[*BCM*] Stupidest Bike Lane

[Jim Leonard]

cc'd to slatev at slate.com

On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 09:54:27AM -0400, Daniel Jared Dominguez wrote:
> I'd say that the bike _lines_ on some parts of Mass. Ave. in northern
> Cambridge might qualify as worse.
> 
> On Sun, Mar 30, 2008 at 09:49:18AM -0400, Lee Peters wrote:
> > Slate on-line has a report on the stupidest bike lane....check it out:
> > 
> > http://www.slate.com/

I would say that a ride the full duration of Mass Ave through Cambridge
from the Harvard Bridge (ya know,  the one that goes to MIT?) to Alewife 
Brook Parkway would be highly instructive in how not to do bike lanes.

First off, on the bridge itself as you approach Mem drive the lane narrows 
to about 12 inches wide at the light.  Once you cross Mem drive, the lane
just disappears into parked cars (this may have been fixed with the redoing
of Mass ave in that area.  Anyways, the whole thing is a complete cluster 
through MIT right now, and until the construction is done I'm forced to
give Cambridge a pass on this.

We're quickly approaching Central Sq.  Here there's just barely enough room
to sqeeze on street parking, a bike lane, travel and turn lanes on each side 
of the road.  It puts the entire bike lane in the door zone while passing
some of the highest traffic cab stands in the city along with all of the 
other high turnover on street parking.  On top of that is the fact that 
the rules against (auto) standing, parking over one foot from the curb or
even double parking (in the bike lane) are almost completely unenforced.  
This is the area where cyclists are routinely hurt and at least one has 
been killed where neither the cyclist, nor the bus that ran over her were
doing anything wrong.

As we leave Central Sqare, Mass Ave (which in places had four lanes of 
traffic, bike lanes and onstreet parking) becomes too narrow to properly 
support even two lanes of traffic along with the onstreet parking and the 
bike lanes so something has to go.  So the bike lanes disappear once we get 
past city hall.

Then we get a bit of sanity.  Approaching Harvard Square, Mass Ave becomes
one way and while it has onstreet parking on both sides of the street, the
bike lane is wide enough that only half of the bike lane can be considered 
in the door zone (not that this is marked or anything, but assuming that you 
can dodge all the pedestrians jaywalking, you're doing well).

Until we get closer to the subway station.  Here the bike lane just 
disappears again, with some of the most crazed traffic Cambridge has to 
offer, pavement completely deformed by the tour buses that are constantly 
parked on your right and the jaywalkers darting out from behind the tour
buses.

But lo and behold, once we get past the intersection of Mass Ave with Brattle
St and JFK St, where Mass ave becomes two way again (for about 200 feet
before it splits again getting ready for what is, in effect, a large traffic
circle around the entrance to the large underground bus stop at Harvard Sq)
we've got a bike lane again.  Until... WHAT THE... !!!??? it ends with a 
yellow and black caution sign and a curb jutting out from the side of the 
road.  But wait, there's another bike lane.  On the LEFT side of the road 
that we're supposed to use.  What cyclists are supposed to do in this area
(not that it's overly clear) is to go to the right of the caution sign, and
into an area to wait for the cross walk to change to cross the road and then 
start riding on the bike lane on the left side of the road.  Until that goes
away 150 feet later.  Leaving you stuck on the left side of the road as you 
enter the traffic circle needing to get right two lanes because no cyclist
wants to be in the lane that allows you to reverse direction on Mass Ave and 
reenter Harvard Sq (more lanes if you want to go east on Cambridge St, but
don't do that).  

There are no bike lanes for the next 2000 feet or so until you get to Porter
Sq.  On this side of the road, the bike lane is relatively sane for 
Cambridge.  You have to deal with the right turn lane passing through the
bike lane, but that's better than the alternative.  The only thing that's 
really infuriating on this side of the road is that auto traffic has no 
qualms about blocking the lane while they're crossing it waiting for the 
light to change.

A couple hundred feet beyond Porter Sq, the bike lane goes away.  And then
a couple hundred feet later it comes back!  And a couple hundred feet later
it goes away again never to be seen.

As a further insult, 1500 feet later, we get to where the Minuteman bike
path crosses Mass Ave.  There is no special way of crossing Mass Ave for 
the bike trail, just a couple of signs saying the path continues on the 
other side of Mass Ave and to follow all of the traffic or pedestrian laws.  
But the kicker is that there is no way to cross Mass ave going west to east 
on the bike path without either violating turn restrictions, going the 
wrong way down a one way street, getting off of your bicycle to using the 
sidewalk and crosswalk (Cambridge police do ticket people for riding across 
an intersection with the crosswalk light so definitely get off your bike). 
Or you can bike around a couple of blocks (choosing the right ones so you 
don't run afoul of the one way restrictions and get back to the bike lane 
on the other side of Mass Ave) so that you can do everything legally without 
getting off of your bicycle.

Note that Mass Ave through the full length of Cambridge is only 4 miles long
with the last mile plus of it largely left alone by me in this diatribe 
because there are no bike lanes on this section.

--jim