and the drawing of a cycle were … well, gone.
I’m looking in to this.
I don’t know about the tacks, but it seems pretty obvious the street sweeper’s brushes took out the painted bike lane lines. There’s a lesson to be learned here and it has direct relevance to another recent V-14 thread entitled, “Waltham St. Improvement and Parking.”
Painted surfaces are a cheap and unreliable means of “traffic calming.” In fact, they can be downright dangerous. Take Comm. Ave. and Lake St. at the Newton/Boston town line [near White Mountain Creamery]. Eastbound traffic on Comm. shifts one lane to the left in the middle of that intersection. But the painted lines that indicate the shift are wearing thin– drivers unfamiliar with the intersection don’t adjust for the lane shift–and it’s really an accident waiting to happen.
It’s not obvious. It may be a coincidence with the timing of the tack story. Some bike markings applied incorrectly last season on other Newton streets have been deliberately removed recently. These may be some of them (the report was not specific whether this was the entire street or just the northern half) .
@Adam: where did they remove bike markings recently?
The sharrows (that is their technical name) have been fading over the last few years. Since, for the most part, they indicate lanes that cars and bicycles share, their presence is often little more than symbolic. Still, having sharrows is better than not. Their presence might make some drivers treat cylists more respectfully. I hope that our ministry of bicycles gets around to repainting the fading ones and adding more sharrows when appropriate. As for putting tacks in a bike lane, here’s hoping our police detectives can find and prosecute the perpetrator.
@Newtoner: Homer, Beacon St West
I’m thinking of bike lane markings, not sharrows. Were there sharrows on Winchester Street?
This is one of the streets where “hot in place” repaving was done last year (browning a lot of trees’ leaves.) Were the bike lines repainted after that? Is the new paint different, or doesn’t paint stick as well to remelted asphalt for some reason?
Yes, but I don’t think it’s about the paint. I think contractors painted bike lanes where they weren’t supposed to be (e.g. parking had not been removed)
I have just biked the length of Winchester St.
1. The bike markings in the bike lanes (where parking was removed) are intact.
2. The bike markings in the shoulders north of the golf course (where parking is still allowed—ie not “official” bike lanes, but used as such) have been partially scraped off.
If the road isn’t wide enough for both-side parking, two travel lanes (on two-way streets) AND bike lanes, parking has to be removed to make the room available. Parking in the official bike lane is illegal. Adam had it almost exactly right—a contractor working for DPW put bike lane markings on northern Winchester, western Beacon and all of Homer—these are heavily used by cyclists, but parking is still allowed.
Other notes:
1. NO tacks. (Thanks, @NewtonDPW!)
2. The trees, generally, seem to be healthy (a Norway maple or younger tree or two looks like they still have some street-side stunting).
3. No bike lane signs—just a “share the road” down near Newton Community Farm.
4. A crosswalk sign, but NO crosswalk at the bus stop across from Leventhal Sideman JCC.
Thanks Councilor Downs. Are you and/or Alicia Bowman, able to clarify what is supposed to happen adjacent to the Newton Community Farm? As I’m sure you know there really isn’t anyplace for car driving visitors (including to pick up CSA shares or to visit the farm stand) to park, except in the bike lanes. I never feel good about it but there doesn’t seem to be any options (and on pickup days, I’m far from alone.)
Thank you Andreae! Let’s get DPW on putting up bike lane signs and could they please include NO PARKING too?