[SBC] FW: Somerville ordinance and Broadway bike lanes

[Denison, Charles]

He posted this on the mbmb-d (MassBike Metro Boston Discussion) list as
well.  I posted a quick reply:

The Somerville Bike Committee is aware of this ordinance and is
working to have it changed.  However, as it is now, the Police
Department has no intention of harassing or ticketing bicyclists who
do not use a bike lane.  It is in the opinion of the committee that
"hazard" has a pretty broad definition, and that avoid car doors may
be an acceptable reason for bicyclists to choose to not ride in a bike
lane.

-Charlie 


-----Original Message-----
From: sbc-bounces at lists.bostoncoop.net
[mailto:sbc-bounces at lists.bostoncoop.net] On Behalf Of Moore,
Alan at Boston
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 10:59 AM
To: sbc members
Subject: [SBC] FW: Somerville ordinance and Broadway bike lanes

To be discussed tomorrow night if we have time.

Alan 

-----Original Message-----
From: John S. Allen [mailto:jsallen at bikexprt.com] 
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 9:30 AM
To: David Watson; PHILIP B POSNER; Board; Alan Moore; Bob Nesson
Subject: Somerville ordinance and Broadway bike lanes

In response to Bob's message about Somerville, here's one I also sent 
to the Massbike Boston list.

Not all is well in Somerville. The city evidently doesn't have the 
expertise to exercise good judgment in choice of bicycle facilities 
designs, or in enacting ordinances.

Yesterday I happened to go through Somerville and noticed the new 
bike lanes on Broadway between Teele Square and Powderhouse Square.

Broadway has a significant slope in this section, so a bicyclist 
going downhill easily reaches a speed of 20 to 25 miles per hour.

The bike lanes on both sides are cookie-cutter design, door-zone bike 
lanes. A bike lane downhill in such a location is totally 
inappropriate, as it conveys absolutely the wrong message about where 
to ride, both to bicyclists and to motorists. Shared-lane arrows 
would be appropriate downhill here, not a door-zone bike lane.

Furthermore, Somerville has enacted an ordinance requiring bicyclists 
to ride in these bike lanes, and with a number of other provisions 
inimical to bicyclists. What are we going to do about this? I have 
the following from Tom Revay describing the ordinance:

>... the Massachusetts General Laws explicitly
>permit cyclists to use virtually every surface road (see Chapter 85,
>section 11B, at
>http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/85-11b.htm ), there exists a strong
>belief that cyclists are still required by law to use bikeways if they
>are in or adjacent to the roadway.  At times this falsity has appeared
>on local police web site pages.
>
>However, the City of Somerville, Mass., which is home to Tufts
>University, and is very close to Harvard (and thus, has a lot of
>college-attending residents who ride bikes) has a particularly galling
>mandatory use regulation that, if obeyed, would make any sort of
>through travel at bicycling speed impossible:
>
>=========
>Section 13-7 Lane Use in Designated Bicycle Lanes
>Not withstanding the provisions of Section 13-6, bicyclists shall
>yield the right-of-way to motorists making a right turn maneuver in a
>bicycle lane. Except when overtaking a slower bicyclist or to make a
>left turn maneuver, or to avoid a hazard, bicyclists shall stay within
>marked bicycle lanes. When making a left turn maneuver, bicyclists
>shall move to the center of the roadway and execute their maneuver in
>accordance with the rules of the road. Bicycles shall be operated
>consistent with the provisions of c. 85 of the General Laws.
>
>http://www.ci.somerville.ma.us/CoS_Content/documents/TrafficRegulations
.pdf
>=========
>
>The sheer stupidity of this law is obvious to anyone who's ridden a
>bike regularly for transportation, but motorists appear to be blind to
>its flaws.  If a cyclist were to follow it, a cyclist could not pass a
>right-turning motorist on the left.  He or she would also have to be
>moving slow enough at all times so as to be able stop at every single
>intersection, driveway or car-park entrance, every open parking space,
>and so on, in order to yield to anyone who might move right into bike
>lane, at any moment -- even if the motorist overtakes and cuts-off the
>bicyclist!  (Interestingly, cyclists don't have to yield to motorists
>wishing to leave a parking place.)
>
>Even the left-turn provision is dumb, because it apparently forgets
>about left-turn-only lanes, where the cyclist should stay to the right
>of the lane when making a left.

[And it also prohibits making left turns by going to the far right 
corner of the intersection and waiting for the traffic to clear -- JSA]

>Its only redemption is in another of its absurdities. It requires
>cyclists to obey MGL ch. 85 -- but a cyclist who follows the
>Somerville ordinance would probably be in violation of MGL ch. 85's
>requirement that cyclists obey the other state traffic laws.
>
>So far as I'm aware, no cyclist has ever been ticketed under any of
>these provisions, and thus, none of this law has been challenged in
>court.  That doesn't help much, though, because laws like these
>miseducate anyone who reads them who does not have experience in
>vehicular cycling, or in transportation laws as they relate to safe
>bicycling.  With this bunch of cooked-up garbage in mind, motorists
>and police may feel justified in harassing cyclists who otherwise obey
>state law, and who ride safely according to vehicular rules.
>
>Since no other community in Massachusetts has a discriminatory
>ordinance of this nature (to the best of my knowledge), the City of
>Somerville remains a "special case" here.  However, I have been
>ordered by police to use bikeways in Boston and in other places,
>despite the fact that they have no authority to do so, and I have been
>harassed with impunity by motorists who insist that the law requires
>me to use bikeways, even when nothing of the sort exists in that
>jurisdiction.

John S. Allen
7 University Park
Waltham, MA  02453-1523  USA
781 891-9307
jsallen at bikexprt.com
http://bikexprt.com

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