Bike path reroute

[ceo]

I'm glad that they're rerouting the bike path around the Rite Aid parking lot. But the way they're doing it is kind of surprising:


This is a whole bunch of accidents waiting, not for very long, to happen. It's really tricky to navigate on a bike even at low speed with no other traffic.

And it doesn't need to be that way; they could have taken down those bollards and curved it through where the wood chips are. Possibly smoothing out the other transition would require sacrificing the nearmost parking space.

Comments

[ron_newman]

I think that's intended to be a sidewalk, with bikes continuing to use the Rite Aid parking lot once construction is finished. But I'm not sure now.

[ceo]

I thought that too at first, but note that they installed a curb across the end of the pathway. That indicates to me that they intend all traffic to take that turn.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

I doubt it. Look at all the newly paved intersections on Willow. They're raising the road to meet the sidewalks/paths.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

looks like there's a curb cut now.

[lifecollage.livejournal.com]

I've always suspected that the bollards were there to keep less-than-clueful drivers from trying to navigate down the bike path. Maybe if they put the bollards on the outside of the sidewalk, and then do what you suggest?

Oy......

[perspicuity.livejournal.com]

wait til they put a fence at the end, forcing traffic to not just jump the curb. oh yeah.

or this is their subtle way to say "okay, slow down zone" until the path picks up across the square?

certainly that path doesn't look like it can support normal speed traffic for the path, esp given the width. crush point.

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[koshmom.livejournal.com]

have there been complaints about bicyclists riding too fast? This is one way to slow them down. Altho if I was a cyclist, I'd find it a challenge to ride my bike over the wood chips and between those bollards. You gotta know that pedestrians are going to do that. If I was a bike I'd fling the bike off the curb, and then sue the town when my back tire blew. What's the bet that a handmade "handicapped" style ramp is built within a week of finishing this? :)

[starphire.livejournal.com]

If that's meant to slow down bicyclists by diverting them, they completely failed to account for bikes with trailers or heavy loads being able to make safe and reasonable turns there. Yikes!

[403.livejournal.com]

I doubt that's the intent. If you look at the curb cut at the far side of the parking lot, they're clearly planning to raise the road quite a bit to meet the curb, otherwise wheelchair riders would be SOL. That will probably happen at the other side for the same reasons, and bicyclists will continue to pass unhindered through the parking lot.

[cden4.livejournal.com]

This is also my understanding of what the plan is. Bicyclists will continue through the parking lot. Pedestrians will continue on the new sidewalk.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

I've rarely seen bike paths designed with support for long or wide bikes in mind. The only saving grace in somerville is that the somerville police can't be bothered to get out of their cars on their patrols of the community path.

Then there's the people who stop in the middle of the path to talk with each other with their dogs running around them and assume that I can go around them (or between them) and are utterly shocked when I point out that even without the dogs the stack of 4'x8' sheets of plywood that I'm carrying are wider than the area they're offering for me to go through.

Sorry, I'm feeling somewhat snarky this morning.

[ceo]

In fairness, one can't really blame them for being surprised to see someone hauling 4x8 sheets of plywood on a bike. I'd be surprised to see that, and I know you. :-)

[xuth.livejournal.com]

It's not that I objected to people being surprised by it, it's that they couldn't be bothered to see them and were angry at me for waiting so they could get back to their conversation.

[starphire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well it is more of a general-use recreation path in reality, esp. in Somerville.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone else carry as much as you do on your trailer - I remember something about a chest freezer on Rte. 16 and that sounded like a winning entry in the bike trailer badass sweepstakes. :)
Plywood sheets...never would have thought of that.

[smammy]

I'm pretty sure that once they finish paving, it'll be a smooth shot from the main bike path to the Rite Aid parking lot. Also, the blacktop that routes around the parking lot is not the final surface. See how the manholes and communication boxes are raised?

[ceo]

Yes, they're going to lay down a final layer, but that's the footprint.

[smammy]

Then we're in agreement! What's the problem again? Bikes will ride through the parking lot and peds will walk on the sidewalk.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

Forget bikes, I walked through there with a stroller the other night and it was dicey. Beyond bicycle speed and handling being an issue there's also the simple fact that its a transition from a wide, popular mixed-use path to a narrow sidewalk with two right angle turns.

I assume it's temporary. The sidewalks in the bus access road just a bit further towards the square are all nice and wide. The pavement used looks entirely temporary.

That said, you know what they say about assuming... especially when it comes to government projects.

[ceo]

Even if I'm wrong (and I hope I am) about bikes being expected to take that turn, I wonder what the intention is further down. Are bikes supposed to use that widened sidewalk, or the busway?

If the former, it needs a centerline (or similar "this is a multi-use path and not a sidewalk" indicators), and they'll need to do something about bike traffic running into the crowds of people waiting for buses outside the T station. If the latter, they should stripe a bidirectional bike lane down the left side, assuming there's room next to the buses.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Legally vehicles other than T owned ones aren't allowed to use the T road. We went through the plan to connect the paths years ago when I was on the Bicycle Committee, and we never had any luck. Legally, cyclists have to turn left onto the public road and proceed the normal way through the Davis non-square intersection, and then turn left onto the side-street by the crepe place. Technically you can't even go onto the sidewalk and under the T headhouse, as that's against T-policy as well.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

So, the addition of a stripe down the sidewalk has simply served to confuse me. :)

Then again, I suspect that the parking lot still isn't open because they haven't put in all the signage it needs, so perhaps the sidewalk is awaiting the same thing.

[ron_newman]

Yesterday evening (Saturday) they finished repaving the busway and parking lot, and reopened all of it to traffic. The bike path leads directly into the parking lot again, as it did before the construction.

[ron_newman]

I rode by there again today and saw a good reason for the sharp turns -- they wanted to avoid lopping off a corner of the Bikeway Community Garden.