Tom Gloria, Program Director of Sustainability at Harvard University tweets…
.@RuthanneFuller now that @massdcr has stepped up its plowing of bike lanes along the Charles River – the weakest link in my commute are the streets of Newton @sidewalker31 @bikenewton @massdcr @marty_walsh @IamBrendaNoel @AndreaeDowns @VickiDanberg @Deb_Crossley @_EmilyNorton pic.twitter.com/g8aCJyuVmg
— Tom Gloria (@tgloria) December 18, 2019
Curious, what percentage of newton residents are affected by this problem during the winter? Such that Newton should divert resources(money) from other priorities?
0.000001% or 0.001%
With a finite pool of resources (money), it should be allocated and prioritized wisely.
One cyclist hit by a car due to inadequate clearing of existing bike lanes is too many.
*raises hand*
Chuck, usually I think of you as “too much” but “too many” fits here. Hope that crash was not serious.
Sorry, I was raising my hand for Bugek. I haven’t been hit yet, though I’ve had a few close calls. I think I’ve mentioned before that my son was doored (he was moving slowly, no damage to him or the car) in the past.
When I was biking up Walnut Street on Tuesday late afternoon/ early evening it was clear that at times it was not cleared to the curb. That pushed me further out into the road and I worried what cars coming up behind me would do.
I’m a bit surprised by his comment. Newton already does edge-to-edge plowing of the streets (to the detriment of some sidewalks, I may add). Not all communities do that or have Newton’s parking restrictions. Not perfect, always room for improvement, but generally a pretty good effort from what I’ve seen, mostly as a byproduct of accommodating motor vehicles.
If I were to critique the posted picture, I’d comment on the uncleared sidewalk and bus stop (there’s not much snow, it would be interesting to see it in a big storm). There’s also a longitudinal seam running down the bike lane that’s irritating and potentially dangerous to ride along: a bike wheel pushes up along the edge and can quite surprisingly cause the rider to lose balance.
I know this isn’t necessarily the worst location, or the worst storm, and my standards are pretty low based on years of riding in the Boston metro area. Newton could do an even better job by doing a cleanup pass on major bike routes (with lanes and without).
If you step out of a car and walk or bike places, you may be surprised at the number of people who brave the snow and ice on a two-wheeler. They’re on main roads, and also on sidewalks and side roads. I commute on a bike year round and there are numerous others out there who do so too. Safer roads = even more people out there.
Winter bikers are lucky so far. The streets have been manageable.
Perhaps your expectations are too high. Unfortunately, our climate is not friendly to year round cyclists. If we receive a foot
of snow followed by very cold temps., all bikers may simply have to wait for drier conditions. The city may not have adequate acres to dump all the snow.
To all those drivers : don’t complain about cyclists taking up the whole lane then. They are treated as any other vehicle on the road and have right of way as any other vehicle (and have to follow the rules of the road).
There is cultural expectation that vehicles take #1 priority – how many millions spent on plowing streets vs clearing sidewalks. This needs to change.
@Colleen, let me rephrase your comment :
Winter drivers are lucky so far. The streets have been manageable.
Perhaps your expectations are too high. Unfortunately, our climate is not friendly to year round drivers. If we receive a foot
of snow followed by very cold temps., all drivers may simply have to wait for drier conditions. The city may not have adequate acres to dump all the snow.
I’m not a linguist, and I can”t get through to my wife who is one, so I’m genuinely curious: is it really ‘The weakest link in my commute are the streets of Newton’?
In that case for example wouldn’t you also say, in reaponse to ‘Who’s there’: ‘It are we’?
Apologies in advance if that was just a typo.
You are correct that it should be “is” not “are.” But I’m going to chalk it up to a typo or an editing error for someone typing on their thumbs.
Thanks Chuck. Here in Paris the French have a saying, L’enfer c’est les typos (“Hell are typos”).
As a driver, the streets of Newton are also the weakest link in my commute.
The streets in Newton, torn up and patched, often to fix gas leaks, are a ahead-of-the-curve traffic calming measure.
I too was surprised that the bike lane of a major road in Newton was not properly cleared of snow, hence the tweet. The following day, December 19th, the bike lane was unfortunately much worse, and stayed that way for several days afterwards:
https://twitter.com/tgloria/status/1212107762240557056
Regarding proper allocation of funds, it would have taken a minimal amount of effort to plow the snow to the curb. The surface on Center St. is not conducive to full clearing, however, with studded tires on my bike, ice is not a problem. Studded tires provide secure and predicable traction. Once it snows, I need them for the bike path on the Charles River, as it can have ice patches and the DCR does not use salt.
In general, my daily commute to Cambridge is very pleasant and safe. A little extra effort to improve plowing would make it that much safer.